AK wasn't an original member but he joined when lynch. went major so maybe as far as the label is concerned that's good enough?
they're on King Records (more specifically a subdivision called Bellwood)
if this was Danger Crue or something AK would be fully blacklisted probably, idk why King flipped on this except maybe that lynch. had an impressive sales year
i'm a little shocked to see Umebo is having such a hard time, idk why but i assumed there would be less stigma in the metalcore/hardcore field that HNIB worked in? i'm sure their arrests are linked too, but i don't know why their treatment is so different since they both seemed to have the same arrested > suspended sentence OR nonprosecution thing happen (Umebo was active on FB within a month of his arrest).
Akinori was possibly their only legit official bassist? All the other dudes before him on the wiki are listed as support only. But I'm hardly an expert on early Lynch. so maybe someone else in here can better comment on that.
That's what's crazy. All the members even cut off association with him... but... isn't Akinori not an original member?
I don't know what label lynch is on.... but maybe it's Warner.
Us on the outside will never know the severity or the details behind Akinori or Umebo's arrests. Their cases could be completely different (say the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony), so I think it's difficult to compare the two without knowing these details. Let's just be happy that Akinori is back and leave it at that.
The link posted above has a great quote from Umebo's new band's vocalist regarding his return to the scene:
"[...] look, he ain’t no murderer nor an idol on TV commercials. He’s just a badly behaved death metal musician who might have stepped just a bit across the red line. And for that, he’d been socially punished and brought to justice. So, if you still want him to receive punishment, I say you do that personally."
I hope they are. Maybe it's in the way the bands handled it too. HNIB seemed quick to distance themselves where Lynch seemed a bit more regretful about the situation?
Np. I didn't see it initially either, a friend passed it along so I'm just spreading the word.
I mean... they replaced Umebo pretty fast which is a bummer considering the outcome in the situation. But I think he's in another band actually.
I still wonder if their busts are linked... I wouldn't doubt it which makes it even more unfair.
Anyway kinda goes to show how different certain scenes handle things.
2017 has been an...interesting year, with so much unexpected drama and surprises that's to go down in history for years. So much has happened that I was able to put together two lists of band members caught in embarrassing , illegal, and reprehensible crimes and scandals. Before we put this year to rest for good, let's take another look at visual-kei and some of the less glamorous acts musicians have been up to this year.
Also before I begin, I have to shout out a few members who gave serious help in making this list possible. Thanks to @suji, @tetsu_sama69, @cvltic. and @doombox for all their help, as well as for those who broke the news in the first place and those that corrected my facts after publication!
Keina (ex-DIVEIN)
The first entrant on the naughty list is bassist Keina, who was fired earlier on July 7th from indie visual kei band DIVEIN (ディヴェイン) for "violating the rules of the visual kei industry". Earlier in 2017, KEINA was hospitalized for tonsillitis and took a break from musical activities. While on break, he participated in a session band without the rest of DIVEIN's permission, and this angered the other three members of the band. He also spread confidential information about upcoming lives and photo shoots on the side, so that was enough to get him the boot.
蕚 (Utena) (ex-DEGENE)
DEGENE announced on September 26th that they fired their vocalist 蕚 (Utena) for "bad behavior". Digging a little deeper, we find out that Utena committed violent acts against certain members of the band, trashed band equipment, and sent one or more people into mental break downs. The band stated that they could not find any way to improve his behavior, and each member felt a sense of crisis about his behavior. The other four members came to the same conclusion: “I can't work with him anymore”. In contrast, Utena's announcement about his departure did not mention his bad behavior. DEGENE went on a temporary hiatus until they could replace him.
Chaos (Glamscure, ex-INSANITY INJECTION)
One of the dual vocalists of Insanity Injection, Chaos, got the boot on May 31st for being involved in "deplorable acts on many occasions". What it was has not been clarified, but it was something bad enough to sow feelings of betrayal among the members. One can only speculate what he did, but he hasn't made another appearance since his departure, so perhaps he was blacklisted from the scene? The band has continued without him as three, which as we will see shortly is not usually the norm. Good on INSANITY INJECTION!
Update: Turns out that Chaos is still active in the VK band GLAMSCURE!
塁 (rui) (ex-REVLOW)
The last bassist of REVLOW, 塁 (rui), was fired from the band on August 5th. Management and band members discovered on July 29th that Rui was involved in many "anti-social acts" that corresponded with recent criminal acts in various Tokyo restaurants. Of note is that the official announcement used the kanji "反社会的", which is often used to refer to the yakuza. REVLOW cancelled the rest of their live dates, including their first one man show scheduled for August 29th, and rescinded the release of their CD, "'REVLISM-EP", scheduled for Aug 23rd. The band has not yet returned from hiatus, and none of the other band members have appeared in official projects. It's sad when an up and coming band gets ruined by the poor choices of one member. Three lumps of coal, one for each member you screwed over.
冬音 (Fuyune) (ex-サムクロ (Samurai Crows))
It's ironic that I found this picture of the purple-haired maverick while in a topic discussing crimes and other scandals. He was fired from his band サムクロ (Samurai Crows) on 2017/05/11 due to misconduct during their live at Ikebukuro BlackHole at 2017/5/5. He got a little too amped up and destroyed equipment, refused to apologize for it, and was caught verbally abusing people via private messaging service SNS. This is not only a rule not to be broken in visual kei, but also a rule not to be broken in society! Fuyune's misconduct caused the band to be dropped from their label, Me teaR music, and the band has been on hiatus after their live at Shinsaibashi paradigm on 2017/7/8. The other three members have moved on to a project called Bokutachi no neverland; Fuyune is still missing in action. I wonder if he has been soft blacklisted from the scene...
俐乃-rino- (ex - Synk;yet)
Remember how we established rules of the visual kei scene all members have to abide by? I can safely say one of them is to inform your band members and your label whenever you participate in a session band or a side project. Synk;yet's ex-guitarist Rino broke these rules and was terminated from his band and artist contract with Starwave Records on 2017/01/30, shortly after the return of bassist Shiori. The official reasons were "betrayal and breach of contract". Rino secretly planned musical activities with other management companies for two years behind other members' backs. He also had "private exchanges" with fans for money requests, but nothing confirmed as sexual. Synk;yet went on indefinite hiatus on 2017/05/21 despite their best attempts to keep it together, and Rino has wiped all traces of his online presence so no one knows what he is up to.
『L.』(ex-VAJRA)
Let's take it back to 2009 for a bit when grotesque face masks were all the rage and it was cool to rip off Dir en grey. There was an visual kei band named VAJRA, essentially a Dir en grey rip-off parading around as a silent tribute band, and mimicked all of their antics to carve out a meager existence in the indie circuit. VAJRA started by word of mouth and shot up in popularity quickly by sticking with the flavor of the month and putting on electrifying performances. Some of these lives would include fish hooking, vomiting, and public masturbation on the crowd, but the violent, unpredictable, ink-spitting guitarist『L.』took it too far one day. He was known for punching female fans in the face, giving them black eyes, and dragging them around by the hair on the stage, but he took up a notch for a live at Sendai on 2010/05/10, and caused fans serious injury. At first, he was put on house arrest and banned from lives temporarily, but soon after he "left" the band due to musical differences. There's room for interpretation on this. It is not known if he left because he wanted to and this was the breaking point, if he was forced out, or if he truly left on his own accord. VAJRA couldn't keep up the pace without him and virtually disappeared into disbandment. 『L.』found Jesus and work as an oshare-kei vocalist for the band Awake, now known as Eru.
Aki (ex-2bullet, ex-JackRose, ex-Concerto Moon)
Remember Takahiro from FAZ? He was covered in our first edition of the list and was caught trying to defraud people to fund band activities. It turns out that he had an accomplice! Aki, along with Takahiro, tried to defraud an elderly woman of 3 million yen. He was arrested once in November of 2016 and again in January of 2017, both for links to Takahiro and suspicion of fraud. Norifumi Shima of Concerto Moon immediately dismissed him from the band, while vocalist Re:i announced that JackRose would enter hiatus, since Aki was the composer and keyboardist. Ouch.
Ryuusei (ex-暁月 (Kyogetsu))
Another unwritten rule of the scene - one that is good practice to follow in most situations - is to keep internal band drama private. I love juicy drama stories as much as the next person, but band members spilling the beans about strife in their own project will only undermine their musical efforts. What happened to 暁月 (Kyogetsu) demonstrates this perfectly. Our story begins on early September 2017, with a few incendiary tweets from guitarist Ryuusei on Twitter. In the first tweet he claims that all bangya not attracted to him are into Himura of Bananaman, or ugly men in general. The second tweet was a little more pointed:
This hit a raw nerve with a lot of fans because it came on the heels of several unexpected disbandments. But this was just the tip of the iceberg. On his blog, Ryuusei went into detail about several aspects of the scene which up to now were just rumors and which come together to make life difficult for him and his band. A few of the things he mentioned (while also explicitly noting that he didn't know everything) were:
Ticket quotas as fees for live performances. Ryuusei does the math on how many tickets they need to sell to cover for the fees, which is dependent on how many fans show up to see them and that's before the band members split the money five ways.
Poor return on investment for popular vk standbys such as cheki.
Name drops the GazettE in a section about how well popular bands with a "pretty bassist" do financially. This got Reita's attention with a fiery response of his own.
Low wages paid from the indie labels.
How difficult it is for bands to recover once they are "in the red" and how close 暁月 (Kyogetsu) is to reaching that point after three years.
Asks fans to spend more money at shows, less at host clubs, and to tell him more information about salaries of other band men.
You can see how this won't go over well. It's one thing to blow the whistle, but when you do you better know all of the facts. Constantly dropping figures about how much your competition makes relative to you while claiming you don't know for sure is a fast way to draw a ton of well-deserved criticism both from outside and within, and that's exactly what happened. On top of that, the claims made do not mesh well with the stories I've heard about what lengths some fans will go to support their favorite artist or band. I know that some tsunagari will go as far as to feed, clothe, shelter, and fuck a band man or two just to support them! But treating your fans like ATMs and literally telling them to "If you have money, use it. High schoolers, study so you can make money in the future." is trash. To me, it seemed like Ryuusei is looking for a scapegoat for his band's poor performance. Fans struck back by revealing his name, his bare face, his DMs, and even coordinating to send 100 pizzas to his house! Ryuusei threatened to get the police involved if the situation escalated further.
His behavior afterwards is what sealed the deal. His band mates wanted nothing to do with the controversy this generated, as the vocalist even went so far as to hold an "apology twicast", and posted many apologetic tweets, even individually replying to people to apologize long before Ryuusei commented on the issue. However, Ryuusei did eventually apologize before backtracking the very next day. In his second blog post, he starts by claiming he only apologized because he was forced to. He then deflects the contents of the first post to "netogya" (a derisive term referring to online fans that don't go to shows, meaning most of us here), apologizes for name dropping bands and labels, claims he's always trying to be controversial and that this is no different, and claims that he thought this was common knowledge so there would be no problem. This only provided fuel for the fire.
The sad thing is that, as you could have guessed by now, these guys were virtually unknown before this. Shame is a very powerful deterrent in Japanese culture, and I've seen lesser drama capsize bigger bands than this. By constantly undoing the damage control his band members tried to provide, and by backpedaling and baiting Tanuki, Ryuusei put Kyogetsu in a spot where they had to kick him out to continue or disband. They did both. Bassist Shogo jumped ship first, but the formal disbandment of Kyogetsu was announced for October of 2017.
Setsuna (ex-THE EGOIST)
Whenever I write one of these lists, one person ends up doing something that eclipses everything else I discuss. Setsuna, guitarist of THE EGOIST, takes the "honors" for this position this time, although it's not something to be proud of. 2017 was not a kind year to THE EGOIST, as they paused activities earlier in the year when they lost contact with their vocalist, but things came to a breaking point by the end of the year in what will remain a black mark on visual kei for a long time to come. The timeline gets hazy at points but what we do know for certain is that Setsuna, also known as Keisuke Kawasaki (thanks NHK!), began an intimate relationship with a woman named Uran Hirayama while engaged. Uran didn't know he was engaged when she met him with the wedding planned to the degree where the venue had already been picked. The marriage was held sometime during his relationship with Uran as well.
It is not confirmed if she was a mitsu of his, but what we do know is that they had a very tumultuous relationship, all documented on Hirayama's twitter. Uran used the account as a regular personal account initially, but at some point the account became flooded with pictures and screenshots of the newly minted couple. Many LINE screenshots show both happy times as well as arguments, including one where Uran demanded to know if Setsuna had slept with a tsunagari/mitsu of his named Ayumi. He initially denies it, but admits to eventually sleeping with her once and apologizes, swearing Uran is the only one he really cares for. He ends up saying something similar on his public Twitter: "I've had relationships with various women, but aside from Uran I was just messing around. I'm very sorry. I'm considering marrying [her] in the future". No mention of his wife. Other pictures included Disney date pictures, many pictures of them in the snow as a couple, and of course the now-infamous video of him eating out Uran's ass (note to future readers: he chows down). Considering this is all in public view, it didn't take long for his "wife" to come across some of it; she apparently went ballistic when she found purikura of her and Setsuna kissing in his wallet.
Things get demented as the year winds down to a close. The messages on Uran's Twitter become more alarming; her profile stated 'I wish to be reborn and marry Keisuke in my next life', she posted screenshots of one of Setsuna's tweets that basically said he "will be one" with Uran (which he quickly deleted from his page), tweets about gifts she bought with the money she got from sex, and more. At some point, Setsuna informs Uran that he was married and in retaliation, she dumps all of this information on her Twitter. She also had at least one suicide attempt around December 3rd, likely in response to all of these happenings. Despite his marriage, he still publicly pines for Uran after all of this. The following is my guess of what happens next: Uran tells Setsuna about her suicide attempt(s) and he tries to talk her out of it, but ends up agreeing to commit double suicide with her a week later on December 9th. We know this because Uran sent the explicit details of the plan to one of her close friends around 3pm that day, which was later posted to her Twitter page. The person who posted the notice in no uncertain words claims it was intended to be a double suicide and firmly believes that was their original intention. This same friend also contacted the police with all of the information she had at her disposal, but by the time the police showed up to Uran's apartment at 9pm the deed was done. She was found on her futon, her room was locked, there were no signs anyone had been through her belongings, and there was a handwritten suicide note next to unused charcoal briquettes. I can only guess the plan was to lock themselves in a room and suffocate to death, but Setsuna had a last-minute change of heart, ended up choking her to death, locked the door, and left.
It took the detective work of another of Uran's friends to connect Setsuna to this mess and to send the police to his door. He admitted to the killing and was promptly arrested. When asked his occupation, he claimed he was a "part-timer" and did not mention THE EGOIST, his band mates, or his label. Thus, the band was able to avoid most of the wrath of the Eye of Sauron, but they still chose to disband anyway to distance themselves from the stigma as much as possible. I don't blame them. The story stops here for now, but there are a lot more questions to be asked than can be answered. As for the most important one, as one of Uran's friends put it, "The only way to know the circumstances that led to Uran being the only one who died is to ask [Setsuna] himself". Maybe this information will come out in a court trial soon.
UPDATE: THE EGOIST disbanded earlier in 2017 due to the departure of their vocalist. UPDATE 2: His trial started one year after the incident. Setsuna stated that Uran asked him to kill her, so he "helped her". Since the tribunal couldn't verify if that is true or not they accepted that Setsuna killed her on request and therefore reduced his sentence from 13 years to 3.5 years in prison.
Thanks for reading! Hopefully, band members will behave and another one of these lists won't come for a good while
Hot on the heels of announcing their upcoming single for February, BUCK-TICK has just announced that they will be releasing their new album "No. 0" on 2018/03/14. The new full-length (which will be their 21st studio album) is planned to feature 13 tracks.
The release will come in 4 types: regular (CD), limited Type-A (CD+Blu-ray), limited Type-B (CD+DVD) and limited Type-C (CD+VR content). The bonus video contents of Types A and B will be the same.
Furthermore, they will hold their nationwide "BUCK-TICK 2018 Tour No.0" from 31st March to 19th July.
Freaking THANK YOU @helcchifor adding Believe in Style to the list. bis is the band that, imo, along with baroque made VK/Oshare actually acessible to the general public. If they stayed long enough, they'd DEFINITELY be able to hit big outside the niche, band was barely one year old and already had TV theme songs and ads collaborations. But somehow, I have the feeling that they were never shooting for it, even tho they kept hitting the top of the charts even after leaving PSC. A gem of a band that doesn't get half of the recognition they deserve.
He wanting to leave the scene was the sole reason of their disbandment, so yeah... he did some acting gigs with satsuki and one pv for fun with a band he was friends with, but that's basically it.
Ah, Rentrer en soi and Despa. Absolutely loved Plastic Tree's Ghost as well but the top one will always be Girugamesh's selftitled. While I'd been listening to VK and bands around the genre for years I still believe that was "the one" that got me stuck more than anything. Probably also the first Japanese release I got (since Utada's Exodus album was technically not Japanese)
If there was a single year I am most nostaligic for in Jrock, I think it would have to be 2007. D'espairsRay, Girugamesh, and Rentrer en Soi sit at the top of this list for me. That said, I think there are a few albums that I still look back at fondly that didn't make it on to the list:
Abingdon Boys School - Self Titled
I played the shit out of this release. I was always a fan of Takanori Nishikawa, but never really got in to TM's style. But in catchy alt rock with lots of electronics...oh man.
Lynch. - The Avoided Sun
I'm not sure this will ever go down as the best lynch album, but in 2007 their formula wasn't even close to feeling stale yet. I still really enjoy this album, even if it does have some stinker tracks on it (I'm looking at you, "the Universe.")
D - Neo Culture: Beyond the World
This would mark the last D album that I really enjoyed.
Blood Stain Child - Mozaiq
Man, I don't feel like this album holds up to time at all, but that euro-trance metal was something that was really enjoyable at the time.
Dir en Grey - The Marrow of a Bone
This album felt like a dud to me at the time, and marked the full on shift in Diru's style. That said, I still found myself still really getting pumped up by some of the tracks (Grief being the main one here)
The Marrow of a Bone - Bu-ikikaesu
When I think of MtH, this is the album I think of. I'll admit though, I don't think I listened to this on in 2007 though.
Kagrra, - shizuku
Far from Kagrra,'s strongest work, but there formula was so lovely and I couldn't help but enjoy their more laid back approach they were taking. That and I think what Kagrra, was doing has never really been replicated.
This list cracked me up. Nice work, there are definitely looks that deserve to be discussed. Maybe some of these bands should have had discussions about them beforehand.
As for the poll, I put kinda. I will listen to a band with crappy looks if I like the music, and likewise, I don't care how nice their look is, if the music is shit, I'm out. Too many bands put way too much effort into their image to make up for the fact they can't play their instruments, and I hate that the scene has pretty much become a catch-all for subpar musicians like that.
Because of vkdb will be on a break for a while, and it's almost at the end of the year, I decided to get back to my new / disband list.
-> check here: https://vkeikonkon.wordpress.com/
Between April and August, you will find nothing is lised there, BUT in the spoiler you will find the bandnames, who disbanded, went on a break and of course the new bands.
2017 comes to an end, and since we don't remember every band(name), I hope it will help some people to remember.
If you think, I forgot an (important) band/project, then please drop a message.
As for 2018, I try to keep up the list on vkeikonkon,
DISBANDMENT / BREAK
NEW / START
__________________________
In 2017, we had a bunch of bands, who did start and who did disband in the same year, also we had some shocking disbands, also some nice bands did return. Of course also some nice new bands did start.
The last few months, much more bands decided to disband, while it was about until August that disbandment and starting new was almost the same amount.
I'm looking forward to 2018.
And if someone has too much time, I would be glad if someone could finish a full list like in the spoilers just to put in here.
doombox got a reaction from togz in Akinori returns to lynch.
doombox got a reaction from suji in Akinori returns to lynch.
doombox got a reaction from tetsu_sama69 in Last.fm Collage Generator
doombox got a reaction from CAT5 in Last.fm Collage Generator
doombox got a reaction from Visutox in Last.fm Collage Generator
doombox got a reaction from Mamo in Spotify Profile Exchange
doombox got a reaction from maryeon in 10 Noteworthy VK Looks - 2017 Edition