doombox

You don't speak for all of us. This isn't only a vk forum. It's a Japanese music forum and there are users here who don't listen to or like vk. 
That's not to say that anyone is telling you not to discuss vk, but people who listen to more than just vk are welcome here just as much as anyone else.

I have been with last.fm since it was still called Audioscrobbler. I think it was a pointless endavour to try becoming a streaming/radio site when there are others who do it much better. Sure, the recommended tracks radio was nice, but not the reason I signed up. I want to scrobble my music, get charts, get recommendations and maybe find other people with similar music taste. And for me, that purpose is still being fulfilled, so I have no reason to complain.
 
 
I think they should just scale down a bit, go back to their core functions, stop trying to be a radio/streaming/news site.

Artist: sukekiyo Album: VITIUM Score: The essence of sukekiyo, molded into perfection. sukekiyo has managed to slowly convert me from being a mildly disinterested bystander to a casual listener who's always on the lookout whenever something new pops up concerning the band. Their first full-length IMMORTALIS proved to be a slow-burning behemoth of many faces (and facets), and their latest offering VITIUM isn't too far off from that impression either. Kyo and co. don't seem to be in a hurry, as evidenced by the size of this new 'mini' album which is still longer than most bands' albums. Throughout these 37 minutes, they present their compositions in typical sukekiyo fashion: sprawling, mysterious, unpredictable. This time around, however, it seems they were able to craft a more unified sound for themselves (as if they weren't already unique enough), with a concentrated approach to boot. Each song sounds more coherent in and of itself, while still retaining the "expect the unexpected" avant-garde quality they've come to be known for.
VITIUM starts off powerfully and majestically with "leather field" – a dark flower blooming and branching out in sukekiyo's aural grotto. Hints of manic aggression and weirdness also rear their heads, prefiguring what's to come in the second track "dunes." This song introduces a demented vibe with its jittery guitars and drums, the band's interpretation of violent jazz-metal. Surprisingly, we are treated to an interlude next ("dot") that doesn't do much in itself but it serves as a fitting ambient intro to the following "foster mother." Kyo's deep croons drift onto a hypnotic beat complemented by beautiful guitar flourishes and keyboards that evoke an ambiguous atmosphere, on the edge of tranquility and uneasiness. One of the standout tracks for sure!
As VITIUM's centerpiece, "雨上がりの優詩 (Ameagari no yuushi)" pales in comparison to "foster mother," although it is a decent slower number complete with some fantastic textures and a soothing, airy outro. The atmosphere continues through "maniera," but it quickly turns into a quirky explosion of psychedelic metal tinged with calmer acoustic noodling. If DIR EN GREY drove out to the desert high on mescaline, this is what they would jam out. If "maniera" was the hallucinatory freak-out, the second interlude "白露 (Hakuro)" serves as a soundtrack to expulsion – not as fun but still necessary. All the more so, it heightens the magnificence of the follow-up, "celeste." Switching between tumbling piano sludge and schizophrenic episodes, it's a strong indicator of what sukekiyo is capable of. Naturally, after all of this there's no other way to go but softer, as "focus" closes the record with ethereal floaty melodies... or so it seems until the flamenco bit kicks in, segueing into one last creepy look into the abyss.
As you can tell, this mini album is quite a trip from start to finish. Whereas IMMORTALIS seemed overly long and drawn-out at times, VITIUM manages to capture the band's perfected essence, more powerful and twisted than ever. It is clear that sukekiyo has finally found its own voice. Let's just hope we'll get to hear that voice more in the future as well!

Love the look. But wtf with that chicken? Lol

What if the new band's name is "coming soon"? Mind = blown.

Love the look. But wtf with that chicken? Lol

I've seen EYA a few times and I enjoyed the composition of their songs but I could never get into his voice. 
With GAGA I'm also a little hesitant because I'm not sure what his voice will actually end up sounding like.. 
I like the look, though.
I'm mildly interested from the previews--but you never know with just a preview.
I'll be seeing them March 7th anyway when I'm going to see Xaa Xaa so I'll find out then if I actually like the music/feel like buying the CD.

A reformed M with a more google-able name would be amazing.

I have mixed feelings towards this list personally. I feel some tracks definitely deserve their places (perhaps not in the same order, but at least within the top 25 itself), such as Rhapsody in beauty, 懐春, and 光の加減で話した, but at the same time there are some tracks on here that I feel are rather overrated; particularly unravel (which I personally consider to be one of TK's weakest compositions) and phenomenon. Then again, such is the nature of subjectivity, I doubt anyone will completely agree with everything on the list. Still, I appreciate the work that you guys put into it.

Woa thats cool.. how it is now! perfect
 
hopefully the mods help tombre to put everything in the right topic catogory
 
Still difficult sometimes.. since some bands aren't visual but not really general too, just kinda.. gothic/alternative.
But I still like the General tag ^^

I've created two tags in the news forum to identify topics as belonging to visual kei or the general music scene.  I've already tagged a few news topics in the section with the prefixes to get started. Let's try it out and see if it suits your needs.

Monochrome Heaven's Top 25 Tracks of 2014

Presenting The Top 25 Tracks of 2014 as voted by our Official Reviewers and staff members. Any Japanese song released in 2014 was eligible, although our primary focus was on J-rock.

25.
TAMTAM - "シューゲイズ"

24.

宇宙コンビニ (uchu conbini) - ­ 光の加減で話した (Hikari no Kagen de Hanashita)

23.

シナリオアート (Scenarioart) ­- "アオイコドク" (Aoi Kodoku)

22.

DIR EN GREY -­ "懐春 (kaishun)"

21.

LLLL -­ "Oddness"

20.

BACK­-ON -­ "セルリアン (cerulean)"

19.

101A ­- "Forbidden Sky"

18.

DIV ­- "漂流彼女 (hyouryuu kanojo)"

17.

PLASTICZOOMS ­- "Sleepwalker"

16.

ねごと (NEGOTO) -­ "黄昏のラプソディ (tasogare no rhapsody)"

15.

sow ­- "to growth, for growth"

14.

TK from 凛として時雨 (ling tosite sigure) -­ "unravel"

13.

DIR EN GREY -­ "輪郭 (rinkaku)"

12.

tayuta ­- "夢見た 蒼 (yumemita ao)"

11.

八十八ヶ所巡礼 (88kasyo junrei) -­ "攻撃的国民的音楽 (kougeki teki kokumin teki ongaku)"

10.

Mono -­ "Recoil, Ignite"

9.

和楽器バンド (Wagakki Band) -­ "千本桜 (Senbonzakura)"

8.

DIR EN GREY ­- "phenomenon"

7.

la la larks -­ "end of refrain"

6.

黒百合と影 (Kuroyuri to Kage) - "「浴槽」 (yokusou)"

5.

アルルカン (arlequin) ­- "墓穴 (hakaana)"

4.

mothercoat - "trickster"

3.

Boris -­ "雨 (ame)"

2.

THE NOVEMBERS -­ "Rhapsody in beauty"

1.

sukekiyo ­- "Aftermath"

Yes, I'll be hunting it down today. Thank you.
 
And your female section may as well be obscure/newly found to me since I've never heard of most of them. Female j-pop is a genre I'm very unfamiliar with. So now I know who to come asking about these kinds of artists. 

Disclaimer: incoming rant is not directed at Slsr or anyone in particular in this thread.

This has bugged me for a while, but does anyone else find the term "non-VK" to be obnoxious? It's such a contextual term that seemingly groups together music that has nothing to do with other music, simply by the fact that they are not visual kei. Are all people who take up jobs that aren't in the engineering field "non-engineers"? (Yes, it's a silly example, I know.)  But seriously, I cringe when I see sentences like "I only like non-VK music." or "Ew, please no non-VK music." It just emphasizes the arbitrariness/superficiality that people can use to judge music. I think the split would just help to further validate this silly division.
 
If the split does take place, please just call it "general" news like we did with the general download section.
 
I think Pho3nyx sums up my thoughts pretty well on the whole matter. I'm against splitting the news forum.

I'm not particularly supportive of the idea of splitting news based on genre (particularly one as subjective and controversial Visual Kei, with it's lack of an objective definition). One thing that I like about Monochrome Heaven is the fact that it's slowly moving more towards promoting musical diversity, and I feel that giving VK and non-VK news their own sections would hinder that somewhat. Personally I'm mostly interested in non-VK stuff, but every now and then I still come across some interesting VK news purely because of the fact that I see it being posted here while I'm predominantly searching for other things, and that helps me to stay aware of what's happening in the VK scene even if its not my main area of interest. 
 
Basically I think this site should keep promoting musical diversity within the Japanese music scene, rather than trying to segment it.

I appreciate your suggestion slsr, but at the moment, I can't see this happening. The demand simply isn't high enough, as there are not enough fans nor enough users to post news as often as needed.

The fact that non-vk news gets buried so quickly is proof enough that the interest here isn't sufficient. If we did make a new forum, it would be mostly idle.

For the people who are afraid their eyes will melt after clicking on threads and seeing news that they're not interested in, I at least try to tag the stuff I post. Although to be honest, you can pretty safely assume what kind of news is being posted by the user that's posting it.

The fact of the matter is that right now, the people who are interested in non-vk and would want to post and read news on such music don't have the time for spam posting news or keeping track of yet another section of an already large forum. We don't have a non-vk-Trombe to spend every waking moment scouring Japanese webpages for news. Your suggestion isn't a horrible idea, it sounds pretty decent when you get to the bare bones of it, but at the current point of the forum and the members who do enjoy non-vk there just isn't enough time in the day or need for news segregation. There is maybe 1 in every 50 vk posts that's non-vk. That is no "surge" at all. You make valid points, I'm not trying to say you're not or anything like that for suggesting this. It's more along the lines of it just not being practical currently. Do you want to be the one sitting at your computer mindlessly posting thread after thread of news on non-vk to substantiate your suggestion of a separate news section? The answer is probably no. The prefix idea is probably going to be the most useful option until there is enough demand for and people who can post consistent non-vk news threads. The search function, tags and the "start date" option are in place for a reason.

I can't say what vision the admins have for this forum in the future, I just download music and write reviews. I personally would love to see a bigger fanbase for non-vk, be it pop, rock, metal etc. But I don't think a segregated news section is gonna do that right now. There's just not enough people here to keep a separate news section updated enough to draw new people. A few news posts a month isn't gonna do what you are wanting it to do.

X SUGINAMI SET-LIST at 2015/02/05:
 
SE.PROLOGUE～WORLD ANTHEM
01.BLUE BLOOD
02.Sadistic Desire
03.Vanishing Love
04.Silent Jealousy
05.紅(kurenai)
06.X
SE.Say Anything
 

団長(danchou)(NoGoD) has mentioned that "X SUGINAMI本格始動"...it appears that X JAPAN-cover session "X SUGINAMI" will commence their formal activities
 
they will hold their next live at master+mind presents "Rock is Culture 2015" at Shinjuku LOFT at 2015/02/05, at which ANNY's LTD. will also perform
 
"X SUGINAMI" line-up at 2015/02/05:
Vo.団長(danchou) (NoGoD)
Gt.ミヤ(miya) (MUCC)
Gt.結生(yuu) (MERRY)
Ba.Akane (ex-THE★SCANTY, now in PLINK?)
Dr.Daisuke (ROACH)

Thanks everyone for the feedback! Ended up going with E for the cover....between Facebook and here, it was overwhelmingly the most picked. The backside was less clear with people picking things all across the board. Since Moo, the printer I am going with, allows for multiple card backsides I chose to go with both B and D as they matched the front side the most,

I don't feel there is enough non-vk news here to warrant that kind of split yet, but maybe just a "visual" and "general" news prefix (like we have with uploads for albums, minis, or singles) that could be used?