doombox

We had talked about having a theme of your favorite songs from 2016 this coming sunday (the 18th) if peeps are down. 

Whoa! that's a pretty damn extensive list. Nice job there. I know a few, probably from some of the artists you already listed but still worth mentioning right?
 
ギルガメッシュ - Melody
MUCC - ニルヴァーナ
MUCC - フライト
MUCC - Arcadia
NAINE - BRING ME ALIVE
NoGoD - Raise a Flag
xTRiPx - limpid
バラライカ - インフェルノ第1奏
 
I know there's lots more, looking forward to see what other people remember.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Whoa! that's a pretty damn extensive list. Nice job there. I know a few, probably from some of the artists you already listed but still worth mentioning right?
 
ギルガメッシュ - Melody
MUCC - ニルヴァーナ
MUCC - フライト
MUCC - Arcadia
NAINE - BRING ME ALIVE
NoGoD - Raise a Flag
xTRiPx - limpid
バラライカ - インフェルノ第1奏
 
I know there's lots more, looking forward to see what other people remember.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Whoa! that's a pretty damn extensive list. Nice job there. I know a few, probably from some of the artists you already listed but still worth mentioning right?
 
ギルガメッシュ - Melody
MUCC - ニルヴァーナ
MUCC - フライト
MUCC - Arcadia
NAINE - BRING ME ALIVE
NoGoD - Raise a Flag
xTRiPx - limpid
バラライカ - インフェルノ第1奏
 
I know there's lots more, looking forward to see what other people remember.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

While the conventional verse-chorus song structure is the most popular way to approach song-writing, there are several well-known songs that deviate from this formula by starting with the chorus. 
By doing so, listeners are pulled in immediately and directed straight to the most memorable part or hook of the song. A quick search on google can reveal lists of notable examples.
 
But what about visual kei (and jrock)? A handful of songs also employ this approach and it's a refreshing change to what we're used to hearing.
 
I've compiled a list of the ones I know, but would love to hear some of your favorites.
 
ALiBi - DREAM
ALSDEAD - Distrust
アンド -eccentric agent- - カラノカラダ・・・
bis - SEASONS
born - felony
CELLT - star drops
CodeRebirth - Remember
D=OUT - 青い鳥
DaizyStripper - Dandelion
DIAURA - Lost November
DIAURA - ホライゾン
DIAURA - Reason for Treason
DIAURA - REBORN
DIR EN GREY - 激しさと、この胸の中で絡み付いた灼熱の闇
DIV - 夏の行方
EAT YOU ALIVE - JENNIFER
EVE - エール
EVE - 淡色季節
exist†trace - 海の雫
FEST VAINQUEUR - 覇斬
FEST VAINQUEUR - 霞桜
FEST VAINQUEUR - 愛の鎖
the GazettE - 別れ道
the GazettE - SHIVER
girugamesh - COLOR
girugamesh - takt
GOLDEN BOMBER - memeshikute
Grieva - true grief
Grieva - LOVELESS
Grieva - 水中沈む透明な匣
heidi. - レム
Hi:BRiD - 1998
Hi:BRiD - 真世界
Irokui. - 摩天楼の雨男
JILUKA - Crossing Fate
Kagrra, - うたかた
La'cryma Christi - 未来航路
LM.C - 88
LUNA SEA - END OF SORROW
LUNA SEA - UP TO YOU
lynch. - Crystalize
lynch. - ETERNITY
Malice Mizer - Beast of Blood
MATENROU OPERA - 悲哀とメランコリー
meth. - THE LAST SLEEP
MIYAVI - 「素晴らしきかな、この世界」-WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD-
MUCC - 約束
NEXX - EXISTENCE
Nightmare - the WORLD
Phobia - La rouge fil
RENTRER EN SOI - STIGMATA
Sadie - Recall
Sadie - Rain fall
Sadie - 棘-toge-
SHIVA - BELIEVER
Shulla - カラス (pm5：48 ver．)
SIAM SHADE - 1/3の純情な感情
Sick² - 冬の終わる場所。
SID - V.I.P
SID - 乱舞のメロディ
SINCREA - 桜舞い散る季節に君が夢見たこと
Vidoll - Cloud
ViViD - 睡蓮人
ViViD - REAL
xTRiPx - glitter
Zonbi - 墓場 de ラヴソング

- NEW FUCKING MERRY ALBUM
 - ザアザア will continue to kill it
 - DIR EN GREY will release a single with embarrassing excuses for b-sides
 - MEJIBRAY will release seven singles
 - 己龍 will release five singles
 - R指定 will release three singles
 - possible no announcement for cali≠gari 13 at the end of the year?
 - lynch. will release an album in September or October, this WILL happen, or else Earth as we know it will end
 - Plastic Tree will release a single that sounds like 瞳孔/落花/Silent Noise
 - we might get a lot of surprise albums, since pretty much all we got in 2016 was fucking singles
 
As for DEZERT ... well, I don't think they'll go major, but they will do things... they'll either:
 - Be super consistent and release some awesome shit, or
 - Lose another member in the midst of several upcoming releases, and then scrap all aforementioned releases for a short sub-par album

A few predictions.
THE NOVEMBERS will release either a new single or an EP. I don't think they'll be quiet, whatever the case. 八十八ヶ所巡礼 will drop an actual full-length album to make up for leaving us musicless in 2016. cinema staff will release SOMETHING. these guys have been putting out music like crazy. 凛として時雨 hopefully put out something redeeming. maybe a new single? ....or 凛として時雨 return just to disappoint us again. TK makes another anime theme. This time, his most annoying yet! siraph will drop another amazing EP. another new lynch. album [2] downy goes back into hiding for another 3 years.  
That's all I got for now. I do hope for new music from some lesser known bands that probably aren't worth mentioning, though.

my predictions
- Yohio goes big. Like actual big time. Like oricon charting big time.
- Xaa-Xaa goes major.
- DEZERT goes major. 
- Asagi finally cuts his losses and goes solo, D disbands.
- NoGod, Keel, Gotcharocka and Nue disband. 
- Moi Dix Mois drops the album and it's surprisingly good.
- Kaito and Shinnosuke, the two most unique vk vocalists of the past decade, will return and it will be beautiful.
- Shazna returns, (Izam runs out of money).
- Rentrer en Soi returns - however it's just Satsuki and Shun. It's not good.
- Kisaki dodges his taxes again, gets investigated. He deletes his twitter three times.
- The X Japan album surprisingly appears, but with only 3 unreleased songs. 
- Plastic Tree takes a break. Ryutaro drops another album. It's ......ok.
 

2016 was wild.
 
we lost so many beloved bandomen to drugs, death and evil underage fangirls who clearly should have known better and not tricked the easily lead middle aged men. and we gained some great new band! 
 
what do you think 2017 has in store for glorious visual kei?
 
 
 
 
(come back in a year and let's all lament that juka didn't reappear and gackt avoided justice once again)

Chanty is one of those bands that I should get into and I'm seriously slacking on. Hearing so much good praise from fellow ORZ members is giving me the motivation I need to check it out.

Day 14: Hologram by Abstracts

 
Release Date: 2016-03-09
Label: GO WITH ME RECORDS
Genre: Metalcore
 
 
Impressions from @doombox:
 
 
 
Impressions from @togz:
 
 
 
Impressions from @Ito:
 
 
Sample song:
 
Buy the album:
CD Japan | iTunes | Spotify | Amazon

Alright guys. Here it is. My thoughts/experience of FoLLoW's last one-man. 
It's not really a live report cos I suck at writing those. Basically just random things I remember and feelings I felt. I've divided it so you can kind of skip to w/e you're more interested in lol
 
First of all, I want to thank @hiroki for introducing me to this band. If not for him I would never have fallen in love with Masashi and FoLLoW and would definitely not have experienced their last one-man. I'm so so so so so so so grateful!!!! <3333333333333
 
Disclaimer: all quotes are basically me translating my memory of their Japanese into the way that I would say things. Don't quote me as if they said these exact words ><
 
some words that might be helpful to know:
buppan - the tables where they sell goods/merchandise kamite - right side of the stage from the audience's POV, as in the side the lead guitarist usually stands shimote - left side of the stage from the audience's POV, as in the side where the 2nd guitarist and bassist usually stand satsueikai - photo session with the bandmen. Usually after you've bought a certain amount of merch or if you pull an atari cheki or something  
Alright, here we go. I wrote a shit ton so... prepare yourselves!!
(Also, I realize say "like" a lot. Deal with it. I can't help myself lol)
 
Before the live:
 
During the live:
 
Random instances/MCs:
 
Encore:
 
Also here's my post-live and satsueikai experience for those who are interested lol:
 
Surprisingly I'm not as sad as I thought I would be. I don't feel empty or devastated. If anything I feel really full and positive lately. It didn't feel like a last live. Masashi kept saying いつも通り and I think they really tried to keep things the way they always do it. I've only seen them a few times so I don't know if they really kept everything the same as usual, but I think they were able to. Of course we all cried, but not for very long. We all had a lot of fun and even though it was the last live, it felt more like a "until next time" and a "we'll meet again someday." I hope I really do get to meet them one day. Even if it's not as a band. I want to be able to tell Masashi that I'm living a happy life ♡ I really hope they all find their own happiness as well. I feel like they've changed something in me. I'm not sure if it's just cos the live is still so recent, but I hope this feeling and my new positivity can last a long, long time. I'm so glad I was able to meet Follow, even if it was at the end of their band activities. It's not how long you've known someone, it's the depth of the connection, the moments you share, and how they make you feel. I know Follow is a band that I'll never forget.
<33333333333333333333333333333
 

 
Also, here's the last "だ～れだ" video! (filmed by Axkey's Yuuki lol)
 
♡

Masashi wrote a letter to all fans, which he read aloud on stage last night after the encore.
 
Here's what he had to say:
 
 

This is really interesting. I want to look into some older bands like MUCC and BUCK-TICK to see what the numbers say but they got like 20 years of releases to sort through so this may take a bit of time lol.

I'll be in plug in about 2 hours for anyone who's down!
 
plug.dj/monochrome-heaven

Cool to see the MIYAVI album on the list. I was quite surprised by it as well, in a positive way. Jolly good toe-tappin' fun~

yeah i was about to say the same about XAA-XAA
 
years: 2 years
unique songs: 41
time it takes to listen: 2 hours, 38 minutes
productivity rate: ~20 songs / year
 
it is worth mentioning they made 12 songs in about a 2 month time frame before forming. 

add xaa-xaa in this, note tho that their short band life skewes how prolific they are
they've definitely been coming out with more than an albums worth for 2015 and 2016
scapegoat and gossip have been really busy this year too

This is really interesting. I want to look into some older bands like MUCC and BUCK-TICK to see what the numbers say but they got like 20 years of releases to sort through so this may take a bit of time lol.

MUCC in mid 00's was terrifying. Sometimes I felt they had a new single like every week.

We all know that VK bands breed releases like rabbits, so I've been trying to gauge out which bands are the worst serial offenders in coming out with new material and did some number crunching on some of the bands with the most extensive discographies (excluding remixes, remasters, karaoke/instrumental and re-recordings)
 
So far I haven't been able to find a band that even comes close to being as prolific as mejibray with so much material in such short time, not even ains bands.
 
Except maybe Grieva.
 
MEJIBRAY
years: 5.5 years
unique songs: ≳102
time it takes to listen: 6.7 hours
productivity rate: 19 songs per year - almost 2 full albums every year. seriously how
 
GRIEVA
years: 4.5 years
unique songs: ≳76-86 (too many SEs)
time it takes to listen: 4.7 hours
productivity rate: 18 songs per year
 
DIAURA
years: 6 years
unique songs: ≳97
time it takes to listen: 6.5 hours
productivity rate: 16 songs per year / 1 album + single per year / 1 EP every 4 months
 
Lycaon
years: 7.5 years
unique songs: ≳100
time it takes to listen: 5.8 hours
productivity rate: 13 songs / 1 album per year
 
KIRYU
years: 9 years
unique songs: ≳113
time it takes to listen: 7.3 hours
productivity rate: 12 songs / 1 album per year
 
DEZERT
years: 5 years
unique songs: ≳60
time it takes to listen: 3.5 hours
productivity rate: 12 songs / 1 album per year
 
girugamesh
years: 12
unique songs: ≳130
time it takes to listen: 7.8 hours
productivity rate: 11 songs / 1 album per year
 
AWOI
years: 9.5 years
unique songs: ≳85
time it takes to listen: 5.7 hours
productivity rate: 9 songs / 1 album + 1 EP every alternating year
 
list is short because filtering out duplicates is hard.
 
It would also be interesting to see how well some of the longer-tenured bands do on this list.

Well, it contained actual rerecordings and two new songs, so it wasn't a throw-away compilation album like some "greatest hits" releases can be. That's why it made the cut this year.

Day 10: Fire Bird by MIYAVI posted!
 

it still is to me, i mean they were practically waiting for Umebo to come back from Europe to bust him for having pot at home while his known buddy is in holding for reasons unknown and unannounced by the media? i mean the media got to Umebo's case before HNIB could even make a statement. call me Alex Jones but it's all suspicious as shit lmao