Ikna

Okay, thanks for the update. It's just that my Paypal account currently has money, but I don't know for how long. (I'll try my best not to buy so much until I get the invoice then)

So, have all shipping invoices being sent? I am still waiting for mine.

I do not know if reviving this thread from the dead is wise, but I am still doing it, because I have to share the work of god that pinkmakona is doing with her nice tumblr blog: http://fuckyeahfemalevisualkei.tumblr.com/ Nice photos and collection of the women in VK. I never realized how many bandmember were actually female. But it seems it‘s no longer an oddity.

(sorry for doublepost, but the last link does not work otherwise) And lastly: the amazing post-punk group Belgrado hailing from Spain, who bring the original punk energy back into Wave music. Or music in general. Their songs are energetic and cathy and the fact that the lyrics are not in english add some nice variety.

Speaking of German goth: Xmal Deutschland are an absolute must-listen. Probably one of the most well known dark punk/goth bands from Germany, they were often compared to Siouxsie and the Banshees. Their first albums (Fetisch and Tocsin) are truly great goth rock. Their later releases were more straight forward Pop influenced New Wave It seems female fronted Goth is quite popular, so I‘ll share some more of my favourites, of which many bands are coming from the deathrock end of the genre. First Christ vs. Warhol, a contemporary deathrock band formed in 2009 with some killer Line-Up, featuring members from Scarlet‘s Remains (the older band of the singer and also sharing the same sound as this one. Recommend it as well!), Marzia Rangel and Steven James, who were in Faith and the Muse (another great band) Fangs on Fur are next. For me they were a harder band to get into, but after a while they started to grow on me. I personally find they have a very own, unique style that sets them apart from other deathrock bands. That’s mostly because their vocalist is a lot squeakier and they have a very interesting, native american/western inspired concept. Crimson Scarlet are making music in the vein of Scarlet‘s Remains and Co. If you liked the previous bands, then you will like them as well. It’s just that they have only released two singles and an EP so far, so I am hoping for more material to follow soon, because they are really promising.

You all forgot a classic: Seriously, we probably need a thread for this.

Well, more female fronted dark, electronic minimal wave: Lebanon Hannover is a english band active in Germany. If you like Sixth June, Linea Aspera and the like, then Lebanon Hannover might be your thing too. I like the deep and monotone voice of the singer. And here is something old, but obscure: Look Back in Anger was an early 80s goth rock band. Their sound is a typical mix of late 70s punk and early goth (as it was quite usual at that time, ca. around 1981). I totally love the guitar playing and the vocalist is amazing. It‘s really a shame that they didn‘t last so long and only had a very few realeses.

My mum knows about it since 2005/2006. I mostly bought CDs without her knowing, but she stumbled upon VK, because I also bought Anime magazines with articles about it. I actually showed them to her and asked her about her opinion. She is not bothered by dudes wearing dresses and make-up (it actually reminds her of Bowie and Boy George, who she likes), but she just can‘t stand the music and generally has not a high opinion of anything Japan-related. Like many other parents she constantly makes fun of it and whenever I buy any CD she always asks if it’s "your japanese anime stuff”. But apart from that she does not really care much about it. My other relatives do not know about VK. My father knows I like Goth, and that already worries him to no end, even though he ironically likes punk rock and used to collect Rock CDs, when it was frowned upon in his country (his parents are muslims and were very much against his lifestyle). So it angers me that he is so ignorant and dismisses anything in that direction as satanic and dangerous. In effect I never introduced him to VK. My grandfather (mother‘s side) and my aunt’s family are your typical conservative central europeans. For them everything was better in the past, before evil rock music perverted youth and people had “Christian values”. They are thankfully not as hate-filled as your average conservative (might be because my family still associated themselves more with social-democrats and because my grandfather hated his Nazi father), but they are still close-minded. I already have some issues with them, as they think me wearing black indicates that I must be traumatized and in need of therapeutical help, so I do not expect them to understand VK.

@Gaz I am planning on watching Lost, since I watch Fringe (which is by J.J. Abrams as well). I never found the whole “stranded on Island” thing to be much of interest, but then again it is supposed to be a mystery show. Is it in any way comparable to Fringe or X-Files? Also started watching Orphan Black this weel. Am still in season 1, but so far I like it very much. But bad to hear the third season seems not to deliver. I feel they premise of the show could potentially lead to it becoming a bit too soap-y. Also has anyone watched the new Penny Dreadful episodes? I am really impressed, I must say. I think I will like this season better than the first. Season 1 had a good start, but I didn’t like the end so much. Season 2 is starting much stronger and it seems the writers are now finally working up to tie some threads together. I still hope Dorian Gray will get to do more than just fucking everyone, lol

I also use watercolor and traditional media. It is actually faster than drawing on the computer, but I like digital media better because of the effects you can achieve and of course ctrl+Z XD But these were made with watercolor for example: When it comes to ressources and stocks I try my best to search for accounts that offer free-licences, so I can use the work for all kinds of purposes. For textures there is this amazing guy: http://sirius-sdz.deviantart.com/All of his textures are free to use, including commercial.

nah, he is just busy with his new bandooo: Jokes aside, I also think this project is done or will go nowhere, especially considering how unpopular his last were

You mean ”oppressing heteronormative, white cis-male”, because no men can be oppressed, shitlord! CHECK YOUR PANDA PRIVILEGE RITE NAAAAU!!!

Someone finally did it. I already thought a long time about making this thread, but I never pulled it through, because I didn't expected so much interest here. But good to see that some people are into the genre. Also glad to see many nice newcomers mentioned. Most people know or will stumble upon the classics (Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Banshees) and I think it is more important to give the more unknown bands a spotlight. Also glad that so far no one has mentioned anything like Blutengel, Rammstein, Motionless in White or Within Temptation. Because they are just not goth. She Past Away are amazing, I just bought their second album. I do not agree with the Sisters of Mercy comparisons, that people often mention. Yeah, the singer has a very low and dark voice, but their music is still very different from the Sisters Hardrock influenced Post-Punk. She Past Away are, to me, colder, mysterious and distanced sounding. Some recommendations of mine: Sixth June Since Linea Aspera have mentioned, this band also falls into a similiar genre, a mix of electro-, minimal- and dark wave. Also feautures a female vocalist. Winter Severity Index An all female band with a very nice, 80s sound. They are associated with the current coldwave revival thing (not sure how much this ties in with the original french coldwave of the 80s, but I guess so, since they have that sound). Really nice, athmospheric and melancholic music with lots of ambience. Their music is really soothing and calming, The Brightest Days is however hella catchy. Catholic Spit They are a Southern California based Death Rock group with a very distinctive sound. At least I haven‘t heard so many bands sounding like them. Which makes me glad, since many deathrock groups have the problem of trying to imitate Christian Death and end up being lame copies. Very punky sound and their style reminds me of old horror movie or tv show soundtracks. Pink Turns Blue German Post-Punk band with a really melancholic mood, for which they are associated with the goth and darkwave scene. I really enjoy their earlier albums. They were active from the late 80s to 90s and reunited in 2003. Soror Dolorosa Now a band where the Sisters comparisons may fit. Though sometimes they remind me more of Bauhaus. Like many other coldwave groups they are hailing from France and impress with their wonderful angsty post-punk tunes. (I hope my video links are working, Firefox does not show me any videos >_>)

I am using Adobe Photoshop CS5 (and CS6) ^^ The second drawing was made with Photoshop too, the reson it looks traditional is because I used a pencil and sketch brush set (which I downloaded from Deviantart. DA is really a great place to get ressources such as brushes and textures).

I always neglect this place >_< OLD SKEEEWL BIJUARU Something sketchy inspired by D’espairsRay. I almost forgot how dark they were until I listened to them again. My OC. He is a bogus character in an even more bogus story of mine. Sharing it here, because he wears some glam rock inspired outfit and because I am actually proud of it once.

Seikun, there were actually western bands ripping off old school visual kei. We have collected a lot in this thread. As you can see, or listen, they weren‘t really good and mostly only at the level of some terrible japanese crap kei bands. Not that most current western modern-VK inspired bands are good either. Also what is an indie sound? Indie is such a nebulous umbrella term. If you mean the musical influences: yes, that could be. You have to realize, tthat newcomers are introduced to VK by the bands that are active and hyped now. People rarely start by listening to some obscure 90s indie band, they get into VK by listening to Metalcore, Nu Metal and modern Pop Rock (or even Emo) and then often stumbling upon VK by accident, or are discovering it because they like Anime, japanese stuff, etc. In Yohio‘s case he might have the right styling and the budget, but the song still comes off as a half cooked uninspired mess. Not a fan of that bleepy Visualcore thing in general, but western groups have somehow the talent to make it more unbearable for me. The fact that Yohio sings in japanese doesn‘t help either (I can‘t judge if his japanese is good or bad though). I am sure some western groups could pull it off and I am not one of the people who believe Visual kei is a totes japanese-only thing. But so far I haven‘t really discovered a single non-japanese group doing it really right. Except maybe for Silver Ash, who are chinese.

I like the singles, I really do. But I still can‘t shake off the feeling I have heard whole portions of the songs already a dozen times both somewhere else and within their own discography. I know that bragging about this band being repetitive and not trying to take risks and playing it safe is annyoing, because we are all aware of it and Grieva obviously do not want to be anything else (they also do not seem to deny it like other bands). Well, there is still the next mini album. I am hoping for something as surprising as Shuuen, which was not as much of a copy pasta release and while I didn‘t like it on the spot it slowly started to grow on me. I wish they could deliver that again.

Dir en grey. Although mostly only their old skewl material. I have stopped really caring aout anything after DSS. The Gazette never did it for me, musical wise and also fandom-wise. Good, both bands have crazy fans, but I found the Gazette fanscene to be more offputting. Somehow I like tgazette’s first releases though (because it is crap, but oldschool-ish crap)

Don’t know where you all live, but here that Nu Goth thing has been booming so strongly recently that everyone started to run around in platform boots, ripped black jeans, T-shirts with occult symbols and crosses and wearing darker lipstick (mostly red shades though). Even people who take the chance to talk bad about ’those freaky angsty goths’ are riding on the bandwagon. So if you believe that subcultures are a guarantor for individuality, then you are wrong. They can be deluded to the point of merely being a shallow costume and fashion trend and have always been. The day a new art, music or social movement is born is the same day the time bomb to its commercial cannibalization has started ticking. I’d even pose the theory that most subculutres have become more similiar and alike as well. Surely, with the invention of new substyles of substyles and subcultures within subcultures we can pretend them to have diversified, but upon closer examination you will see that those styles have often moved away so much from their roots (and towards the mainstream) on one side or they are just the same as the others, only marketed under a different name. So yeah, my unpopular opinion: subculture were always commercialized. let’s stop pretending the music, media and fashion industry didn’t pull this off in the past. I very much love gothic rock and post-punk and I was very enthusiastic about that whole surge of goth revival and trad goth thing. But even I realized I should not try to live in some illusionary world, where the goth/wave scene is somehow much deeper, cooler and more individual than others. I think it is even better not to give a shit about that anyway, because concentrating too much on it may cause you to become more uniformal and boring than if tyou would not. I think the mid 00s emo scene was a prime example of young people trying too hard to be different and not to fit in and in the end they became as stereotypical and obnoxious as the groups of people they always ranted about. True though, I really like it when I meet people who appreciate to dress like the Wavers and New Romantics and it makes me happy to talk about my fav music with similiar minded people. The interesting people may not even be active in the scenes (a lot of reasons: having a job, family, studying, not time and money to go to concerts or buy new clothes).

Edit: okay, found the invoice, it was in my spam folder (strange, I have gotten all other rarezhut mails normally)

You just don’t understand. Mummy kei is THE next big thing!

About the blackface thing: seeing how tsuzuku’s and Ryoga’s make up are executed I wouldn’t call it blackface at all. Blackface is a very well defined term (even though some oversensitive “everything offends me!”-yelling people disagree) and comes with certain characteristics. Just slapping some black paint onto your face is not blackface. Blackface is meant to make fun of black people. so it comes with the wearer exhibiting manierism, that are ignorantly associated with being black, such as painting very large, red lips, wearing clothes of a jazz musician or hip-hopper and using a specific body language. None of this applies to these two. I agree though, that this happened a few times with K-Pop musicians who dressed up as rappers.

^THIS IS NOT MY FINAL FORM!! I also like those old and cheesy overesxposured shots, where the bandmens noses start to vanish. Noseless kei is funny.

So far I liked two of three song samples. It’s definitely a much more interesting release than the ones before.

That Lar~mia song is indeed only vaguely reminiscent. Completely different style and athmosphere here. I know that was probably not the point of posting it here, since people have their own way to be reminded of things. To be honest, I don’t see any similiarities between that Metal(core) band and oldschool bands and I still try to figure out what you want to prove, blackdoll, with your constant nitpickings and strange comparisons. Even if the riffs were similiar or the same, the overall playing and musical style is completely different. I am sure you would find such riffs even in completely different genres as well. It’s not like certain riffs, notes or melodies are patented by certain genres. In fact, what constitues a style or genre is more the sum of all parts and how they are combined, than single elements. If it wasn’t like that any pop song would be able to classify as Rock or even Metal when they just use enough guitar lines.