lichtlune

Really sad not to see Femme Fatale's "Powder" on here. Probably the best visual kei track I've heard all year. 

Can't really knock them for shitty quality. If they can't afford professional production what can you do? Musically it sounds pretty good. But yeah band names like these make it very hard to be a fan. "What's your favorite band?",  "Oh orgy of villians...". 

C'mon man what's with the fucking names these days? Do they just draw words from a hat or something?
 
x3 on the shittiest teaser I've heard. HAHA. Was that 5 seconds each track?

I don't see the problem with sharing one of the most iconic moments in musical history here.

Some perspective: this is from the 90's 




Make of this what you will. 

There are a few other threads similar to this one out there, aren't there now? But I suppose there's always room for more of people's thoughts on the subject matter, seeing as it's becoming quite the rowdy discussion out here.
 
I feel the same as you, together with a few others who aren't into Visual Kei's current directional movement. This is fine for me, I stick to what I know and promised to myself that I won't go out of my way anymore to find new bands who might bear a slightly different tone than others because I know for myself that I won't really find them anymore, unless rooted musicians pop up with a new project. 
 
But to address a few personal favourites who are currently still active (or close to disbanding) who I believe are worth noticing — most of these bands consist of musicians who have been around since the late 90's or early 00's: 
MASKED RIDER SYSTEM KAMIJO KEEL Femme Fatale K.A.F.K.A Scarlet Valse ザアザア マルコ メディーナ Synk;yet-シンクイェット- ライチ☆光クラブ Veritas en void Lament. 凛 -the end of corruption world- 己龍 -真天地開闢集団-ジグザグ Lucifer's Underground MORE THE MORTAL R指定 Obviously there are the obvious names like BUCK-TICK and PENICILLIN, but I don't think it's useful mentioning those here.

This song is in my head for last couple of days. Great!

And that is the mentality that ruins Visual Kei for a lot of average fans who are simply there to enjoy the music and don't want to dive into the private lives of these musicians. Can you honestly be bothered by pictures of a guy captured at a girl's house? What does this prove? That he probably likes to have sex, bother! Whatever someone does in their private life doesn't concern me. If I enjoy the music, I honestly don't care who it's written or performed by. If they take drugs, are alcoholics, addicted to sex, it does not matter. But in Visual Kei it's high priority to figure out if your 'husbando bandoman' slept with someone other than you, and if they did, they are perpetually despised.
 
If everyone was so bothered by these antics then we wouldn't have music. The greatest musicians on this planet slept with thirty girls a week and were constantly high on drugs. But who eventually cared? Their family and friends, yes. But that didn't mean they couldn't produce the most incredible music currently existing.

I identify as genderqueer/genderfluid. I struggle with gender dysphoria almost daily. My dream is to have facial feminzation surgery some day in the future. I was born with a masculine face which I hate. Makes it very difficult to pull off the style I want to go with. I try not to be envious of all the pretty vk musicians. Honestly It's a dream for me to be like them though. I'm not really satisfied admiring from the outside. 

I identify as genderqueer/genderfluid. I struggle with gender dysphoria almost daily. My dream is to have facial feminzation surgery some day in the future. I was born with a masculine face which I hate. Makes it very difficult to pull off the style I want to go with. I try not to be envious of all the pretty vk musicians. Honestly It's a dream for me to be like them though. I'm not really satisfied admiring from the outside. 

i identify as agendered, im cool with any pronouns. i started really questioning my gender when i got into visual kei actually so its interesting to talk about this on a vk forum.
long rant ahead about gender lol

It only exists for pretty or rich people imo.

It only exists for pretty or rich people imo.

I know that there are at least a few other trans people here.
 
I started transitioning a few months ago. Hormones are a hell of a trip.   That said, I really think of myself as genderqueer. I don't feel entirely comfortable with 'being female', even less so with 'being male', so I'm somewhere in the middle.
 
I'd love to hear other trans peoples' stories/situations, and maybe we can help support each other.
 

This.
Late last November/December when the website was experiencing instability, the server was hammered by a bunch of spam bots. One of them got in and left some malware on the server. Once nostalgia. and I first spotted the redirection we made moves to find it and remove it.
But malware is a pain in the ass to remove. It probably has something to do with being designed to be as annoying as possible and to not be removed. Also nostalgia and I are not malware removal experts. I would remove it and it would be gone for anywhere between two hours and two weeks but inevitably it would make its way back. Many of the server updates and planned maintenance windows that we had were my attempts at getting rid of it. I went through an exhaustive list of ways to get rid of it before finally contacting IPB support a few months ago. They pointed me in the right direction, I removed it once more, and for the last three weeks I've been monitoring the server to make sure it doesn't come back anymore.
The good news is that the malware hasn't come back (yet). The bad news is that the Google bots have indexed the website with the malware redirect since it took me so long to figure out how to remove it. That means that all the links that Google has of this website have the redirect attack in it. There's nothing I can do until the Google bots index the website again, which can take a few weeks to maybe a month.
The workaround is to not use Google. This attack is specifically designed to redirect you from Google. Use any other search engine and you should be fine.

They are already working on it, but it's a bigger problem than they have thought.

After hearing the full happy unbirthday single I honestly don't understand what's so bad about it? Best D single in a long time.

4th page and still no preview okay.

4th page and still no preview okay.

Im just checking in to see if theres a preview or something and all i see are paragraphs of people goin back and forth lol

I'd recommend the album "Beautiful World"
 

why does everyone wanna drag tzk when it comes to mejibray? even if there was another vocalist, they'd still sound like potato because of mia. mia's a barely competent guitarist at best, most of the choruses on their singles follow an almost identical chord progression. outside of some hizaki wannabe lead wankery, leda worship metalcore riffage there's really not much to his technique. this doesn't change the fact that he's done some amazing work for mejibray, but his technique is largely a rehash of better guitarists.
 
tzk has some stupid vocal shit he does, but i personally don't mind the annoying stuff. mahiro from kiryu does similar stuff which i find even more annoying than tzk but since he doesnt venture into actual dirty vocals (br00tal) no one really calls him out for it.
 
i feel bad for koichi bc he deals with these crackheads on the daily, he just plays his bass pretty well and looks beautiful at all hours of the day.

Artist: D Single: HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY 1. HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY 2. Funny Bunny! 3. HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY (Instrumental) 4. Funny Bunny! (Instrumental) 5. レピドプテラ (Lepidoptera) 6. レピドプテラ (Lepidoptera) (Instrumental) 7. 兎角國の蟹 (Tokakukuni no Kani) 8. 兎角國の蟹 (Tokakukuni no Kani) (Instrumental) 9. HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY (Wonderland Remix ver.)
Rating: | Hey, I can dig this!
 
I'll come clean right now and say that I've never been able to appreciate D. I have listened to both VAMPIRE SAGA and Genetic World out of curiosity after noticing their popularity a while back but neither left an impression on me. As of 2015, their latest look sparked my interest for the second time. The Alice in Wonderland influenced attire went down well in my eyes because it meant a change not just in appearance, but sound too. I saw a chance and I took it. It's a welcome change for those, such as myself, who couldn't quite get into them before.

The concept of the single is just the tip of the iceberg. With four out of nine of the tracks being instrumental (all types-wise), I don't find the music as noteworthy when stripped of Asagi apart from the very cool and neat parts of riffs, especially in the title track. What it does manage to do without much effort is show off this fantasy-like world they're conveying, and that's evident throughout, so kudos to the guys for keeping this concept running strong.

"HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY" and "Funny Bunny!" are definitely deserving of the top spot on the single in every way. The choruses are fun, catchy, and most importantly, have replay value. They're two sides of the same coin: "Funny Bunny" has its hyperactive, SuG-like chorus while also filled with growls and aggressive, heavy playing from the whole band. It's a perfect mix. "HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY" oozes with goodness from start to end, sounding very much like disbanded Oshare Kei groups. Its flow is far more steady than the title track, and plays almost like an anime theme song because of its structure and sound.

Asagi's vocals in "レピドプテラ (Lepidoptera)" are deeper here than anywhere else in the single. This really goes well with its opening sound that encourages Halloween-y imagery. The chorus has a very charming pitch. It's not as sugar coated as the previous two tracks, but the playful beat is still rather Oshare Kei sounding. The verses make the track seem to have a climactic build, almost like it's been ripped out from Disney's Notre Dame's finale. It sounds quite mismatched, starting out with spooky atmosphere that jumps suddenly to a poppier chorus. While at times it may come off as jumbled, at least it doesn't stay in one lane like "兎角國の蟹 (Tokakukuni no Kani)". If "レピドプテラ (Lepidoptera)" didn't have any of its charms I pointed out above, then it'd sound like "兎角國の蟹 (Tokakukuni no Kani)". The only welcome inclusion the track has is Asagi's high pitched vocals that I was missing.

Track nine was the only song I was worried about, seeing as it's titled as a remix: "HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY (Wonderland Remix Ver.)", but even that isn't as diabolical as I was expecting. The chorus is actually double the fun from the original! You're winning me over, D. Possibly the one most obvious catch with this sound change is the lack of Asagi showing off. From what I've heard of D, his vibrato, growls and high pitched vocals are almost non-existent in this single, apart from certain sections in only two tracks. You have the operatic appeal with background group vocals here and there, so it's still D but just coated with Tinkerbell's fairy dust.

While the majority may not be fond of this latest addition to their discography, think of those like myself who could never get into their music because it didn't do it for us. Now with a change of pace, this is the starting point, for myself and possibly others to finally enjoying the band. What doesn't do it for one person can be a blessing for another, and I believe this single is a fine example of this.


Support the band! CDJapan
Japanese iTunes