Case

This is amaziiiing! And I so so so hope that there will be some kind of live recording from the show.

Honestly I even forgot that they reformed. And yes, let's hope this means more WingWorks!

They already had one of the messiest membership histories ever and now this..? The song itself ain't half bad tho, but the girl's quite weak clean vocals does not really fit in that well.

WTF, first Tsukasa and now him? Or are there other vk-turned-enka guys beside them?

And I wonder what audience he is targeting, vk fans or the enka loving elderly ladies?

2 hours ago, EvilHippy said:

Why is it called album?
2 singles and 4 new tracks. 
I would call it Mini-album, or EP. But not "THE ALBUM".
Also, I'm kinda interested to see how he will incorporate old songs. Because I don't think Epocalipse and Reboot mixes well.

Actually the tour announcement refers to it as a mini album:
https://highfeel.jp/2018/03/21/satsuki-［reboot］-europe-march-april-2018/

I didn't care much when they restarted as A9, but actually most of the stuff they released since was quite decent and this does not sound bad either.

14 hours ago, suji said:

kpop's impact

Not really, it sounds a lot more like a cheap copy of late '90s JPop, just like his previous track yamikumo. Something Tetsuya Komuro would write in his worst moment, but even he would be too embarrassed to release. Nice ropework in the video tho, but that does not make the music any more tolerable.

Now that's gonna be one weird album... Zero is a kinda proper headbanger, but then it all turns into weird, z-grade trap imitation? I wonder who is his target audience with this? The people that go to his shows here in Europe are mostly vk fans and they sure ain't gonna like this cheapo hip-hop sound.

Holy shit!!! @___@

Thanks for the photos and well... too bad about the video. :\

" I'm not sure how much people actually care about the fan culture part of VK here" - For me the whole fan / industry background is sometime even more interesting than the music itself.  And this was a fascinating read, so thanks a lot for taking the time to write this up!

Yeah, the best guess so far is that it all has to do with global anime licensing, a possible agreement between some international anime distributors and Avex or their plans for the global market. But then, why on Earth some music DVDs and stuff like HiGH&LOW are affected as well? Stuff that has nothing at all to do with anime?

And it is clearly not a "fight against the illegal dark world" as then it wouldn't only affect DVDs. My guess it is just someone being lazy to check what is included in the restricted items, but who knows what's the truth? And it is especially pointless as all that stuff is available globally at other online stores...

He is really taking all this acoustic thing a but too far... first all those acoustic shows in a nearly weekly basis mostly at the very same venue and now this. And I was at one of those concerts and it was actually surprisingly great and powerful, but about 95% of the audience was made up of middle-aged ladies and grannies and I guess it is the same at all these shows. I want my crazy punk Kiyoharu back, not this "old rockstar playing mellow self-covers for old ladies" thing. O__o

Oh my, thanks for the live report! Did they have any cameras there? (= is there a chance for a live recording being released sometime?)

"support guitarist A.O.I (SHAZNA)" - just wow! this was... unexpected!

On 5/31/2017 at 5:48 PM, Lereku said:

Btwn the theme of the album would be love.

Anyone remembers Ryuichi's terrible-beyond-belief solo album from 1997 called 'Love', with song titles like...: 'I love you', 'suki', 'Love song', 'Love' and 'Love is...'? Let's just hope this one will be better than that.

On 11/16/2017 at 9:03 PM, NICKT said:

Typical SIM, feels like I've already heard this one before.
lynch./DEATHGAZE syndrome?

And the video is all the same as well. But then, both songs were made for that yakuza game soundtrack, so maybe they were specifically asked to deliver the typical SiM sound? Anyways, it's been too long since their last release, so it is good to see some new stuff from them at last.

I am kinda picky when it comes to their music, but I gotta admit that it is one damn great promo photo!

Oh my, it is so damn amazing to see Mako again in his classic make-up! <3

A friend representing the site I'm running did an interview with him in Vienna during the We Are X movie EU tour last Sunday and of course asked him about the upcoming album as well. And he said it will be out next Spring. But then... it was supposed to be out by the time of last year's cancelled Wembley performance, so... And it seems that they haven't even finished recording yet...? And then again, we have been waiting for a Violet UK album since... '98 or something? So, I guess it is actually just the usual Yoshiki kind of "coming soon" meaning "yeah, we might end up releasing something at one point".
But actually, besides this, he was talking about some interesting stuff as well, so here is the link to the English version:

http://japanvibe.net/our-life-story-saved-lives-an-interview-with-yoshiki/

On 8/14/2017 at 11:55 PM, emmny said:

lunch box (1995 eurosynth remix)

I just don't know if that would be the best or worst thing ever.

I was kinda puzzled why they needed that name change and whatnot, but actually now I am glad that they are not releasing this crap under the Lycaon name. It seriously lacks everything that made Lycaon interesting. But I guess it was the same thing over again: they either start making money with generic music or they are forced to disband for good.

I did an email interview with them that I was just about to post...  when they suddenly decided to cancel the EU tour. Even though it was partly about the tour, I ended up posting it anyways a couple of days later, so... you guys can read it here.

(random disclaimer: the questions were sent around the time they announced the tour, so, before the release of Pantheon Part 1.)

The band's concept sounds pretty cool, so I hope  they will also have some proper release out around the same time...

1 hour ago, qotka said:

i think this hits the nail on the head of this problem.

when you're looking to curate something (and i believe this is a large part of an organizer's job), you need to know your shit and actually care about the acts you're bringing.

taking a quick look at the VK acts b7klan are working with, my first thought is 'i don't believe you for a second that you actually believe these bands have potential in europe'.

Really, people seem to forget that while B7Klan might not be a 100% perfect company, for the last several years, they were still the only company that tried to bring bigger vk bands to EU.  Versailles, Deathgaze, Lycaon, Born, Nocturnal Bloodlust and so on... I can't really remember any bigger vk acts coming to Europe the last....five or so years, that was not done by them. If they indeed quit working with vk acts as their post suggests, from now on we will only have those tiny acts, that nobody knows and cares about even in Japan. For me, this really sounds like as an end of an era.