hyura

I can definitely also see the paralels to sukekiyo, in both bands! As for Black Metal or DSBM and VK together, it's actually very surprising that there aren't more bands doing it. With all the occultism, depression, suicide and general nihilism in the themes many bands are using and the fact that basically any metal genre can be considered 'VK music' now as long as the band has the look and plays at certain events its not that unlikely. Recently I saw a japanese article about Madmans Esprit and that genre combination that is very in-depth and it way interesting to read. Although I was surprised of them calling early mucc DSBM. Actually he is the guitarist of ms. isohp romatem while their vocalist is support guitarist for his live shows. Your point still stands, though. The metal scene in South Korea is already shockingly small and a visual kei scene pretty much does not exist anymore except for 3-4 bands. BP records bands keep playing shows there, though. So there has to be at least something... btw, new look of ms. isohp romatem

I agree 100%! Pretty sure if it was Japanese, people on the forum would already be hyping it. But the Korean language matches this style of music very well.

Nice to hear people like them! Their full lineup for the upcoming Korea/Japan shows has been revealed:

I just saw this and realized I completely abandoned my lyrics translations. Okay : ) I'll try to do it sometime this week.

I hate to jump on the popular train but they are really really good.

Korean vk is almost non existent at this point, but next to Madmans Esprit two active bands are ms. isohp romatem and VOID ms. isohp romatem - 트라우마 VOID - Neo Decadence Album Trailer (sorry, I looked but even though they play shows they don't seem to have full songs online...yet?)

I remember reading his live reports of Madeth gray'll made my skin crawl with envy. Also the entire blog had a sort of ancient AOL like aesthetic.

Glad I could show something interesting! The full video is now available:

It's really nice to hear you guys enjoy his music! ; > I completely agree. It's not that easy to find innovative and genuine artists in visual kei so supporting them is very important. Especially if they are this skilled, too. Also the non Japanese bands often try to imitate the Japanese ones so much that they end up lacking substance and miss the chance to add their own perspective and this is very different. A teaser for the upcoming MV has been released yesterday:

Somehow there is no Madmans Esprit thread on MH and seeing they even joined Gan-Shin Records recently I felt like there should be one. The band was formed 2010 in Seoul and has been active with changing lineup as solo project of vocalist/guitarist 叫號 (Kyuho). Their style is characterized as "post black metal / visual kei" under the concept "depressive suicidal blackened pop" and their new album is going to be released in October 2018. OHP | Instagram | FB | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

They are there, obviously, but isn't that generally how visual kei works? I don't think this is on the same level as copycats like grieva as their own style is clearly audible and also, in my opinion the clichés they choose are nicely arranged and combined. As for Dir en grey, ZAN (or any other 黒夢 inspired rush song) is definitely there, but the guitar in 運命開化 reminds me of much older melodic mid 90s bands and that is not really a common occurence.

Damn, what year is it? They sound great, coming from a person who is critical towards homage kei.

Somehow due to Japans position of "cultural imperialism" Japanese bands mimicking other Asian cultures makes me extremely uncomfortable every time I see it. It's a bit different from playing French aristocrats. But then again, I do not actually know how Chinese people feel about it.

Is it just my perception or are these oldschool worship bands much more often from the Kansai area than anywhere else?

I think the first bands of this 'homage 系' nature I remember were the likes of metis gretel and that was just around 5 years after the original era was over. So one could also argue that it never actually really died out. As for 90s inspired bands in general : it's great that they exist because I love the genre. (and I know I'm not the only one) however, I almost always feel something really hectic about the music of bands like la'veil mizeria or under fall justice or even metis gretel. Like they always play a little faster than the original, sing a bit more frantic. There is always some really overexcited synth melody playing in the background, too. The calm melancholic part is missing.

Time passes faster when you are old. How much I wish for a new release by them.

I third the option of vk and non vk news. Making a subforum for international visual kei seems redundant. Edit: by that I mean a visual kei news forum for all visual kei bands, regardless of where they are from

I agree that grouping by genre makes a lot more sense. I feel like International visual kei bands are much too relevant for this forum to be lumped together with completely unrelated things.

What you say is true and very tragic because there is so much potential lost through the pressure for everything to be mainstream. There are still some small venues and bands and I wish them every success and attention they can have. I think that at some point there has to be a systematic shift in Korean society. I don't think the music scene can stay that way forever concerning how it's getting more and more globalized.

B-but the Swiss band wasn't moved 😢

I really wish there was more vk on vinyl. Thus far I only have a few random Rouage LPs in my collection because they were too pretty not to buy. There should also be something by La'cryma Christi iirc and I really want to have it. Is there any resource to find out which vinyl releases exist at all?

Was insecure if it's allowed or not because it's not Japanese but I am also really fond of the song ♥ Sad that Korean VK is almost non-existent.

Seoul-based post-rock group ms. isohp romatem has reformed as a visual kei band and released their new song and full MV "트라우마" (TRAUMA) on 2018.04.08. They also announced the release of a new single (no details yet).

I want to recommend two albums I'm obsessed with but that haven't been mentioned yet. The first one is Stellar by der Weg einer Freiheit. Very atmospheric post black metal with German lyrics. The second one is Nacht by Madmans Esprit. Extremely gloomy and depressive avantgarde with Korean lyrics.

This is so disappointing. I wish they can somehow finalize and release it some day after he recovered.