Not that many people will care, but the guitarist of the rather obscure Celestia le ciel was a girl. The twist was that she claimed to be a guy. A cross-dressing guy. So basically, she was a girl pretending to be a guy pretending to be a girl. She only whispered during interviews and let the vocalist "translate", so she wouldn't give away her gender by her voice.
I know that because I translated for the band at their Germany concert several years ago. It obviously was supposed to be a secret (and quite succesfully so - there was a homosexual guy at the concert that was badly stanning for "him" - which is pretty hilarious, if you think about it XD). But since the band is long disbanded and the members retired from music, there isn't really much harm in revealing it now. Plus, I think they even had less fans in Japan than in Europe. XD
Nice people though.
That does make we wonder though if there are more women in vk that hide their gender for one reason or another.
I really branched out in terms of music this year I feel. I've been into Japanese stuff for about three years now I guess? The first year consisted soley of The GazettE, Dir en Grey, Alice Nine, Nightmare etc etc etc, you probably get a rough picture. The second year was more exploring the scene and just generally branching out into the scene and finding my own music rather that what is just 'more readily availible'. But still well in the category of more recent bands (read as active bands)
Life story over, this year I've been thrown into the world of 90's and early 00's VK music (in terms of new discoveries), the likes of Syndrome, Madeth Gray'll, La'Mule, Eze:qul and the list could literally go on, but these stick in my mind the most at the moment of typing.
But if we're going to mention specific bands then LuLu and NightingeiL are a definite for VK, along with Heisei Ishin's final album REVOLUTIONS to pull things over to a slightly happier note, and I normally can't get into full albums from bands with similar sounds. It's normally either a couple of songs/singles or a mini album.
One band that was a real surprise is Janna Da Arc's GAIA album. Not being a fan of ABC ('cept one song) and not liking the few JDA songs I heard before, primarily due to Yasu's voice. But somehow something changed when I listened to this album, courtesy of MH I downloaded it on a whim and oh boy, A+ decision -pats self on back-
Before I forget, Jupiter's amazing debut album was everything I wanted from Versailles and more. Although I was starting to listen to more Versailles, Jupiter just blew them out of the water and I might be hooked > . <
Kenshi Yonezu's album Diorama and amazarashi's Sennen Kofukuron, have to be more on the alternative side that pretty much manage to soothe my soul no matter what or just take me away to a slightly happier place, if only briefly > <
Still with the non VK theme and more recently, LITE. That's it. That's all I've got. I have no words to describe how hard I fell for them at first listen. And courtesy of our CAT... Luis Nanook. Reminds me a lot of Sigur Rós if you're into that kind of music, but I've been loving working to it and even got one of my 'japanese music hating friends' to like them which is A HUUGE BONUS in my book anyway
As far as non Japanese music goes...
Post-Hardcore/Punk Rocky-esque music (although I may have put them in my screamo thread WHOOPS) La Dispute and Defeater are two that stand out and are relatively easy listening for a lot of music within that genre hence fit with a lot of moods. On the more melodic side of Post-Hardcore I guess would be Landscapes which I also mentioned in that thread.
Last one before I bore you even more, Trivium's Ascendancy album. I asked a guy in HMV to recommend me some CD's because I wanted something new and this was on the list, and it's just a generally solid metal album which I highly recommend if that's your thing
I think regardless if you like or hate it, you can't deny you're not curious and you will probably check out the releases. Gazette have this tendency to have samples that make you go "hmmm...maybe this won't be so bad". Sometimes its bad. Sometimes its good. Somtimes it amazing, but personally, I will follow Gazette to the grave so I'm super stoke for this!
God reacted to Champ213 in Women in Visual kei