-
Content Count
517 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Everything posted by saiko
-
2019 has already started and I've been thinking over 2018 that:
- Homage kei trend, which was one of the sweet spots that kept the scene alive in the last 5 years, is pretty much dead. Also, La Veil sucks; Kyouki from Grieva could sing at least a little decently, and their bassist was a beast;
- After watching Lycaon's Eve's new "twin project" I still can't believe how 98% of releases won't get less idolish and/or formulaic. 2018 was catastrophical in that sense: there was almost no cool releases to balance off the rest of the shit. I fear an oversaturation of the market comes and a lot of people lost their interest in the scene (and I couldn't blame on them for that...);
- big bands delivered great but not stand out music, rather uninspired (Dir's The Insulated World and TG's Ninth are the perfect examples for that);
- BPR and Goemon bands aren't cool anymore. Kiryu and Arlequin were skilled, fresh and original when they first came out, but nowadays the ghostwriting is so blatantly obvious, and the overexplotation so painful to notice, that I started keeping good distance from them;
- What the fuck is Diaura doing? We need them to save VK again.
- 2018' VK was saved by the proggy ones, Kizu and Dimlim. Nothing epic, but actually really good; I'll be definitely looking forward them in the future. Got very recently on them, and blame myself for not wanting to put my faith on them when I read all the hype here before. Oh, and don't forget Mamireta's "Ojamashimasu" (the rest of them is pretty much forgettable).
Which is your 2018 balance?
-
soan project alone >>>>>>>>>>>> the entire indie vk scene ca. '17 - 18 no matter how much you loathe idol-kei™ tbh.
ninth is a much better album than 3* full releases before dogma (*four if you count traces)
anyway the thing I liked most about 2018 VK is that guy's family sounds fresh again if you take a 7 year break from listening to it, same with withering to death by deg.
dexcore were cute.
once 2019 releases start rolling in with old artists forming new bands it will get better.
tbh nothing ever compares to the 2006-2008 VK drought when a lot of promising indie acts were picked up by universal which averaged them to death and failed to find new audience for the mess that came out of it.
-
-
I showed Dir's "Cage" to a friend to isn't remotely aware of VK or even J-rock, and he said "Wow, this sounds like Iron Maiden".
VK always sounded very unique to my ear. But in the last year, since
I was not very fond of the (Western) classics of punk, grunge, gothic, metal, and their respective subgenres and "post" scenes, although I always knew that theorically VK made itself over Western artist, the gap between VK and Western artists came up as much shorter than I tought, with only few elements of it (musical, visual, lyrical, performatic) keeping actually "unique".
In the case of "Cage", since I haven't heard much from Iron Maiden, what can you say about what my friend said? Are you agree with him?
-
Most of Iron Maiden's stuff is Metal, so maybe Cage sounds like some of their softer stuff?
Even then, Dir en Grey's early heavy stuff sound less like Iron Maiden, and more like Metallica or Megadeth (and even then, still sound more like Kuroyume, Luna Sea and all the other early 90's bands they took inspiration from).
And their later heavy stuff more resembles Korn.
I think something like Vasalla more resembles Iron Maiden.
In my opinion, while a lot of Visual Kei does resemble western bands, there is so much common threads of influence in Visual Kei that some how, some way, Vkei still sounds different than the rest of mainstream J-Rock.
-
That is a pretty silly comparison imo. Now, if you showed him some GLAY, I would understand....
-
Himeaimichu reacted to this
-
-
We are all aware that Mana's music writing skills for Moi dix Mois are totally a flop and 90% of their catalog is worthy of a cringe compilation, but I wouldn't be fair if I don't recognize "Solitude" to be one of the most beautiful compositions VK ever had. I'm totally in love with the atmosphere of elegance and darkness, and overall over-the-top cheesiness Mana put into it, and how well Juka's voice manages to bring all the tragic tone. I feel it on the vibe of Malice Mizer works like "Garnet" and "Gardenia"; Klaha's voice could perfectly fit into it. Same opinion goes for "Vestige", another MdM track with the said vibe. Sometimes I wonder they were tracks already composed for MM before they decided to disband.
-
Why does Dir en grey's "Yurameki" sound so Luna-Seaesque to me? We all know that Dir, along with almost every vk band, cites Luna as one of his big influences; my question goes in a technical sense. I tried listening to every song Luna put out before "Yurameki", but I haven't found yet one you could say "Here is the guitar/bass/drum sound Dir borrowed for this song"🤔🤔🤔
-
Hay guys, have you this bangya channel on your radar?
I cannot but feel this is very charming.
-
Recently, motivated by the sharing of a Dollis Marry's best-album a kind user did here, I have been listening to a good portion of Metis Gretel, Dollis Marry and Izabel Varosa, a group of bands that I've seen their name in every download website I visited since I started myself into vk back in 2009, but never tried. Although their sound is absolutely not a novelty, and in this sense they sound/look kind of generic, let me say that they actually did came over my expectatives, at least for a first listening, which is a really good sign. The best one was, of course, Dollis: a very decent vocalist (which it's like a miracle in this god forsaken scene; it's actually a pity there isn't any live footage available at least on Youtube, it is the only challenge it lefts to prove he is so) and very good arranged songs, some with a fresh approachs (with that I mean they take themselves off from the archetypical indie clichés), they best example being this:
-
Quote
I'm finding I'm going back and revisiting a lot of things I looked over a long time ago and realized that they sound a lot better than I originally thought.
Glad you're liking Metis Gretel too: they're one of the first vkei bands I got into and are still a favorite of mine.
I'm glad you are doing it!
My process is generally the opposite: revisiting a a lot of things I looked up a long time ago and realize that they sound a worst than I originally thought. Next year I enter my second decade being a vk listener realizing that vk is in fact (and kinda was in its beggining) a scene filled with a bunch of boys in their early twe
nties trying to mimic the big acts with none to zero creative spirit. Thus we have the increasing amount not only of plagio (the most incredible and yet dramatic case of it is bands like Kiryu, that literally copy themselves over and over with no signs of going to stop it someday) but of an idolized conception over bands, their formation, music, looks, selling strategies, etc. A very big dissapointement, if you aks me.
So, being into this process of grieving the ideal VK was for me a a musician, finding that there actually is/was listeneable music and cool looks within the scene is a caress to the wounded heart!