saiko

Any thoughts on their disbandment?
I've always felt that 95% of the stuff after Fierte was pretty generic, thus boring. I deeply believe it reflects an atmosphere of low creative energy, clearly derivated of the loose bonds between the members, with their easy comes and goes. This is something I've never came to understand fully, since there is much evidence that, although they never reached the mainstream attention bands like Shazna had, neither the levels of popularity bands like Dir en grey or Pierrot enjoyed in those years, Lareine was indeed a solid band with a strong concept, decent musicians and organic compositions, that had marked with fire the scene for ever. In fact, it is obvious to me that they started the prince and princesses trope back in the day.
I will always praise their contribution of a very genuine and refreshing approach to the visual kei clichés that will never be forgotten.
A tragic-concept band project met an actual tragic end...😢
 
P.D.: the tears I shed while watching Kamijo sing Fiançailles during his anniversary tour date in my country were the worthiest ever. 💗🌹

@secret_no_03
 
The whole discussion about the necessity or estrategy of whether a centred or winged political position could be interesting at some point, but the actual scandalous way that you've constantly showed at the moment of bringing up serious stuff like a raging teeanger makes you no more different from the "SJWs" that you love to blame to, with all the generalizing, fanatic, ilogic and rude behaviour over it. Although considering "their" failures, at least they comitted (along other forces) to bring a 5% of decent media representation to lots of mislabeled 'minorities', among other stuff.
 
Btw, I said "ilogic", because I obviously can't pass over the fact that while you are blaming, let's say, "gender-non-conforming lifestyles" for instance, at the same time you speak out all your words of admiration over the work of transvestite underground musicians and discuss about weird porn and sex practices that are very far from the standards for sexuality that your self-proclaimed 'liberal' messiahs share. Perhaps I could have more respect for your opinion if you were more consistent, that is, instead of talking out that 'schizophreniac', you could show your whole disrespect for these topics arguing from, for example, a conservative vision over sex and gender, and consider Közi a sick dude with 'gender dysphoria' (if that ever existed), or the fellows at the Sex/porn thread to need  'God' in their lives, whatsoever... I mean, have you ever, EVER, considered what the authors you cite here supporting your delusional 'free-speech' ideas would think about your hobbies or sexual interests?
 
Sometimes I doubt I you are not more than a bored troll just trying to reach attention from people really concerned about these matters, because reading you is REALLY hillarious... MH was really a different place before you started your whole rant waterfall in every corner of it...

Regarding to Kamijo, I don't think it can be said that he simply changed his vocal range and that's it. Rather, I think Kamijo changed his range because he learned how to sing properly. That is to say, he realized that songs like Lareine's (tenor range) are not suitable at all for his own natural range (clearly baritone). This is easy to prove to anyone who listens just to a single Lareine song. And in fact I think it was clear to Kamijo himself ; in fact, several songs from Lareine's repertoire were tuned down for live performances. Check "Metamorphose" as an example:
 
Album version (on C minor key)
 
 
 
Live version (on B minor key, and also an epic performance)
 
 
However, Kamijo might be still heard not so comfortable. Add to this the feminine and in-pain characterization that Kamijo tried to build for his on-stage persona. What you get is a voice that sounds like choked, it is clear that he is making a huge effort to be able to reach every high note. Also, I think that Kamijo smoked at that time, right? Much worse.

Either way, Kamijo had a very good vocal performance in Lareine. Not only because he always kept himself into the key (which in visual kei is like asking a lot lol), but because, despite all this I said, he managed to keep a flow of voice that was voluminous, and all that while charaterizing it in a very convincing and beautiful way.
Either way, fortunately he has decided to adjust to his natural range since Versailles began. His voice now sounds much more natural and versatile; he even can reach the tenor notes, which as I said are not natural for him, through some falsetto, which is actually heard very nice and dramatic.
 
I think the same can be said regarding Gackt. Check the following "Mizerable"versions:
 
Album version (on key of D flat minor)
 
 
Live version (on key of C minor)
 
Now there are other vocalists, that actually improved over the time, but in the beggining didn't try to lie to themselves proving that their range was higher than what their throats could actually offer without killing themselves into the process lol
 
Ruki have always had a beautiful voice and a decent technic, but I feel that songs like "Wakaremichi" or "Miseinen" sounds legitly good nowadays. Ruki now can manage to run trough the different notes and volumes very smoothly, while managing to bring out a strong flow of voice, even while delivering this gothic-inspired deep voice that is one of the trademarks of the 'visual kei' sound, but that makes singers of the scene really -like, REALLY- bad 90% of the times.
 
Album version (2002):
 
 
Live version (2012, and also another epic performance)
 
 
Also, Miku from Antic Cafe and Asagi from D can other great examples of vocal improving.

Sounds way more interesting than La veil Mizeria and anything else that has been trying to put out 90s underground VK aesthetics recently.
 
Looking forward.

I pray for someday heteronormativity just erases off from the vk scene. It's just so weird that every musician within it pretend to be full cis-straight in a scene where the basic dress-code is actually cross-dressing. I guess heteronormativity could never look so stupid itself.

This isn't a thing only related to psychopathology. The problem isn't about having depression or suicidal thoughts, but keeping alive a culture of abuse within the industry, pontentially fueled by the whole sacrificial Japanese working culture, with its devotional hierarchy aspects and so on... So mental health issues should be a normal response of anybody previously involved into that sadism of an enviroment.
 
 
Said.

He embodies VK like nobody else does.

Art therapy went wrong 

This isn't a thing only related to psychopathology. The problem isn't about having depression or suicidal thoughts, but keeping alive a culture of abuse within the industry, pontentially fueled by the whole sacrificial Japanese working culture, with its devotional hierarchy aspects and so on... So mental health issues should be a normal response of anybody previously involved into that sadism of an enviroment.
 
 
Said.

This isn't a thing only related to psychopathology. The problem isn't about having depression or suicidal thoughts, but keeping alive a culture of abuse within the industry, pontentially fueled by the whole sacrificial Japanese working culture, with its devotional hierarchy aspects and so on... So mental health issues should be a normal response of anybody previously involved into that sadism of an enviroment.
 
 
Said.

so like karma survived this shit and took it as a rands team building guideline i guess?..
 
this is just so ugly and unhinged, it's like everyone at shimizuya is hellbound on giving their jisatsu queens reasons to be ~inspired~ daily. meThod acting!!!!
 
I wonder if ex-lycaon bass thing is going to drop something now that he cut ties with his band 

Where's the "jaw-on-the-floor" emoji when you need it... That's horrible. VK has had an "ethical sourcing" issue for decades now but I hope... I hope Kasumi's story can shed some light on the dark side of the industry and make this scene a better place for our meiku and leather clad heroes. I guess it starts with us too, huh? I'll keep him in mind when I'm getting into a band, and will make sure to only give my money and fanaticism to bands that I can tell are "ethically sourced" so to speak.

Visual kei seems to be cool and romantic only when you're outside this business...

Time to serve some boiling hot tea today, folks...
 
Seven years after leaving AvelCain, Kasumi has written a sort of exposé of his time in the band, notably the moment when he wanted to leave the band due to his illness, but was ultimately turned away by management. 
 
Quick summary as I cannot provide a full accurate translation:
Kasumi valued his time in AvelCain, but due to suffering from facial paralysis and alopecia areata (bald spots) at the time, he was unable to continue and he requested that he leave the band. The president of Shimizuya Records turned him away, allegedly stating that they "didn't care for his story". Kasumi considered suicide as an only way out of the band, and he even tried jumping off of a 4 story condo (as he lived in a rural area) but fortunately came out unscathed. He has since recovered from his conditions (although he still suffers from paralysis when he gets tired) but he still suffers from depression as a result from his experience from being in the band, which included being naked in front of female staff, being beaten in front of his members, and even licking the nipples of a senior bandman. Despite all that, he still respects the band members, the label, and the bangya who have supported them. 
 
Full blog entry below:
 
https://ameblo.jp/avelcain/entry-12615608636.html
 
He has also posted additional tweets on his Twitter account about not being paid for songs he composed, band merch, or several fees he's paid out of pocket (transportation, costumes, recording, shooting) even after he had left the band. Overall, he states that this is a warning to young bandmen and hopes that this behavior still isn't going on today.
 

I pray for someday heteronormativity just erases off from the vk scene. It's just so weird that every musician within it pretend to be full cis-straight in a scene where the basic dress-code is actually cross-dressing. I guess heteronormativity could never look so stupid itself.

I only listen to REAL music ✔️🎵 and I respect the legends! 😤🙌 Kids these days don't know what REAL music is! ❌🤬 
 

He's not new to the scene. He's been attending shows for probably 20 years. 
 
The venue staff told him pictures were fine with them, but it's up to the band. He was put off (to say the least) by the vocalist yelling at him rudely for something he couldn't have known. After that he couldn't enjoy watching so he felt cheated. I get what he's saying, but also I think you have to be part of Japanese society to fully understand the language/cultural nuance of keigo, and the impact it had by not using it.

This Japanese neurosis of being so concerned about obeying or not the rules to the extent of not reaching the sleep amazes me even to this day.

He embodies VK like nobody else does.

Is he new to the scene ? Cause taking pictures is usually never allowed during live shows.
Lol he got told to follow the rules and the band deserve to suffer ? The fuck 

This Japanese neurosis of being so concerned about obeying or not the rules to the extent of not reaching the sleep amazes me even to this day.

Will always stan this song and the minialbum where it is!

Here I go logging in for the first time in (like...) six months. I've made it a (painful, admittedly) project to scan in all of my magazines in full and have them available for download. The reason being, a) it's cool to have images and know where/when they're from and b) I think it'll be good for newer fans especially to see where bands they know came from/the culture at the time. I tend to get slightly frustrated when people seem to completely rip bands apart from their context or not really be aware of the wider culture at the time.
 
I'm putting this up on a blogspot (please enjoy my very marketable skill in web design) and here's the links. I'll add some previews to this post (they'll be quite small, apologies).
The next one I'm scanning is volume 29. I need to put up volume 15 too; the scans are each about 2GB (zipped) so it's for the very dedicated. Enjoy !
 
from vol. 5: 


 
 
from vol. 8:
 

 

 
page links:
 
volume 5 : https://biological-slicer.blogspot.com/2020/09/shoxx-vol-5-september-1991-full-scans.html
volume 8 : https://biological-slicer.blogspot.com/2020/09/shoxx-vol-8-1992-full-scans.html
 

This time it was a less-musically-relevant-and-more-of-a-collecting-bonanza package
 
Versailles- Jubilee score book
Versailles- a ton of bromides
Anubis- PAPYRUS ni Egaka Reru RAA no Tenbin
Versailles- Cure, pamphlets, and flyers
 
Lareine- Fleur (yellow disc ed.)
Kamijo- Mademoiselle (lim. ed. A)
Kamijo- Epic Rock Orchestra at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo (lim. ed.)
Kamijo- Epic Rock Orchestra at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo (reg. ed.)
Lareine- a ton of postcards (the 2 in the middle right are my favorite find of this whole haul)
Lareine- signed boards (pretty aged, but they were cheap, so)
Lareine- fanclub first 5 magazines (+ the seller added for free what I think may be one of the member letters fans received back if they sent the insert inide Billet?)

so Satsuki is re:rebooting herself into visual kei?
 
anyway I think they should form a full-time band and call it 『Due Le Scum』