Jigsaw9

Dark electro/EBM act V.E.N. (project of servo.hatred synth player Ven) has their debut album up for free on Bandcamp. https://ven-team.bandcamp.com/album/the-gash

^ They do have a new album coming out in May iirc. edit: yup. http://www.monochrome-heaven.com/topic/26414-heidi-new-album-release

Exciting~

I think I know the answer to that question. *trollface*

I concur, Ergo Proxy is a nice one as well! Kinda dystopian sci-fi thriller with mystical and fantasy elements.

Dude, you have to try out Monster (74-ep series), it's like a perfect combination of what you listed. (I myself haven't watched it yet all the way through, only up till like ep.40-something, but it was pretty good) These are also worth a try in my opinion: Another (12-ep series) Ayakashi (11-ep series) Blood: the Last Vampire (movie, not the series) Boogiepop Phantom (12-ep series) Perfect Blue (movie) Wicked City (movie) Also maybe Paprika (movie) and Paranoia Agent (series) but those are more along the lines of psychological / weird / sci-fi-ish thrillers.

The album's release might have been pushed back a bit... or at least I got an update from CDJapan on my order that the release date changed to March 12.

Sounds good.

Kinda excited now, with a solid release date and title an' all. Hoping it'll deliver. At least one good song will be on it, that's for sure (Scream).

Ahh totally forgot that VABeL = Louder. xD Anyway, cool news! Looking forward to hearing the single (that live-dist sample on their YT channel sounds neat).

^ lol sorry, I meant bottom right. XD *fix'd*

Bottom right one looks like Yuu, the drummer of NEGA. That's the only one I'm 90% sure about, dunno the others.

Doomy/bluesy stonerific HAW have their new album up at their Bandcamp for free~ http://hawsongs.bandcamp.com/

inb4 conditional band formations "Hey it's me, *insert semi-known musician name* if u guys wanna hear me in a new band with *insert other semi-known musicians' names* then send ur nudes & contact info to this e-mail address. 100 pics and we'll do it!" But yeah, conditional disbandments are really dumb -- if you have to resort to it you might as well just pack it up and do something else instead of wasting ppl's time with your "absolutely amazing" music and "talent".

^ I'm not sure but maybe just the singer (or one more dude) is from Videoglamour.

New-wave band THE HAKKIN (ex-ヴィデオグラマァ member band) will release their 1st mini album "晩成" (Bansei) on 2014/04/26, planned to have 6 tracks. Release party will be held on the same day at disc union Shinjuku dues. YESSS~ (not confirmed if this song will be on it, just linkin')

lol @ announcing it 10 months in advance

^ Maybe it costs less for the band to have their CDs sold in only smaller shops (dunno how these things work, so just guessing).

Great news! Hope to be seeing them again in full-force, with more wide-scale releases and such.

Saw Iced Earth a couple days ago. Wasn't bad but I had a cold and my head hurt, so had to leave early before the encore. The opening bands were stellar however, so I headbanged a-plenty! Both Elm Street (old-school heavy metal, Australia) and Warbringer (thrash metal, US) brought their A-game, too bad that the crowd was so lame and unresponsive for the most part. Like, barely any people were standing around at the front, so it was pretty easy to go for 2nd row or so, lol. Oh well, at least I enjoyed myself. Also bought some wicked T-shirts!

^ Coooool! Incidentally, I was also able to snag some NEGA goodie yesterday night: their last live DVD for cheap at an auction (unopened). Can't wait to get it~

Returning to previous topic, I listened to the new Behemoth album -- it was alright but nothing special on first listen. Might try again later. Anyway, just listening to the new Exmortus album now, and it's superb! Balls to the wall guitargasmic killer metal~ ♪ Strong 2014 AOTY contender already. (listen and/or buy here)

New MV! In case someone else might be interested... xD (new mini album is out too)