Kaleidoscope

All samples sound really good! Loving Ryo's vocals, sounds like he is really expanding his range

Vocals sound fantastic, looking forward to the single!

I actually really like the song, sounds like a ballad done right. But I agree with Tokage - it's not even the effects, they just Melodyne'd the vocals so hard that he sounds like a vocaloid in some parts.

Great review, I agree that they need to become a bit more versatile to unlock their full potential! However, I'm surprised that people think that Lime has a bad range. His range is honestly pretty massive, some of the high notes he hits are insane and he seems to have a decent lower register as well. While I do agree that his vocals will determine on how good they will be on the long run, I feel positive about his potential to develop a more versatile style.

Really enjoying the A-Side.

Previews for the other songs on the EP are up!

@SHOKIThanks a lot, glad you liked it! And thanks so much for following us! I don't really compose often myself, but from my experience with the time and dedication you will eventually be able to come up with something good. I think that especially trying to analyse how other bands structure their songs helps a lot to come up with your own music. Hope to see your originals here some day too!

Always surprised how much criticism these guys get, I think their stuff is still miles ahead of most of their peers and really high quality musically. Maybe it's because their first few PVs set an extremely high standard? Anyway, really enjoyed both songs and thought that warui kusuri sounds like one of their best ballads.

One of my current VK favourites, I love how much passion and energy they have! Their stuff seems a little bit rough around the edges and rather goofy at times, but it's what makes part of their charm for me Akane was actually always what made it hard for me to enjoy D.I.D despite their amazing instrumentals, I just can't stand his overly processed high nasal vocals. Sho is a much better vocalist when it comes to cleans and in my opinion has a more pleasant tone to his voice, but he can't really live up to Akane's screams. I kind of hope that Sho stops the inhales and overhauls his screams, even though I absolutely love his shrieks, those should definitely stay! Favourite tracks so far are アハレワタ, 「初潮」, 虚妄の歌 and 浄土の花.

Yeah I guess I should, really enjoyed Anaesthetist back then but never really got around to listen to the whole thing! Definitely, he always had his own thing going on, but he sounds better than ever now. And yeah, he has some really clever things in his lyrics! I really like his approach to social and political topics, seems so down to earth and still conveys a good message (I mean basically it's just "have some empathy"), stuff like "I don't wanna take my country back, I wanna take my country forward" is great in its simplicity. Overall, I'm glad to see they are aging well! It's kind of a funny story how I got into them haha. My brother was super into Take To The Skies back then and I thought it was rather ridiculous, I had my "huh it's not metul" phase back then. Since I was working for a metal webzine back then, I got the promo CD for Common Dreads and decided to pick it up so my brother could take a listen, too. Somehow, I ended up loving the album and have been enjoying them ever since!

I still enjoy most of the stuff DIR EN GREY, Plastic Tree and MUCC release. Also, projects that involve aie and/or Ryo usually sound great if that counts, the two of them have been around forever but can't ever settle for one project I guess For more recent stuff, I think these bands are worth keeping an eye on: DIMLIM The Gallo sukekiyo Kizu Sioux RAZOR HOLLOWGRAM DADAROMA (still think they have good songs once in a while) Xaa-Xaa DEZERT Overall, I honestly don't really feel a huge decline in VK as a whole, seems like business as usual to me with enough interesting bands to follow. Just wish some bands would release more full albums, Gallo and Xaa-Xaa have done a good job in that regards.

I don't think it's only the clean vocals that make this song more listenable, it's just that they included some more interesting stuff into their songwriting this time. They've always lacked the creativity that bands like Nokubura and now DIMLIM have, to me there was honestly nothing interesting about their old music and that has nothing to do with them being "brutal". On the contrary, I just feel they sounded boring and exchangeable compared to other deathcore bands. And while this guy's vocals are technically good and probably even way above average in VK, I still don't feel he doesn't do anything extraordinary apart from his highs, so using more vocal techniques is not exactly a bad approach. Anyway, this song gives me hope that they can actually write interesting songs, I want them to succeed and I am definitely rooting for them.

I missed out on Mindsweep but checked them out again with this album. Pretty good stuff, I absolutely loved the more emotional tracks, Rou really pulls them off well, Airfield and An Ode to Lost Jigsaw Pieces are beautiful. Some of the tracks have also grown a lot on me, for example The Sights, which is one of my favourites now. Lyrics are also fantastic, the "prosecco-glazed lips" line is brilliant. The whole album still absolutely sounds like Enter Shikari, so I honestly don't mind them trying out some new stuff, even though I'd prefer some more of that good old craziness on the next album.

To me it's actually their first somewhat memorable song - clean vocals could be improved, but it's an alright start I'd say. Going to check out the album I guess!

The lyric video for our first single is out! You can download the song for free on Bandcamp if you are interested Definitely the most Metalcore inspired song on the EP, we took a somewhat different direction for the rest.

Yes, huge influence for me personally, so I just needed to make that sort of reference somewhere along the way!

I really underestimated this vocalist, he is so good live, props for going for all the high notes live and nailing most of them!

Ah, Noir Deco sounds good, gonna check that one out. Love Gunship the most from Ghost's recommendations, gonna get their album! After listening to Soulless Computer Boy I feel like I am slowly getting into Trevor Something, I guess I'm going to through the same process as you guys

Maybe some of you remember my band's demos from a few years back - we finally managed to finish our first EP and plan to release it digitally for free and physically on the 10th of November! The music is a mix between quite a few styles ranging from Power Metal to Metalcore and of course VK inspired tropes. It's all self produced in our guitarist's apartment, so this is only a small indie project Here's a teaser with a short song preview at the end! Please let me know what you think!

Thanks for all the recommendations guys! I've listened to a ton of this stuff the past few weeks and just haven't got around to reply yet However, you definitely made me a fan! My favourite overall is probably Perturbator, just love the atmosphere he creates and "The Uncanny Valley" really is a huge album, already got it on vinyl by now - you were right, really high quality stuff from Blood Music. Also ordered his upcoming EP, sounds great to me! Also still in love with Carpenter Brut, I'd say he is probably one of the best songwriters in the genre, super dynamic and versatile stuff. Favourites are Meet Matt Stryker and Turbo Killer (still). VHS Glitch is really good as well. Still have to give Magic Sword a more proper listen, seemed cool to me though. Had some problems getting into GosT at first (mainly due to the horror synths, they put me off a bit at first), but by now I really enjoy both albums. Haven't listened to the two OSTs that much yet, but thought they were nice as well. The only one I couldn't get into at all was Trevor Something. I had already listened to "Trevor Something Does Not Exist Before", but his stuff just doesn't click with me. I think it's mainly the vocals - I understand the effect he is going for me, but for me his performance sounds very dull and even a bit grating at times. Might give the release @ghostmentioned another try, I liked what I heard from that. It's indeed cool that many of these artists are welcomed so well in the metal scene, I guess the aesthetics do play a role But well, this stuff really opened up new music for me too, I had no idea I needed this so much! @ghost: Haha funny that you mention it, I just got into Dan Terminus a few days ago, I love "The Wrath of Code", Death by Distorion and The Chasm are so good! Wanted to pre-order the vinyl, but I am not sure about the green version Got the Tommy album since a while, good stuff as well. I've been wanting to check out The Midnight more, seems like people are super into it! I've been so busy with FM-84 that I didn't really get into much other "brighter" synthwave at all. Didn't know the other two you mentioned yet, gonna check them out and let you know what I think! And yup, I love "I am the Night", definitely my second favourite too, has a really melancholic atmosphere. Do you guys know Electric Dragon? Came across this guy a few days ago, pretty decent stuff.

Holy shit, that Carpenter Brut song is absolutely mindblowing. Thanks for the recommendations, gonna check them out throughout the next few days! As for the LP prices, I think they are fine, just the shipping is a bit high unfortunately. I'm going to settle on a few favourites I guess! /edit: Nevermind, actually found "The Uncanny Valley" on Amazon.

Guess I'm a bit late to the party, but I just discovered this genre and I'm totally in love with it. Having grown up in the 90s, the nostalgia factor doesn't really exist for me, but I really enjoy the sound and aesthetic. Anyone got some recommendations for essential albums? So far, I've been enjoying FM-84's "Atlas" and Waveshaper's stuff a lot. Also wanted to check out Perturbator and Dance with the Dead. I'm especially interested in Cyberpunk/Sci-Fi inspired stuff in the vein of for example Blade Runner, but anything goes honestly. Also, @Bear I saw that you got some LPs, where do you usually get them? I only found digital releases and if they were available physically, they were sold out.

Thanks a lot, glad you liked the covers!