nullmoon

Ooo interesting! Holy Roller is such a bop
 
Edit: Just heard the preview. Eh. Sounds better without the honey monster. 

Spiritbox is awesome, I approve of whatever comes of this collaboration.

Crystal Lake once again leading the charge taking Japanese metal outside of Japan. For this project Spiritbox has teamed up with them as of now we dont know the full details but they have launched a collab merch line and Ryo will be featured in in a remix version of Spiritbox's Holly Roller track. This version will be released on October 2nd and you can listen to a preview below.
 
 
Spiritbox is a Canadian Metal band fronted by Courtney LaPlante former Vocalist of iwrestledabearonce. Spirirtbox has had tremoundous success and their latest releases have been some of their best i would encourage you all to give them a listen.
 
Collab Merch Line
 
 
This is the original song without Ryo.
 

I am convinced this is some elaborate trolling, lol. I tried to watch the movie last night, but gave up a bit after halftime, it just wasn't doing anything for me. I skipped into it for a few minutes afterwards but it was just all so lame-looking and weak... Also, seemed very much jumpscare-heavy, which I absolutely hate. Guess this just wasn't for me.

I wrote a brief summary (below) in another thread. It doesn't have specific quotes etc but I've lived through this tragedy if that helps? XD 
 
---
 
-Everyone ditched Aoi (because the music was getting lame) and made a new band, creatively named AYABIE. Aoi stayed on the record label out of a sense of duty?
-Aoi did a poppy solo album and some boring side projects. 
-AYABIE released some pretty good shiz. People hate on Yumehito's singing but he's a'ight. 
-Everyone left AYABIE except Takehito for various reasons. Maybe it was because of that keyboardist they took on? I think Intetsu quit music altogether? 
-I assume Takehito called it a day too. 
-They all came back together (including Aoi) to do some one off gig I think? Sans keyboardist I assume. They later announced they were coming back and recently brought out an incredibly forgettable album. 

papyrus was a c h o i c e. song is great tho!

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 

Best picture ever

Was stuck closing at work alone again earlier this week and took the time to play it through again. Even among other albums I first heard at age 14, not many keep me downright excited at almost every track. Also sometimes I wish there was a whole album of remixes like Marry of the Blood.

Dude, your voice is purdy ❤️ Really nice cover for a beautiful song! 

Did a lynch. cover. I love this song so much ❤️
 
 

Yeah this is totally a bummer, just feels like the number of really good/unique v kei bands is just getting lower and lower. Most of my favourites are/have disbanded or seem to have lost inspiration and are getting lost in the generic sea of v kei.... mehhhhhhh. I'm hoping the rest of these guys go on to produce one or two other awesome bands.

I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and have been in and out of doctors for it for a long time . Generally, one of the things my doctors and psychiatrists have always been clear about is no, mental health disorders don’t actually ever go away. There’s no cure, only treatment. So basically, you can get better and your life can return to normality, but the risk of relapse is always there.
 
 The point of treatment is finding medications and habits that prevent you from relapsing (as well as learning to identify potential stressors that can cause said relapses and how to avoid them). But I’m under the impression Japan really doesn’t grasp that yet (or rather refuses to do so) as I’ve heard Japanese people say that their doctors are telling them their mental health disease is “almost cured.”
 
Considering Issei’s streak with the vocalists he works with and their mental health, I’m kinda left wondering about what kind of work environment Issei provides, tbh. 

Nazare was all we had of this style since retsu ruined dimlim

http://www.nazare-official.com/news/0/52628/
 
They disbanded

I would love it if his name was "tooru" as he is actually proper short.

Eh, I agree about the Seven Deadly Sins, tbh. The part with Elizabeth's power at the end of the first season was so lame, and Meliodas is just so bland and off-putting. Merlin's outfit is also so dumb and fan service-y that it's almost insulting. I don't know how anyone is supposed to take that character seriously when she's basically just always walking around in a bikini.
 
The main reason I've still been kind of slowly working through it is that I really enjoyed the storylines about King, Ban and Diane. King is such an adorable character, and a romance between a male fairy and a female giant feels sort of refreshing to see.

I feel like this fandom whines, complains, gets what they want, and cry some more. 
 
I'm on Ro's side on this one.

the fact is that all of their remakes are better than their original versions and i will give irrefutable proof that you just can not compete with right here:
 
a) more modern recording quality. cutting edge modern editing & recording techinques used by the creme de la creme of western metal and japanese metal alike
b) deeper voice. kyo's screams have never sounded better. he is the japanese mike patton and he DESERVES to show it off because other bands can't compete with that twisted madness
c) old songs are too visual kei. there i said it. you may not like it but its true: now finally these songs are dope enough to actually listen to with your friends who listen to real metal because there are CRAZY riffs and hardcore vocals that don't sound visual kei
d) more poetic lyrics. compare the lyrics for the original tsumi to batsu to the lyrics of tsumi to kisei? yeah.... enough said i think. don't need to elaborate
e) they play them live. honestly - compare the amount of times the band has played the original versions of these songs live after the remakes came out to the amount of times they've played the new versions live. it's obvious even the band KNOWS that these remakes are doper. better. and also more intense & that's why they play them live
 
just my opinion... i dont know why you guys insist on doubting these guys. they gave us sustain the untruth ffs!

This is a such an interesting topic, and many of your perspectives bring to light things I definitely agree with!
I guess I entered a frenzy and my message is pretty long, but here's my experience as someone who has kinda left the scene (but never really left, as I explain).
 
 First off, I got into vk when I was pretty young, in middle school. Metal and vk were the first genres of music I started being active in, as in, purchasing CDs, going to concerts, etc. Before that, it was all classical music (I started playing classical piano at 5 years old), and a bit of pop or rock here and there, and Gorillaz, because I always loved animation and well, all of their MVs were animated and I loved seeing them on TV. So when I got into vk, my musical horizons were quite narrow. I was basically a musical baby. I didn't know a lot of music, and my tastes were only starting to develop. As many have said in this thread, it's natural for tastes to change as you grow older, because you want to try new things, etc.
It's also worth pointing that I was really into manga (and still am lol), and branched out like many into "wow, Japanese culture is pretty cool", so it's why I was so drawn to Japanese music in general at first.
 
So at some point in high school, I wanted to broaden my horizons, and I did. I started listening to a lot of electronic music and jazz, and a wide spectrum of different genres. I was starting to figure out that I really loved music, no matter where it came from or what genre it was, and that I was fascinated with music history. But as that was happening, I also became more and more critical of vk, because I started to figure out that many younger bands I was following were pretty much doing the same gimmicks as older bands. I was also starting to learn about idol culture and how it worked. I must admit, idol culture really threw me off the more I learned about it, and it made me pretty much run away from the scene. I didn't feel so comfortable anymore in spending lots of money on merch now that I had a better understanding of the business model behind it.
 
This post really summarizes how I viewed the shift that happened towards K-pop. To me, whether it was K-pop or vk, it was ultimately the same model, but with a different aesthetic.
 
Despite this, I didn't stop listening to vk altogether, and I still loved older bands, who are still active to this day. So I couldn't part with artists like DEG, Plastic Tree, MUCC, BUCK-TICK, etc. I stopped following very actively, but I still listened to them, which is why I don't consider I moved on from vk, but rather just expanded my tastes. Which, in truth, was only natural considering vk and metal were pretty much "my introduction to any music that isn't classical".
I have also since reconcilied with idol culture, as in, I am not really shocked by it anymore. I like to understand how it works, I'm thankful I have left my "the artists I follow are perfect" naive phase, and I can still be critical of many aspects of it (selling 10 versions of the same single is still bogus to me). But let's just say I've come to accept it for what it is lol.
 
But what was the most interesting to me, is that most from my friend group from back in the day did not have the same evolution at all. I definitely do remember that what killed most people's fun was D'espairsRay's disbanding. Basically, everyone that hadn't already moved on from vk, moved on soon after that. I was also on an A9 fanforum at the time, and their releases were starting to slow down. So it all happened over time and organically.
If I look at what those friends are listening to now, it's either: they don't really listen to much music anymore save for what they were listening to at the time (so 2000s vk and other artists), or they have moved on to K-pop.
The only conclusion I can draw from that is the same that was drawn by many people here: you're either in this for the music, or it's just a fandom, and fandoms come and go.
 
From my standpoint, and considering the very small number of small vk bands who caught my attention in the recent years, I can only wonder how the scene will evolve? I kinda have the feeling, like many I suppose, that the golden age of vk is over, much like glam rock is over with its boom. I hope I'm wrong and that we will see interesting developments in the years to come.
 

I just don't get why they feel a need to keep re-recording songs that were already great as they were. Like the deeper vileness, has been changed minimally and every one of those changes in my opinion isn't as good as the original and basically same with Clever Sleazoid, why fix what's not broken ya know? If they want to re-record really old songs with better production and a more modern touch that sounds fine but at this rate, we will have re-recordings of their whole discography and the originals will never be heard live again. 😛 + I got to admit, I am a sucker for the original Hydra and is a shame they probably wont ever play that again.

Kisou's sounds honestly never really bothered me. It sounds thin to me and sometimes sounds like it's playing through a plastic tube, but I've always thought that was a stylistic choice. At the very least it has personality and has a diverse sound palette. 

TIW sound has the character of a deep fried piece of mozzarella dipped in stone cold marinara. Every track sounds like it's a radio rip or something. I'd take a rain soaked copy of a La:Sadie's demo tape over TIW's sound any day. 

I miss D.I.D.,  Paranoid Personality was a great release and the recording quality was phenomenal. I feel like not enough people notice that because of everything being re-recordings. (Which I understand where you're coming from) The re-recordings are amazing though and kinda breathed new life into them. Nihilism is still a BANGER.

Gauze's production is a dream. You can definitely hear every instrument in there.
 
Perhaps they had the biggest amount of investment of their whole career at that time... Having Yoshiki arranging your A-sides should have been anything but cheap...

Actually, Arche is not as bad. It's loud but has a much cleaner sound. TIW feels like they threw overdrive over everything on top of whacking it all up to '11'.