Alsdead14

Oh I forgot, as AllS, their new name and sound, here's 2 videos and 1 live video plus 1 extra live video : 
 
MEMORIES (2017) :
 
 
LIMELIGHT (2017) :
 
 
IDENTITY DISORDER (live) : 
 

A_dust (live) :
 


There we go, now you can see both sound and see the changes they did, and especially Maki's english. He improved a lot!

And Shin's solo are still the best <3

I posted a (summarized/imperfect) translation of both here: https://vk.gy/blog/undeux-drama-with-vocalist-officially-joins-label/
 
#IBelieveRame

Oh I forgot, as AllS, their new name and sound, here's 2 videos and 1 live video plus 1 extra live video : 
 
MEMORIES (2017) :
 
 
LIMELIGHT (2017) :
 
 
IDENTITY DISORDER (live) : 
 

A_dust (live) :
 


There we go, now you can see both sound and see the changes they did, and especially Maki's english. He improved a lot!

And Shin's solo are still the best <3

Kill The King (2014) :
 

FLASH BACK (2013) :
 
 
DIRTY EVIL (2013) :
 

DISTRUST (2009) :
 

INAZUMA (2015) :
 


There you go, start with those, and tell me if you like them. I'll still post the full Discography later this week, and probably in FLAC, as I discovered how to extract in FLAC. Hope you enjoy them! 

Kill the King is my favorite song by them! The guitar solo is killer, and the live version has a bass solo before <3

and as I said, I own their last dvd, if I ever find how to extract it, I will upload it on here as no one ever posted it. I'm pretty sure people will enjoy it! 33 songs, and it's pretty nice!

Anyone care to post some of their best tracks on YouTube? I'd like to start listening to them. I only previously listened to them in the first year or so after they formed.

One of the small joys of being a VK fan is the unique phenomenon of enjoying a band while having absolutely no idea how to say their name. And I don’t mean because a band’s name is in Japanese, I’m talking those band names that are ostensibly written in English but because of weird characters or punctuation you just have no idea how to properly pronounce or verbalize their moniker correctly (although most of the time the pronunciation just completely ignores the extraneous symbols).
 
Let’s try and trace the history of these unnecessary symbols and letters in VK bands’ names and highlight the influence (or lack thereof) of these punctuation provocateurs.
 
 
D’erlanger

 
The band: One of the proto-visual kei bands that began in the ‘80s and had an outsize influence on the first generation of post-X visual bands.
 
The name: D’erlanger kinda makes sense as a French word, so they themselves are forgiven, but it is apparent a lot of teenagers in the 80s who would go on to become players in the golden age of visual kei saw that apostrophe and thought “oh cool!” for entirely unintended reasons.
 
I said D’erlanger makes sense as a French word… but it’s not a very ‘band name’ kind of word. Can’t imagine throwing up the metal horns to a band called ‘from Erlangen’.
 
See also: L’Arc~en~Ciel, La’Cryma Cristi, La’Mule
 
 
L’Arc~en~Ciel

 
The band: No introduction necessary really. Almost certainly on the Mount Rushmore of VK bands, whether or not you like what they’ve done since the start of the new millennium (and I don’t). Pretty and melodious songs with just enough edge to appeal to a wide swath of fans. Not to mention a sexy frontman.
 
The name: Another word that makes sense if you’re French, but L’Arc~en~Ciel up the ante by adding some tildes for no reason other than young Tetsuya and Hyde probably thought they added an even more magical feeling to the word ‘rainbow’.
 
L’Arc~en~Ciel’s (making their name possessive *does* add a certain balance to the word…) popularity in both VK circles and a mainstream audience meant that adding dumb punctuation in the middle of your name for no reason was now completely tolerated.
 
Tetsuya has specifically denied he got the L’Arc~en~Ciel moniker from a cafe near where he worked as a teenager with the same name. It may have also been stolen from the D.H. Lawrence book ‘Rainbow’, but even that story is tainted because it includes the *movie* version.
 
See also: a million song and album titles with tildes in them, E’m ~grief~
 
 
cali≠gari

 
The band: Either groundbreaking, experimental rock that revolutionized and kick-started the ‘eroguro kei’ genre, or dissonant-sounding weirdos; depending on your tastes.
 
The name: Obviously lifted from the groundbreaking German silent horror film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”; an admittedly cool source of inspiration for an art-y VK band. The name even has a cool rhyme and visual symmetry when written/pronounced in Japanese (カリガリ).
 
See also: a ton of also-ran bands that have stuck unnecessary equals signs in their names: Loz'a≠Veria, D≒sire, Kar+te=zyAnose, Eyes≒Mirrorge, PARANOID≠CIRCUS
 
 
ZI:KILL

 
The band: Early VK rockers that burned out too quickly to be mentioned among the all-timers.
 
The name: Originally formed as G:KILL, which doesn’t shed any light onto the inspiration for the name, but is an interesting fact. G/Zi:Kill both *kinda* sound like Jekyll when katakan-ized, and Visual Kei has no lack of love for that story.
 
You may be noticing a trend so far; early VK bands apparently hated having blank spaces in their names.
 
See also: La:Sadie’s, ru:natic,【_Vani;lla】, ha;qch, DAS:VASSER, L'yse:nore
 
 
Aliene Maφriage

 
The band: One of the harbingers of VK starting to get really dark and almost certainly offending the middle-aged parents of the teenagers listening to it. Lots of leather and hair... and in Aliene’s case; some good songwriting to back it up.
 
The name: In the book Freakonomics the authors cite a study that shows, all other things being equal, people are more likely to be asked to interview for jobs if the interviewer/hiring manager can pronounce their name. I have to believe this is why even Kyoka & Co. started writing their name simply Aliene Ma’riage eventually; they were probably tired of having to pitch things to record label execs who looked at their name and thought “pass” before they even heard the banshee wails.
 
I couldn’t find anything about the origins of their name. It is a vast improvement over their original moniker Autism though.
 
See also: √eight, ∋elf gravity∈, ZETSURIN⚡HAGUKI
 
 
Kagrra,

 
The band: The undisputed kings of beautiful neo-japonisme in VK.
 
The name: Even Kagrra,, who peddled a very classic Japanese aesthetic, weren’t immune to an unnecessary flourish such as a comma at the end of their name which, when spoken, led to a kind of hesitant mumble as if you were supposed to continue a train of thought which was still at the station. I mean, revisit that previous sentence I wrote, should it really have been written “Even Kagrra,,”? Kagrra,’s name certainly gave the editing staff at Shoxx a headache.
 
Kagrra,, originally called Crow, took their name from 神楽 (Kagura), a Shinto music and dance tradition.
 
See also: Thankfully the comma didn’t catch on much.
 
 
+DéspairsRay+

 
The band: One of the rare examples of a band who can pull off unabashed zetsubou unironically and follow it up with soaring choruses and catchy melodies without sounding disjointed.
 
The name: Another band that dropped some of the more superfluous parts of their name as soon as they started to gain some popularity. If I had to guess, their name is probably one of the most mistagged in VK. I know for sure if I opened iTunes right now I’d have songs by +DéspairsRay+, DéspairsRay, D’espairs Ray, Despairs Ray and probably more in my artist lineup.
 
The members of the band haven’t commented specifically on how they chose the name, with Zero even saying “It's nothing special.” I interpret this as ‘we know it’s dumb, don’t ask about it please’.
 
See also: VAL+IX+LIA, MARRY+AN+BLOOD, Ti+Dee
 
 
Nuvc:gu

 
The band: Nobodies.
 
The name: I honestly was pronouncing this “nuv-ka-goo” until I heard @Biopanda say “New vogue” in a Rarezhut stream and the lightbulb went off. I almost want to give them credit for using the *shape* of punctuation to emulate letters, but then I realize that’s incredibly stupid unless you’re working with some seriously custom fonts.
 
See also: VΩID, k@mikaze, SHAD∞W, XOVER
 
 
Exist†trace

 
The band: Probably the most successful all-girl-kei band ever (which unfortunately isn’t saying much). Started out very gothy and have gradually transitioned to a more mainstream sound. They let the pretty one sing and it makes me sad because Jyou has come up with some flat out beautiful, haunting vocal melodies.
 
The name: Miko said in an interview that,
 
And let’s be honest, that explanation makes no sense. It sounds cool though, and really that’s what you need in a band name (and something unique that can be Googled).
 
My biggest problem with their cross symbol is that it probably shows up as a question mark or some other placeholder punctuation 20% of the time because who the hell has the time to look up the unicode symbols? (although I’m sure people who write about Witch-house bands have the code for the cross symbol memorized.)
 
See also: Serpentine†Ghost, Jail†Breaker, Vice†risk
 
 
xTripx

 
The band: A surprisingly endearing mix of oshare kei and numetal.
 
The name: Weirdly, I always pronounce the first ‘x’ in xTripx’s name but not the last one (ecks-trip). I actually think more bands need to come to terms with the fact that eventually the world will run out of new band names and everyone will have to resort to having a moniker that looks like a circa-2002 emo fan’s AIM screenname.
 
See also: xジハードx, 【TRiANGLE▼SONiX】, Noi’X
 
 
12012

 
The band: Undercode stalwarts that started out lo-fi and disjointed and nu-metal influenced but very charming, and graduated to poppier fare when they decided to take a stab at becoming famous.
 
The name: ‘Ichi ni zero ichi ni’ if you’re Japanese, ‘twelve-o’-twelve’ if you’re me. Allegedly named after a section of the California penal code that deals with illegal weapons… and that actually kind of tracks. It’s an extremely boring section though (besides we know Wataru prefers hand-to-hand combat):
 
 
Not a cool law for a band name. I think we’ve got a retconned term a la 420 and 311.
 
See also: Plenty of other band names that need a pronunciation guide:  0801弐209XX6* (zero hachi), …。(silence), 6→7 (upper)
 
*The guitarist of zero hachi should get an unnecessary punctuation in band names lifetime achievement award. He was in all these bands according to vkdb: †Zaide†,  Diod'honneur,  カレヰド, re:Make, 0801弐209XX6.
 
Be sure to add your favorite band name with unnecessary punctuation!

Also worth noting:
 
As of earlier this month they have a bunch of stuff (Limited Collection & The Beautiful World Never Dies included) on Spotify. Sweet!

Just added their histories

After disbanding at 2014/4/25, CATFIST will reform. Additional details will be announced at a later date.
 
Vo.心 (Kokoro) (ex-INSANITY FRONTIER-->CATFIST)
Gu.大輔 (Daisuke) (ex-fiore-->INSANITY FRONTIER(啼/Dai)-->storyteller's Undead(Ba.))
Gu.ミヤ (Miya) (ex-クレイドル (Cradle)-->ヤタガラス (Yatagarasu))
Ba.&Cho.夜紫 (Yoshi) (ex-ANOTHER AGE 696-->Ravens Nest-->KiLiK-->ガアラ (Gaara)-->CATFIST-->ヤタガラス (Yatagarasu))
Dr.xxx
 
 

Ok for starters. Vocalist the sucks and sounds like a wannabe nocturnal bloodlust band. They need either a vocalist change or he needs to take a year to improve his vocals. His screams are pretty okay.

鋏 (hasami) PV spot:
 

Nice thread
I got interested into Maki vocals on DIRTY EVIL, and with that I started to follow those powerful boys. Even today, "Separator" and "ALSDEAD" are on my all time favorites full albums rate, they are still my top 6 band.
 
My favorites songs are (in order): D9N, Twilight, Life of Sorrow, F-99, 虹色の雨, 最後の嘘, 404, Behind the Pride, Cynical, Nostalgia, VOR2012 and Sugar.
 
I wasn't able to saw their last live, but every ALSDEAD fan that were in the venue I talked with told that was a glorious live performance.

Hello! I noticed there were no Artist post about Alsdead or Alls, so I decided to merge them into one!

I've been following ALSDEAD since their start in 2008 (and even when they were Dice & Joker), releasing their first single in 2009 titled Violent of Reason.

Over the years, they changed their music sound, but the core remained the same.
 
At the start, they were 4 members : Maki on vocals, Shin on Guitars, Reito on Bass and Setua on Drums. 

In 2011 Reito left the band and Yosuke joined.

In 2013 Setua left the band and Nikky joined the band. 

I was quite sad to see both Reito and Setua leave, as I was following the band since their start, and I was used to see them in the band.

I got used to Yosuke and Nikky.

Over the years as Alsdead, they released 11 singles, 3 Full albums and 1 mini-album as well as some retake of their old songs as Dice & Joker off compilations cds. They also released 2 live dvd, only exclusive to Japan, but last year I was lucky enough to get my hands on their last dvd, and it's amazing! If any one you saw it, you will know what I mean  Also, if anyone wants me to share, I can, I just don't know how to extract it.

They went in hiatus after that last release (2015) and came back in 2017 as Alls, dropping the visuals and the electro only for rock. Maki's english improved and they released their first EP in november of last year titled DO OR DIE.

So yeah, if you want me to put more stuff into the introduction just tell me, I will add it.

I create this thread, so people can share their love for Alsdead now Alls, exchange on their releases, on their shows or just the members!

Enjoy!

Alright, what's your favorite track(s)? Do you still like them as Alls? Who's your favorite member?

As for me, it was a shock at first to hear them as Alls, but I got used to it. I love their new sound and Maki's english!

My favorite songs from Alsdead will always be : Kill the King, Life of Sorrow, F-99, Swallotail (it's amazing on their live dvd), Trickster, Inazuma, 404, Flash Back and well many more, as I love all their songs.

As for Alls, Limelight ofc, and Hunter. The ep is quite good too.

I hope we can have fun discussing on Alsdead and Alls!

Gotta love Unsraw <3 I know the singer started Doak then disband then went solo? I miss his voice really. After Unsraw, I heard like maybe 1 or 2 songs from him then nothing...

On another note, I saw someone mentionning -OZ-. gosh I miss them too, they were one of my favorite, I know they don't scream all the time, but still, they were very good and I haven't heard anything about them since then.

And I don't know why or how the fuck I keep forgetting to mention UnsraW. One of the greatest of all time.
 
 

Omg guys haha, mentioning GREGORY, SINCE1889 and THE MAD SIMPSON brought so much memories. I remember blasting GREGORY in my car after work in 2010 lol. Love the thread! I also checked DictavE yesterday, it's nice (I saw your status). I love Nocturnal Bloodlust ofc, and DEVILOOF, as well as JILUKA. Hearing DEVILOOF's ruin surprised me, hearing a whole song with no clean vocals. Brought me back to my Children of Bodom, Kalmah, Arch enemy days haha. I feel like I will love this thread! Thanks

As seen at the end of the new preview for compilation album : BRAND NEW ALBUM, JULY 2018 !
 
EDIT :
Title of the album is finalized as " XIII " and will be released at 2018.7.11
It will comes in 3 editions :
 
- Deluxe edition : 2CD + Bluray + Special booklet (interview & photos)  -    8300Y (~63€, ~77USD)
- Limited edition : CD + DVD - 3500Y (~26€, ~32USD)
- Regular edition : CD only - 3000Y (~22€, ~28USD)
 
Deluxe edition : 
CD : 13 songs
CD 2 : Instrumental versions
Blu-ray : 
01. Clip from a new song
02.Documentary 「13th ANNIVERSARY –Xlll GALLOWS- [THE FIVE BLACKEST CROWS] 18.03.11 MAKUHARI MESSE」

Limited edition : 
CD : 13 songs
DVD :
01.Documentary「13th ANNIVERSARY –Xlll GALLOWS- [THE FIVE BLACKEST CROWS] 18.03.11 MAKUHARI MESSE」

Regular edition : 
CD : 13 songs
 
Furthermore, a Blu-ray/DVD will be released on 2018.08.08. It will be called 「13th ANNIVERSARY –Xlll GALLOWS- [THE FIVE BLACKEST CROWS] 18.03.11 MAKUHARI MESSE」.
 
Blu-ray edition : 7000 yen + taxes ( Live + Live version of "Sorrow", documentary, audio commentary)
DVD edition : 5000 yen + taxes (just the live)

Omg guys haha, mentioning GREGORY, SINCE1889 and THE MAD SIMPSON brought so much memories. I remember blasting GREGORY in my car after work in 2010 lol. Love the thread! I also checked DictavE yesterday, it's nice (I saw your status). I love Nocturnal Bloodlust ofc, and DEVILOOF, as well as JILUKA. Hearing DEVILOOF's ruin surprised me, hearing a whole song with no clean vocals. Brought me back to my Children of Bodom, Kalmah, Arch enemy days haha. I feel like I will love this thread! Thanks

They've been mentioned here in passing, but gonna link this here anyway: vastly underrated and terribly short-lived, r.i.p.
 
 
This is the shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
 
edit: Oh lord, their OHP is still up. What a blast from the past. :'D

I miss since1889. 

Ba. Haku (UNiTE) is support  in the MV