Shmilly

I didn't even realised we'd reached the level of PS2 emulation yet. I'm gonna get right on that, there's so many old games I'd love to replay.

As far as I'm concerned, a singer and a vocalist are one and the same thing. There's no qualifications to becoming either one of them, they're just different terms for that role. I'd agree with saishuu though that personally I tend to see a vocalist as a role within a band, as opposed to a solo artist. I can also agree with points that when you think 'singer' you think clean vocals, opera, falsetto; but with 'vocalist' there's a whole semantic field of sounds like screams, growls, inhales, or even rap. It would be weird to me to call a rapper a 'singer'. But the terms themselves are interchangeable in my mind. It's just a matter of how you view said musician. I do have another question to perpetuate this discussion though, particularly for those who see a clear distinction between the two terms. Is there a difference between a good vocalist and a good singer? (For example, someone who can growl and scream skilfully but whose clean vocals are poor or out of tune)

I still have a couple of months left in Japan but am running dangerously low on funds, so after some consideration I am letting go a small selection of the items I have bought during my stay. I will sell anything left over to a used store. All prices are in GBP and payment should be made using PayPal. The buyer is responsible for currency exchange fees where applicable. (This is most easily accomplished by selecting 'personal payment' rather than 'payment for goods'). Shipping is from Japan and I will estimate the cost using Japan Post when you place an order. This will be included in the total payment. Item(s) will be shipped within the week of receiving payment. All CDs include the obi where applicable unless stated otherwise. Pictures are available for each item. AIR SWELL – RIMFIRE (Album, 9 tracks) £9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | AIR SWELL – THE ART OF PSYCHO (Mini-album, 5 tracks) £8 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ALICE NINE. – VANDALIZE (Album, 11 tracks) £10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | BORN – SATISFACTION? (Single Type-A, 2 tracks + 2 PV DVD) £7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ClearVeil – ClearVeil (Mini-album, 6 tracks) £7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | グリーヴァ (GRIEVA) – 終焉 (Shuuen) HMV Bonus (Live CD, 3 tracks) £4 | 1 | グリーヴァ (GRIEVA) – 終焉 (Shuuen) Jishuban Club Bonus (Comment DVD) £3 | 1 | INHALE – Heaven & Hell (Album, 11 tracks) £9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | カメレオ (Kameleo) – Promotion DVD (3 copies available) £2 OR FREE WITH PURCHASE | 1 | LAZAROUS – 107 (Single, 2 tracks) £3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Lil.y – カイケア (Kaikea) (Single, 1 track) £3 | 1 | NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST – OMEGA (PV & Comment DVD, Masa version) £4 | 1 | NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST – Libra (Daichi guitar play DVD) £4 | 1 | NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST – GEARS OF OMEGA (Comment DVD, Masa version) £2 | 1 | NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST – OMEGA Towel (Unused) £13 | 1 | 2 | -OZ- – RAZE (DVD-Size Single, 1st Press, 1 track) £5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -OZ- – VENOM (DVD-Size Single, 3 tracks) £5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Sadie – クライモア (Cry More) (Single, Limited Edition, 2 tracks + PV DVD) £6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Signal – M・E・L・T (RARE Single – 2 tracks, limited to 500 copies) £10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Signal – GLOW BACK OVER SCARS (Single – 3 tracks + PV DVD) £8 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | SiM – PANDORA (Album, 13 tracks) £11 (Includes sleeve case but no obi) | 1 | 2 | 3 | V.A. – NEW SCREAM DATE 2014 (Compilation album – 10 tracks, limited to 2500 copies) £14 | 1 | 2 | 3 | (bands included are: カルディア Cardia・メカクシ Mekakushi・クリシュナ Krishna・ロマンシング性 Romancing Sei・メビウス Mebius・LICKER・REVINE・HOLYCLOCK・SoniqRush.・PEAK HOLD) In addition, I am also selling a used 80GB iPod Classic with unused earphones and cable included in the box. I would like it to go for £80 (shipping excluded). Please contact me for more details and pictures if you are interested. Thanks for looking!

Thinking the same thing. Also, not my birthday but the day I leave Japan so that's a small problem...

I agree with most people in that showing off is basically the essence of visual kei. Did it not start out with 'visual shock'? If VK bands are trying to be dramatic and impress the crowd, that pretty much marks them as VK to me. Even when I've seen super indie bands who don't even have a single out they're giving off this same flair and that's what makes the scene what it is. If I saw a visual band and they just stood in place and performed I would be somewhat unimpressed (even if the music was of a high standard). Although there's obviously a point where you can objectively criticize a song by looking at its composition or its individual parts, and there are times where solos are not really necessary, a lot of these comments seem more likely to be coming from people who simply don't like the music (or occasionally even just the band in question). And to those people I say, find something else to listen to.

If there's a regular edition for 1000 yen I'm in, but even by FC standards that's just extortion. You're better than this, G.

Huh, I never noticed we had an official ranking system. No problem.

Props to DaizyStripper for releasing a 'special price version' of their latest album that doesn't discount any tracks. However, for me this album falls into the trap of being held up by singles and not new material. It's by no means a particularly weak release, just not their finest work. We were already served the STARGAZER through Derringer singles, and then less than a month ago G.Z.S.K.K - for me, that was a pretty pointless single since it's the lead track on this album anyway and there were no B-sides. But I digress. TRAGUS is a solid release, if predictable. With six of the tracks being the previous singles, and two instrumentals, that leaves us with just six new ones... which unfortunately, are rather forgettable. I'm not condemning the album for being a single compilation (look at, as just one example, abingdon boys school's first album, which was fantastic). But for me, this time Daizy have mostly filled out this one. Let's take a look at the tracks individually. 01 - EMBLEM of JAIL - Instrumental opening, not much to say here. 02 - G.Z.S.K.K - Ridiculous title and also pretty repetitive, luckily the chorus is damn catchy so that helps it a lot. 03 - キューソネコカミ - Standard Daizy fare here, little bit of autotune on the vocals and then a more upbeat chorus. It just doesn't do anything to stand out from their previous work. 04 - STARGAZER - Perhaps my favourite of their endless single release campaign. Feels like it should have been on their previous album AIR. 05 - QUALTIER LATIN - At least they're trying to branch out a bit here. DaizyStripper have been known to experiment with jazz before, but now they're going for a kind of waltz style. Unfortunately it just feels a bit out of place and is regrettably forgettable for it. 06 - 理想 - I imagine this would be pretty fun live. One of their more fast-paced, chaotic style songs, with some prominent electronic elements. Nothing groundbreaking but pretty enjoyable nonetheless. 07 - MOONLIGHT of JAIL - Soothing piano interlude. Unfortunately it's a complete rip-off of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie no.1, but it does give the album a nice breather before the ballad-y section to come. 08 - HELLO, again - A soft and quite beautiful ballad. The PV for this one tells a nice story, from what I remember. 09 - MISSING - Another single, pretty standard Daizy style but that doesn't make it any less pleasing to listen to. 10 - PRIDE - This time they're shaking it up with some almost rap-like fast spoken vocals, which is interesting to say the least. 11 - 真面目complex - Welcome back electronic Daizy. This is quite a fun track all things considered. 12 - 嘘と陽炎 - Here's the jazz I was talking about. I don't think it's the best they've done with this genre but it's still decent. (If you want JazzyStripper check out リリカルナイト). 13 - GIRL HUNT - For a song with such an interesting title, I was expecting something a little... different. To be honest I'm not really sure where this one is going, it has such a mish-mash of elements that I struggled to really get it. 14 - Derringer - Last song, last single. Has a kind of upbeat ballad feel to it that marks it as a very Daizy song. Rounds off the album pretty well. I feel like this could also have been from AIR. One thing I should add as a personal note is that a few months ago I picked up a Taiwan-only release from DaizyStripper called 10 COLORS, which is a 10-track album consisting of the STARGAZER through Derringer singles, their B-sides, and respective PVs. So this has a large impact on how unimpressed I am with TRAGUS. Replace the new tracks with the single B-sides and it's basically the same, and a couple of those would have done better than the new material unfortunately. Overall a decent release but not exceptional. I'm not really one for rating albums, but I'll give it a solid . It's a shame most of that comes from stuff we've heard before.

I've never been a super MUCC fan, but I really liked Kyutai and Shion was pretty good too. After Kyutai I kind of lost interest like many people, but I thought I'd give this new album a try after seeing a clip from the Ender Ender PV on TV a few weeks ago. I have to say in my absence from MUCC's releases I was pleased to hear the heavier sound back on a few tracks. It starts off pretty strong, Ender Ender is too catchy not to like and the opening title track has some interesting things going on. There were some good tracks in there but so far I only listened to it through once, on the train, so I don't know any of them by name yet. Not their best album but for me it's at least worth a listen. Also I'm a little amused(?) that no less than 3 of the songs seem to use "Hello" in the chorus (although on second thought one of them could have been the single 'Halo' instead since I didn't listen to that before the album). Not going to give it a real score since as I said I've only listened to it once, but it's by no means a distaster. Maybe I'll pick it up if I see it pre-owned somewhere in the next couple of months. Overshadowed for me this week by Cardia's new single.

Sounds interesting, mostly because I was wondering what the ex-CR members were doing. It's only keita this time but hey, I heard some of them were rounded up by Dual Core after the disband. Also didn't know he played bass.

Not trying to defend Nokubura's pricing or anything, but it's not really far from the norm in the VK scene. Their DVD was a little on the expensive side, but other than that I think it's average. And as for the iTunes thing, don't forget their album is 15 tracks long, that probably has a small impact on the price.

I don't have a problem with your opinion, I'm just saying that it's not really a valid point to compare who is influenced by who and what one does or doesn't like when it comes to which bands 'deserve' recognition or popularity. And as rsasai said illegal downloading is illegal regardless of whose music you're not paying for, it doesn't matter if they're a 'good' band or not. NB have every right to uphold the copyright of their intellectual and artistic property, even if you think it's just a copycat of a different band. And your point about originality is moot when, as you say, take away the visual aspect and NB are just a metalcore band much like any other in that particular subgenre. Of course bands are influenced by one another, it would be impossible for a group of musicians who had never listened to music to meet up and start a new genre. That doesn't make them any less original or worthy of support, just that they have chosen the style they choose to identify with. I'm not trying to start any kind of argument, I just struggle to see how this kind of judgement and bias has any relevance to the discussion at hand. There's no reason why people can't enjoy the music they like without tearing into other groups for being unoriginal or mediocre.

Brief comment about foreign fans: the ratio of us gaijin at NB's Shinjuku BLAZE oneman last week seemed to me higher than usual. One of my friends even got into the meet and greet session for drawing a signed cheki. Those guys definitely know they have the beginnings of popularity overseas. Hell, as someone mentioned before about bands being as 'tech savvy' as us, if Masa is smart enough to tweet about piracy he already knows that these download links are on foreign sites and being downloaded outside of Japan. The interest is there. And I don't want to start anything with nekkichi but that comment a few posts back about NB being mediocre even within the VK scene is just a bit of a dick point. Everyone is entitled to their own taste in music and if there's one thing I truly hate about fans it's their unfailing ability to trash talk anyone they don't listen to themselves. Seriously, I don't know why more people can't just enjoy the music they like and stop giving a damn what everyone else does. It's great when we can share enthusiasm about the ones we like, or even introduce someone to a new favourite, but there's no need to enter an argument about illegal downloading in relation to a band and say it's irrelevant because they're not even good. It's called taste, get over it. Edit: Also the whole comparing bands to other bands thing. If people haven't listened to Suicide Silence, BMTH, before NB, why should they have any reason to think they are a 'copycat' band or imitating their style? Looking at VK being primarily a Japanese genre, I get that lots of Japanese listen to music from overseas, but that's no reason to imagine a VK fan listens to loads of Western metal too. I'm sure there are plenty of Japanese visual fans who listen almost entirely to VK and only find out about new bands through the VK scene. As for rsasai's abridged thesis, I can see a lot of good points in there. And since we are talking about VK in particular, it's fair to discuss the Japanese market. In Japan at least, I think the whole in-store bonus scheme actually does a lot of good. It invites fans to actually go to a brick-and-mortar store and buy a new release, and even get a little comment DVD (or even something like live or off shot footage). There's so many little indie stores in VK - Like an Edison, Jishuban Club, Little Hearts - that distributing extra goodies between them means the kind of fans in VK will go out of their way to get the member they like, or the best bonus, even buying more than one copy. Then there's in store events, which allow fans to actually talk to the bands they love and share their enthusiasm in person, and for anyone else stumbling into the store that's more word of mouth. 'Did you see that crazy bijuaru band in Tower Records yesterday? I think they were called Nocturnal Bloodlust or something.'

I'd love to see a collaboration between Leda and Meku, though I don't know exactly what would happen when they argue over who gets to write the songs. xD

Yeah I love these guys too. I see the similarities to DELUHI, but for me GALEYD are more melodic metal than core (and let's be honest, DELUHI took it much heavier). The vocal style is also completely different. In this case 'indefinite hiatus' is definitely the same as 'disbanded' though - their website is gone, they lost their composer and guitarist, and Nikky is now officially with ALSDEAD. It's a shame we'll probably never hear from them again, since the overall quality of their songs was great. It got a bit weak towards the end (as I guess Meku took less control over the composition) - they suffered a little from 'song title is chorus' syndrome. Still, really energetic and one of just a handful of bands I followed from the very start to the very end.

A kind of side point that I think applies mostly to the visual kei scene is live-distributed singles and DVDs. Not only are they ridiculously limited to begin with, but not just foreign fans but even domestic ones probably have no chance to ever hear/see them. If bands are so worried about losing money to piracy, why do they invest the time, effort and money to produce a limited run of a new song and then give it away free to a handful of fans who go to one concert, never to be seen again? I'm frustrated to no end by this practice. Case in point, I missed Signal's last live and I've been searching for the single Crossing fate ever since. It doesn't seem to exist in the used market or on auction at all. This is also relevant to NB because recently they distributed Triangle Carnage and it even shows up on their site's discography page. "We don't want you to pirate our music, but by the way here's a song you can't buy and you will never know what it sounds like".

Obviously this is an issue much larger than NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST, but it does get the ball rolling again when an actual musician or group acts on it. In NB's case, I'm actually a bit confused about their concerns, because although they're starting to reach that level of popularity in the indie scene where people clamour for their releases it's not like they're not shifting copies. I had to go into two VK CD stores yesterday (the day of release) to buy their new single because in the first one it was already sold out. I think I may have grabbed the last copy from the second too because there were no more on the shelves, although I guess there could have been some in storage since they were still clearing up after an instore event. That said, I also bought a ticket for their one man next weekend which has yet to sell out (and probably won't). Now I don't know whether NB make more money from their CDs than their lives (there's a strong used market in Japan with stores like Closet Child and Puresound, and of course the auction sites). But in today's reality the way most foreign bands (especially indies) gain recognition overseas is by someone on the internet saying, 'hey this band is awesome, check them out' and people sharing downloads. It's great to see more bands these days like NB use an official YouTube account to advertise their music and PVs, but people still need to know about them to watch them. It's a tricky issue, but as people have already stated suing your fans seems like it can only do more harm than good at this point. I'm looking forward to see if NB have any announcements to make at Shinjuku BLAZE.

Great news, their other two singles are awesome.