hiroki

i didnt realize someone compiled the numbers for the entire year so thanks for posting this! i just wanted to add that these numbers refer to the first week sales and aren't the total copies sold for individual releases

vistlip will release a new single "BLACK MATRIX" on 2018/08/29
 

vistlip will release a new single "BLACK MATRIX" on 2018/08/29
 

More information will be revealed on 2018.07.07 at 20 p.m.
A 0th single called "BORN" will be given via several stores on 2018.07.01. (500 copies) (Like An Edison in Tokyo, Harajuku, Nagoya and Osaka)
 
Tracklist :
01.BORN
02.Tomorrow Land
03.TERRITORY
04.SARUKANI BATTLE～因果応報絵巻～(SAKURANI BATTLE ingâ ôhô emaki)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Website : http://asty.kill.jp/
Twitter : https://twitter.com/official_Asty

love it, they're my new favorites haha

Full PV
 
 

i think the so-called "promotion" is exaggerated because (i) most of the supposed promotion we do (esp in the form of piracy *cough*) does almost nothing for the target market segment of the bands, i.e. people who can and will go to their lives; (ii) as @Komorebi has mentioned, most of us would be like OMGZ THIS BAND IS GOOD and proceed to recline deeper into our armchair waiting for someone else to upload the band's next release. maybe this sounds a little harsh, but it's supremely arrogant of us to think that the band is obliged to go out of their way to cater to the convenience of international fans when they have literally nothing to gain other than "international exposure"--which in most cases is little more than the comfort offered by the thought that there are now 10 more people outside Japan listening to their music and typing 'awwww they were good' in a forum somewhere when they are on the brink of disbandment.
 
no one's blaming oversea fans for poor sales so much as they are pointing out that in making venue-limited music readily available (through streaming or mail order), the band exacts a potentially high price on the revenue from lives and buppan sales, which is their main, if not exclusive, source of profit. let's bear in mind that most indie bands in fact make only enough copies of CDs to offset the production costs involved, and selling 1 CD at buppan is roughly equivalent to having to sell 2 CDs through VK CD shops, which is why small bands usually start off with live-limited cds before having shops carry their music a few releases later when they don't need the live proceeds that desperately. obviously one could complain about the questionable efficiency of a CD-based industry today (as opposed to one based in digital distribution), but that's a different conversation and the scope of that problem exceeds the specificity of vk. if i'm a bandman doing the cost-benefit analysis in view of existing structural constraints, i would have done the exact same thing. 
 
i'm far from loaded and would prefer it if i didn't have to stalk auctions for a year before paying 20k yen for a CD that was handed out for free. but it's easier to take it less personally if we actually remember that the bands aren't charity organizations whose raison d'etre is to hand out their music to as many people as possible even if it's financially unsustainable. for me, at the end of the day it all comes down to judging how much time/effort/money i'm willing to commit to seeking out these rare CDs, and as with everything there's a point beyond which it's just not worth it anymore. (this is also easier to accept if we realize that a lot of japanese fans, too, have to make huge sacrifices time- and money-wise to get the stuff they want.)
 
there are 2 concessions i'll make though. the first: where it gets annoying and unacceptable to me is when bands deliberately make it absurdly difficult for fans who can/will attend their lives to get releases, by coming up with tricks like 'assemble ticket stubs for 3 lives in our tour and present them at the tour final buppan for a special CD.' i get tetchy when bands try to milk fans who are already doing all they can to support the band. the other is the open question of whether it's conceptually possible to make live limited CDs available to international fans while not hurting their live/buppan sales. BLESSCODE tried something like that when they sold Eau de toilette and Bizarre on the Vstar webshop and made it such that only international fans were allowed to purchase them online. But this plainly isn't feasible for bands who lack the relevant connections and I can't see bandmen who aren't as insanely enthusiastic as masaya about making it "fair" for everyone to get their music putting in half that much effort. It's also depressing that for a band who was at least somewhat known in the international vk fandom, they didn't even manage to sell THAT many extra copies - which makes one wonder if it's even worth all the logistical hassle at all.
 

i think the so-called "promotion" is exaggerated because (i) most of the supposed promotion we do (esp in the form of piracy *cough*) does almost nothing for the target market segment of the bands, i.e. people who can and will go to their lives; (ii) as @Komorebi has mentioned, most of us would be like OMGZ THIS BAND IS GOOD and proceed to recline deeper into our armchair waiting for someone else to upload the band's next release. maybe this sounds a little harsh, but it's supremely arrogant of us to think that the band is obliged to go out of their way to cater to the convenience of international fans when they have literally nothing to gain other than "international exposure"--which in most cases is little more than the comfort offered by the thought that there are now 10 more people outside Japan listening to their music and typing 'awwww they were good' in a forum somewhere when they are on the brink of disbandment.
 
no one's blaming oversea fans for poor sales so much as they are pointing out that in making venue-limited music readily available (through streaming or mail order), the band exacts a potentially high price on the revenue from lives and buppan sales, which is their main, if not exclusive, source of profit. let's bear in mind that most indie bands in fact make only enough copies of CDs to offset the production costs involved, and selling 1 CD at buppan is roughly equivalent to having to sell 2 CDs through VK CD shops, which is why small bands usually start off with live-limited cds before having shops carry their music a few releases later when they don't need the live proceeds that desperately. obviously one could complain about the questionable efficiency of a CD-based industry today (as opposed to one based in digital distribution), but that's a different conversation and the scope of that problem exceeds the specificity of vk. if i'm a bandman doing the cost-benefit analysis in view of existing structural constraints, i would have done the exact same thing. 
 
i'm far from loaded and would prefer it if i didn't have to stalk auctions for a year before paying 20k yen for a CD that was handed out for free. but it's easier to take it less personally if we actually remember that the bands aren't charity organizations whose raison d'etre is to hand out their music to as many people as possible even if it's financially unsustainable. for me, at the end of the day it all comes down to judging how much time/effort/money i'm willing to commit to seeking out these rare CDs, and as with everything there's a point beyond which it's just not worth it anymore. (this is also easier to accept if we realize that a lot of japanese fans, too, have to make huge sacrifices time- and money-wise to get the stuff they want.)
 
there are 2 concessions i'll make though. the first: where it gets annoying and unacceptable to me is when bands deliberately make it absurdly difficult for fans who can/will attend their lives to get releases, by coming up with tricks like 'assemble ticket stubs for 3 lives in our tour and present them at the tour final buppan for a special CD.' i get tetchy when bands try to milk fans who are already doing all they can to support the band. the other is the open question of whether it's conceptually possible to make live limited CDs available to international fans while not hurting their live/buppan sales. BLESSCODE tried something like that when they sold Eau de toilette and Bizarre on the Vstar webshop and made it such that only international fans were allowed to purchase them online. But this plainly isn't feasible for bands who lack the relevant connections and I can't see bandmen who aren't as insanely enthusiastic as masaya about making it "fair" for everyone to get their music putting in half that much effort. It's also depressing that for a band who was at least somewhat known in the international vk fandom, they didn't even manage to sell THAT many extra copies - which makes one wonder if it's even worth all the logistical hassle at all.
 

i think the so-called "promotion" is exaggerated because (i) most of the supposed promotion we do (esp in the form of piracy *cough*) does almost nothing for the target market segment of the bands, i.e. people who can and will go to their lives; (ii) as @Komorebi has mentioned, most of us would be like OMGZ THIS BAND IS GOOD and proceed to recline deeper into our armchair waiting for someone else to upload the band's next release. maybe this sounds a little harsh, but it's supremely arrogant of us to think that the band is obliged to go out of their way to cater to the convenience of international fans when they have literally nothing to gain other than "international exposure"--which in most cases is little more than the comfort offered by the thought that there are now 10 more people outside Japan listening to their music and typing 'awwww they were good' in a forum somewhere when they are on the brink of disbandment.
 
no one's blaming oversea fans for poor sales so much as they are pointing out that in making venue-limited music readily available (through streaming or mail order), the band exacts a potentially high price on the revenue from lives and buppan sales, which is their main, if not exclusive, source of profit. let's bear in mind that most indie bands in fact make only enough copies of CDs to offset the production costs involved, and selling 1 CD at buppan is roughly equivalent to having to sell 2 CDs through VK CD shops, which is why small bands usually start off with live-limited cds before having shops carry their music a few releases later when they don't need the live proceeds that desperately. obviously one could complain about the questionable efficiency of a CD-based industry today (as opposed to one based in digital distribution), but that's a different conversation and the scope of that problem exceeds the specificity of vk. if i'm a bandman doing the cost-benefit analysis in view of existing structural constraints, i would have done the exact same thing. 
 
i'm far from loaded and would prefer it if i didn't have to stalk auctions for a year before paying 20k yen for a CD that was handed out for free. but it's easier to take it less personally if we actually remember that the bands aren't charity organizations whose raison d'etre is to hand out their music to as many people as possible even if it's financially unsustainable. for me, at the end of the day it all comes down to judging how much time/effort/money i'm willing to commit to seeking out these rare CDs, and as with everything there's a point beyond which it's just not worth it anymore. (this is also easier to accept if we realize that a lot of japanese fans, too, have to make huge sacrifices time- and money-wise to get the stuff they want.)
 
there are 2 concessions i'll make though. the first: where it gets annoying and unacceptable to me is when bands deliberately make it absurdly difficult for fans who can/will attend their lives to get releases, by coming up with tricks like 'assemble ticket stubs for 3 lives in our tour and present them at the tour final buppan for a special CD.' i get tetchy when bands try to milk fans who are already doing all they can to support the band. the other is the open question of whether it's conceptually possible to make live limited CDs available to international fans while not hurting their live/buppan sales. BLESSCODE tried something like that when they sold Eau de toilette and Bizarre on the Vstar webshop and made it such that only international fans were allowed to purchase them online. But this plainly isn't feasible for bands who lack the relevant connections and I can't see bandmen who aren't as insanely enthusiastic as masaya about making it "fair" for everyone to get their music putting in half that much effort. It's also depressing that for a band who was at least somewhat known in the international vk fandom, they didn't even manage to sell THAT many extra copies - which makes one wonder if it's even worth all the logistical hassle at all.
 

i think the so-called "promotion" is exaggerated because (i) most of the supposed promotion we do (esp in the form of piracy *cough*) does almost nothing for the target market segment of the bands, i.e. people who can and will go to their lives; (ii) as @Komorebi has mentioned, most of us would be like OMGZ THIS BAND IS GOOD and proceed to recline deeper into our armchair waiting for someone else to upload the band's next release. maybe this sounds a little harsh, but it's supremely arrogant of us to think that the band is obliged to go out of their way to cater to the convenience of international fans when they have literally nothing to gain other than "international exposure"--which in most cases is little more than the comfort offered by the thought that there are now 10 more people outside Japan listening to their music and typing 'awwww they were good' in a forum somewhere when they are on the brink of disbandment.
 
no one's blaming oversea fans for poor sales so much as they are pointing out that in making venue-limited music readily available (through streaming or mail order), the band exacts a potentially high price on the revenue from lives and buppan sales, which is their main, if not exclusive, source of profit. let's bear in mind that most indie bands in fact make only enough copies of CDs to offset the production costs involved, and selling 1 CD at buppan is roughly equivalent to having to sell 2 CDs through VK CD shops, which is why small bands usually start off with live-limited cds before having shops carry their music a few releases later when they don't need the live proceeds that desperately. obviously one could complain about the questionable efficiency of a CD-based industry today (as opposed to one based in digital distribution), but that's a different conversation and the scope of that problem exceeds the specificity of vk. if i'm a bandman doing the cost-benefit analysis in view of existing structural constraints, i would have done the exact same thing. 
 
i'm far from loaded and would prefer it if i didn't have to stalk auctions for a year before paying 20k yen for a CD that was handed out for free. but it's easier to take it less personally if we actually remember that the bands aren't charity organizations whose raison d'etre is to hand out their music to as many people as possible even if it's financially unsustainable. for me, at the end of the day it all comes down to judging how much time/effort/money i'm willing to commit to seeking out these rare CDs, and as with everything there's a point beyond which it's just not worth it anymore. (this is also easier to accept if we realize that a lot of japanese fans, too, have to make huge sacrifices time- and money-wise to get the stuff they want.)
 
there are 2 concessions i'll make though. the first: where it gets annoying and unacceptable to me is when bands deliberately make it absurdly difficult for fans who can/will attend their lives to get releases, by coming up with tricks like 'assemble ticket stubs for 3 lives in our tour and present them at the tour final buppan for a special CD.' i get tetchy when bands try to milk fans who are already doing all they can to support the band. the other is the open question of whether it's conceptually possible to make live limited CDs available to international fans while not hurting their live/buppan sales. BLESSCODE tried something like that when they sold Eau de toilette and Bizarre on the Vstar webshop and made it such that only international fans were allowed to purchase them online. But this plainly isn't feasible for bands who lack the relevant connections and I can't see bandmen who aren't as insanely enthusiastic as masaya about making it "fair" for everyone to get their music putting in half that much effort. It's also depressing that for a band who was at least somewhat known in the international vk fandom, they didn't even manage to sell THAT many extra copies - which makes one wonder if it's even worth all the logistical hassle at all.
 

i think the so-called "promotion" is exaggerated because (i) most of the supposed promotion we do (esp in the form of piracy *cough*) does almost nothing for the target market segment of the bands, i.e. people who can and will go to their lives; (ii) as @Komorebi has mentioned, most of us would be like OMGZ THIS BAND IS GOOD and proceed to recline deeper into our armchair waiting for someone else to upload the band's next release. maybe this sounds a little harsh, but it's supremely arrogant of us to think that the band is obliged to go out of their way to cater to the convenience of international fans when they have literally nothing to gain other than "international exposure"--which in most cases is little more than the comfort offered by the thought that there are now 10 more people outside Japan listening to their music and typing 'awwww they were good' in a forum somewhere when they are on the brink of disbandment.
 
no one's blaming oversea fans for poor sales so much as they are pointing out that in making venue-limited music readily available (through streaming or mail order), the band exacts a potentially high price on the revenue from lives and buppan sales, which is their main, if not exclusive, source of profit. let's bear in mind that most indie bands in fact make only enough copies of CDs to offset the production costs involved, and selling 1 CD at buppan is roughly equivalent to having to sell 2 CDs through VK CD shops, which is why small bands usually start off with live-limited cds before having shops carry their music a few releases later when they don't need the live proceeds that desperately. obviously one could complain about the questionable efficiency of a CD-based industry today (as opposed to one based in digital distribution), but that's a different conversation and the scope of that problem exceeds the specificity of vk. if i'm a bandman doing the cost-benefit analysis in view of existing structural constraints, i would have done the exact same thing. 
 
i'm far from loaded and would prefer it if i didn't have to stalk auctions for a year before paying 20k yen for a CD that was handed out for free. but it's easier to take it less personally if we actually remember that the bands aren't charity organizations whose raison d'etre is to hand out their music to as many people as possible even if it's financially unsustainable. for me, at the end of the day it all comes down to judging how much time/effort/money i'm willing to commit to seeking out these rare CDs, and as with everything there's a point beyond which it's just not worth it anymore. (this is also easier to accept if we realize that a lot of japanese fans, too, have to make huge sacrifices time- and money-wise to get the stuff they want.)
 
there are 2 concessions i'll make though. the first: where it gets annoying and unacceptable to me is when bands deliberately make it absurdly difficult for fans who can/will attend their lives to get releases, by coming up with tricks like 'assemble ticket stubs for 3 lives in our tour and present them at the tour final buppan for a special CD.' i get tetchy when bands try to milk fans who are already doing all they can to support the band. the other is the open question of whether it's conceptually possible to make live limited CDs available to international fans while not hurting their live/buppan sales. BLESSCODE tried something like that when they sold Eau de toilette and Bizarre on the Vstar webshop and made it such that only international fans were allowed to purchase them online. But this plainly isn't feasible for bands who lack the relevant connections and I can't see bandmen who aren't as insanely enthusiastic as masaya about making it "fair" for everyone to get their music putting in half that much effort. It's also depressing that for a band who was at least somewhat known in the international vk fandom, they didn't even manage to sell THAT many extra copies - which makes one wonder if it's even worth all the logistical hassle at all.
 

DOG. IS. BACK.
 

 
 
edit: also loving the music wheeee

Literally so good like I think this might be my favorite single by them cuz all 3 tracks sound stellar.  The fucking piano in the beginning kills me because I love when songs incorporate piano ughhhhh and Shogo looks SO GOOD and that chorus has me screaming. I feel like Shogo could have singlehandedly slayed 2018 honestly. Can't forget my lion tho shredding that solo. God everything about this song and PV is perfect ❤️ Much better than that 2nd album they released.
 
@hiroki I thought of you when shogo checks himself out in the mirror like "mmmm yeah i look good enough to go by hiroki's house later"

There are three things that come to mind right away. The first is the first time I saw TRA TRA TRA. I wasn't even there to see them, I was actually there to see LOUD GRAPE before they disbanded lol. TRA happened to be the first band to play and the first song they played was Melt. Within the first few beats of the song my friend and I had exchanged looks like "omg yes." I liked them so much that I literally went up to some guy who was in saizen and asked him the name of the band cos I couldn't understand wtf Ryo said when he said their band name lol TRA changed EVERYTHING. They were the first band that I followed super closely, went to almost every live, my first satsuei, my first ensei... not to sound over-dramatic, but without them, I'm not sure I'd be living the way I do now. Hell, I might not even be in Japan still haha. I mean, I literally joined MH so that I could have a place to spazz about them cos I couldn't talk about them enough ahaha
 
Another moment I'll never forget is when I saw 弾丸NO LIMIT (Dangan NO LIMIT) for the first time in a long time. I didn't have a very positive memory of them from the last time I saw them and wasn't expecting much tbh. But as their set continued I realized I really fucking liked them and had no idea why I remember disliking them the last time I saw them haha so I downed my beer so I could join in their set lol and during Sono Uso Honto, Miyuu got too excited and accidentally threw his towel into the crowd and I was lucky enough to catch it and I remember how fucking excited I was haha the whole experience of their set and my reaction and people I met after kind of had a huge affect on my going to lives experience lol
 
And maybe the most special moment was when I saw FoLLoW for the first time. I almost didn't even go to that live for whatever reason I can't remember anymore. But @hiroki had recommended them to me and I must've had the ticket already cos I remember it being a very "I might as well go" kind of feeling and I was all the way in the back and didn't bother switching out with people to get closer or anything. Before the live I thought I'd be Maki gya cos he's hot af lolol but during the live I was super drawn to Masashi. Anyway, the special moment for me was when Masashi started singing Ningyo hime. Never before had I EVER been so affected by a song or live performance. It was insane. I've never felt so emotional at a live up till that point. And that one performance, that one moment, Masashi singing さよなら right before the last 「さよなら」さえ言えなくて line at the end of the song pretty much changed my VK experience. It's kind of impossible to explain what I felt that night haha I still don't quite understand it myself. It wasn't even like I had a strong connection with Masashi before or during that live. In fact, I could have just as well not been there at all and Masashi would have been none the wiser haha but it was definitely one of the most special moments I've experienced in all the lives I've been to.
 
There are a lot of other really special and/or memorable moments I've had, but those three have had an especially huge impact on me and stand out really clearly in my memory. 

I saw 零[Hz] (Zero Hertz) first live at Shinjuku Ruido K4!! IT WAS SO GOOD!
 
SETLIST
1.ZIHARD
2.Mr.SWAGMAN
3.JOKER+28 (this is pronounced as "Joker." you don't say the "+28" part
4.パラフィリア (Paraphilia)
MC
5.CONFLICT
6.トリップランド (Trip Land)
7.Velli SISTEM
MC
8.勿忘草 (Wasurenagusa)
9.REAL
MC
10.AGUL
11.DarthHerz
12.skeles me dop HEADz
 
encore
13.モノクロ (Monochrome)
14.Mr.SWAGMAN
15.DarthHERZ
16.Ophelia
 
I wrote a super long thing about it for people who are interested!! lolol but I realize I may have used some terms that not everyone is familiar with, but I can't be fucked to go back and edit out some of the terminology that I used lol, so for those who don't know:
 
My experience/thoughts:
 
MCs
 
If you haven't yet, you should definitely go buy their album!!! It's super worth it!! I really hope this band does well!!
 
Picspam!!! (from the members's twitter/official twitter/official blog):
 

KURover is pretty good *_*