TheStoic

QFT. Miko is cute and all but Jyou is the one who brings something special as a vocalist.

satsuki's solo career is honestly a joke i feel awful for all ex-RES dudes that had to deal with this

Mysterious new collab single called 月華❁乱れ牡丹, original single released on 02/01/2016 with Eve & Hatsune Miku, guessing the one with Yuuki, for his birthday? No idea.
 

Obviously since judging from your point of view, your opinion is fact and anyone who disagrees with it is just wrong. It's not like anyone might have a different music taste or prefer certain band albums over other more popular ones. God forbid if anyone may have *gasp* a different opinion from you.
Tbh musical taste is subjective, music touches people in different, personal ways. Everything that involves taste could be argued as subjective, that includes music (at least for me).
But hey, I'm just here to enjoy the bands I listen too, not hate on whatever band (this one being Nightmare) for many years due to the fact that they may never touch the undeniable greatness of that 'special album' (this one generally being anima) that you have idolize so much. It's not like 'Carpe Diem' had the fourth highest position album of theirs on the Oricon charts or one of the recent singles 'Rewrite' being the highest charted single in their career to date, despite not being connected to any movie or anime. It seems like they have plenty of fans who would like to disagree with your comment.  Agree or disagree, I'll continue to like the things I like while you can dislike the things you dislike. 

I tried about 10 times to get into Born, and while a few songs caught my ear, they never worked their way into my heart.  Unfortunate to hear they are disbanding, but I am not too heartbroken.

I'm not a fan of sub-par production values on studio recordings from artists or labels - despite the band being talented (I'm looking at you Sel'm...).
 
I also hate fangirl/fanboy immaturity in general - which is rampant in the community.  Typing Random onomatopoeia in all caps and constant doting on certain members (detailing your every sexual fantasy that is never happening) for the sake of the attention is annoying spam, and it bothers me.

I'm not a fan of sub-par production values on studio recordings from artists or labels - despite the band being talented (I'm looking at you Sel'm...).
 
I also hate fangirl/fanboy immaturity in general - which is rampant in the community.  Typing Random onomatopoeia in all caps and constant doting on certain members (detailing your every sexual fantasy that is never happening) for the sake of the attention is annoying spam, and it bothers me.

I'm not a fan of sub-par production values on studio recordings from artists or labels - despite the band being talented (I'm looking at you Sel'm...).
 
I also hate fangirl/fanboy immaturity in general - which is rampant in the community.  Typing Random onomatopoeia in all caps and constant doting on certain members (detailing your every sexual fantasy that is never happening) for the sake of the attention is annoying spam, and it bothers me.

Inability to adapt to the 21st century
 
There are way too many bands that have yet to conform to the digital age. While things certainly have improved, there is still a shocking amount of music that isn't available for purchase digitally. Why? I have no idea. It's fucking stupid if you ask me.

As a fan of progressive metal and the "djent" sound, I'm always glad to hear Giru continue with it in their tonal direction.  I have always liked their ability to weave melodic vocal melodies into their songs as well, while maintaining the heavy edge.  I solid single and look forward to the EP release.

New MV's out!
 

sounds like they're keeping their sound pretty steady, Like what I hear so far!

Wouldn't that be something! Would we even want Touma back? Haha

Satoshi just needs to come back.  Those riffs he created are not the easiest to replicate, and I always liked his style.

Satoshi just needs to come back.  Those riffs he created are not the easiest to replicate, and I always liked his style.

Satoshi just needs to come back.  Those riffs he created are not the easiest to replicate, and I always liked his style.

Satoshi just needs to come back.  Those riffs he created are not the easiest to replicate, and I always liked his style.

Great Thread as I am a sucker for nostalgia trips.

Since this page features Japanese music, I will start off with the nostalgic tracks that introduced me to my love of Japanese music.

Bump of Chicken - 天体観測 [Tentai Kansoku]

I moved from Southern California to Okinawa Japan during my sophmore year of high school in 2001. At school I quickly made friends with a half Japanese-half American friend, Charles (AKA Cha), who introduced me to Japanese culture, music, movies, food - you name it. One of our favorite past times was to go to the local Arcade after school and play Guitar Freaks and Drum Mania together. This game introduced me to many of my first Japanese favorites, such as Hide (Rocket Dive), Hitomi Yaida (Andante; My Sweet Darling), the Blue Hearts (Train-Train) and Penecillin (Romance). However, the song that resonated most with me and was our favorite to play together was 天体観測 [Tentai Kansoku] by Bump of Chicken. After hearing this song, I bought the Flame Vein EP and Jupiter album soon after, and fell in love with every song from both records. To this day - those songs all take me back to that time.




ケツメイシ　[Ketsumeishi] - トモダチ [Tomodachi]

Due to the fact I lived in Okinawa, ケツメイシ [Ketsumeishi] songs were ubiquitous. The group was from the island, and Cha adored them. Due to the fact the group had multiple emcees in every song, Me, Cha, and my other good friend Shawn would pick an member to sing as at Karaoke, and would sing their songs together. For us, Friday nights were defined by Karaoke. Our small group of friends would fit into a small Japanese Karaoke room and sing out throats sore, and this song was always the last one on the playlist to sing together. It became our anthem, and now that I am older, and our friends are spread all over the globe in different palces, the lyrics hit so close they make me cry for those times again. It is a song that pierces my emotions - and makes me miss my best friends - friends I will probably never see again.



Dir en grey - Ain't Afraid to Die

After my friends and I became infatuated with Japanese music from Guitar Freaks/Drum Mania and Karaoke, I knew that I wanted to find other artists to listen to with more of a hard rock edge that I loved. As a result, I started going to blogs and internet pages about Japanese Rock, and started listening to the classic artists of 90s VK, such as X-Japan (from my love of Hide), Luna Sea, L'arc~en~ciel, Siam Shade, Janne Da Arc, and Gackt. In the English speaking blogs I joined, these groups were among the most popular - but when I saw the song of the week on one site as Ain't Afraid to Die by Dir en grey, I fell in love with the song. It was darker and more melancholy than the other artists, and I was transfixed by it. Once Kisou 鬼葬 [Kisou] was released in 2002, I bought it immediately - and I fell in love with it. From that day, I was obsessed with Diru and bought all of their past work, and eagerly awaiting every subsequent release. If it was not for this song, I never would have gotten into VK or bought albums by my other early favorites, like Mucc, D'espairsRay, and the GazettE after reading magazines like Fool's mate and Shoxxx in music stores. 


The rest is history. Now over half my music collection is Japanese. All because of these three songs most likley.

I voted for more non-VK reviews, since I am already into the VK scene, I'm always looking for new artists to follow.
 
However, the best of the month lists are a favorite of mine now since I get a ton of new artist exposure through that meduim, so it mostly satiates that desire.

Another Story is a brilliant album.

meth. permanent revival would be better but i'll take what i can get.

yesssss