Bear

I'm not visual kei genius, but isn't X Japan more or less the essence of visual kei? I've always considered them THE visual kei band. They were what visual kei was all about. By the way, this is awesome:

X Japan (around 84-85? Anyone?)

One of the best X Japan photos. Fanfuckintasticly badass! The picture reminds me of Motley Crue around 82-83.

Yeah, no idea why they went with a name like this. Doesn't fit at all. And what's up with that snare? Hilarious.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 & 2 - Great cartoon based off Frank Miller's fantastic The Dark Knight Returns. I prefer the comic book, but this was a great adaption nonetheless. The oen thing bothering me is the whole PG-13 thing. But other than that this is a faithful and well-made cartoon that deserves your attention. Great stuff!

The Man from the Deep River - This is the move that started off the whole cannibal genre, even though the boom wouldn't come before 6-7 years after this was released. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed by this now. Remembered it as way better than this. But it's still very enjoyable, and worth watching if you're into this kind of films, but if you're only gonna watch one, two or three cannibal films, or one or two Umberto Lenzi films, this is not the one I would pick. but yeah, well worth watching. Good stuff.

Catch Me If You Can - This is hands down one of Leonardo DiCaprio's best performances ever. Damn fine film, this is. Funny thing with Leo is that I was never impressed with him before 2002, then in 2002 he's in two films and suddenly he's this damn amazing actor. He's amazing in both Gangs of New York and Catch Me If You Can. Weird. Anyway, great film!

I mean OK, you can sound ultra indies and inexperienced for up to 3 releases, but then you must show skills and improvement.

And why is this? Does music automatically get better or more interesting if you start showing skills and "improvement"? If a band continues to make fantastic music, why do they have to change anything at all?

You've got to be blind not to see the similarity between the glam scene and old visual kei scene. Also, you do know that Kiss didn't become a glam inspired band before around 83, after they removed their black & white make-up, right? This is what Kiss looked like after they began flirting with the glam-scene, but they were never an actual glam band, thugh:

Would you care to exlain why and how any of those videos would be shocking to anyone? What's shocking with them? Because I fail to see it to be honest.

 

Visual kei has also lost some of the shock factor that i once loved. The musicians look more like those host boys of japan today.

 

Of course the shock factor is gone. A shock factor will only be shocking for so long until it's not shocking anymore. This goes for everything. But I fail to see why this would matter at all.

 

Why wouldn't it matter? Isn't shock the very definition of what visual kei was intended to be? does "Psychedelic violence crime of visual shock" ring any bells? And it doesn't even have to be only about looks, It can be with controversial or taboo lyrics, contrasting themes or ideas, blending of musical genre's, etc.

 

I don't know when you got into visual kei, but I got into visual kei very late (2005 or something around there) and there was no shock value left at that point. And therefore I don't give a fuck about shock value, as nothing like that has been a part of visual kei (or anything music related) since I got into it.

This was discussed in another thread (and have been discussed to death I imagine), but it's still a fun and interesting topic IMO.

Have you ever been shocked by a band's image/lyrical themes or anything like that?

Do you still think it's possible to be shocking in 2014?

What would a band have to do to shock you?

I think the closest thing to shock value that has worked in my time was old live clips of GG Allin shitting on stage, smearing himself in with it, dragging girls by their hair and beating/fighting the audience. Sakevi of G.I.S.M. getting a flame thrower and attacking the audience. And Woods of Infinity's pedophilia flirt, but this was because of some rather creepy pictures on their website, and not the lyrics alone.

But when I got into music, even these things wasn't very shocking anymore. It was "wtf" for about five minutes, then it got rather old already. So yeah, I've enver experience any real shocking as far as music goes. Have you?

And the few bands that have tried to be shocking since I got much into harder music such as punk and metal (00/01 or something) have falled flat on their asses and failed miserably. Shock value is gone, and it's been like that for a long, long, long time as everything that is shocking has been used to death way before my time as a serious listener.

Why wouldn't it matter? Isn't shock the very definition of what visual kei was intended to be? does "Psychedelic violence crime of visual shock" ring any bells? And it doesn't even have to be only about looks, It can be with controversial or taboo lyrics, contrasting themes or ideas, blending of musical genre's, etc.

I don't know when you got into visual kei, but I got into visual kei very late (2005 or something around there) and there was no shock value left at that point. And therefore I don't give a fuck about shock value, as nothing like that has been a part of visual kei (or anything music related) since I got into it.

Of course the shock factor is gone. A shock factor will only be shocking for so long until it's not shocking anymore. This goes for everything. But I fail to see why this would matter at all.

Did you even bother reading her/his post before commenting on it? He/she's saying that in this version (removed some songs and changed the track list) it's a damn good. So the score matches his/her words very well.

This thread is pretty dead so I doubt people care, but Empyrium is releasing a new album this year. Their first since 2014. I am very excited for that. Should be damn good.

A Band Called Death - In the 70's three black brothers decided they wanted to play rock 'n' roll that was out of this would heavy. They enjoyed acts such as Alice Copper and The Who and wanted to play that kind of music. These guys came from Detroit, and being black, it was all about the Motown sound. These guy enjoyed those hits, but wanted to play something else. This was not accepted by the people in the area. Playing loud, noisy music in your bedroom weren't what people liked around here. But these guys didn't give a fuck and did what they wanted. They called their band Death, and at this time, it was not well recieved. Lots of people were interested, but no-one would release anything by a band called Death. They were offered a record deal worth 20k but one member, but only if they changed their name. One member, the leader of the band, said no to that. He was not interested. "If you give them the title to our band, then you might as well give them everything else..." And because of that these guys struggled and soon disappeared. 35 years later their debut album got released, and it is not a cult-classic and a prime example of protopunk. This isn't a documentary about a bands' bitterness or jealosy. Not even close. This is about family, to stand for what you believe and do what you want. Don't give in. One of the members of the band, the leader, didn't get to see their first album released as he had died by then. But this documentary offers interviews with the two other members, their families and some fans, as well as Alice Cooper, Henry Rollins (Black Flag) and Questlove (THe Roots) among others.

David Hackney was a prime example of how a musician should be. Don't give in and don't fucking compromise, even if it means you won't get your record out there. Legend!

This is a mustsee for anyone into rock, punk or just a damn good story.

PS: Their debut album, ...For The Whole World To See, was released in 2009 and is bloody brilliant. Hard and heavy protopunk that preceded the likes of The Ramones, Bad Brains and Sex Pistols. Check out Politicians In My Eyes. That chorus, man. Jesus christ!

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - The first one was really enjoyable, but this is a couple of steps up. You don't get much of Channing Tatum, none Joseph Gordon-Levitt and non-stop action. Good? No. Entertaining? Fuck yeah! Cheesy as fuck!

That's pretty fun. Can't stop laughing.

Carach Angren - Lammendam

Carach Angren - Death Came Through a Phantom Ship

Carach Angren - Where the Corpses Sink Forever

These guys know how to write very good symphonic black metal, but they don't know shit about how symphonic black metal should sound. These three albums are overproduced to the point where they become boring, despite being filled with great music from A to Å. It's way too polished and doesn't fit the music one bit.

Chthonic - Seediq Bale

Chthonic - Mirror of Retribution

Same problem as above, just that the music is even better. Fantastic music overproduced to the point where it's almost impossible to listen to them. Can't handle more than a couple of songs at a time because of the awful production.

Gorgoroth - Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt

The music on this albums is pretty damn good, but the production is awful. It sounds so plasticesque and it is all so very unfitting.

Dimmu Borgir - Stormblåst

Awful production that keeps me away from listening to it. The original is weakly produced. They wanted the same sound as Arcturus had on their debut, but the guy who produced that one had left and they got someone else who didn't know shit about it. So they are exusted here. But the re-recording is even worse. Overproduced to the point where it becomes unlistenable.

It's as if none of these artists or their producers had heard a black metal album before and knew how to properly produce it. I'd love to find out what these bands and their producers where thinking.

I could mention 500 more albums to be honest, and that would just be metal. Some bands and producers, man. Jesus.

Cannibal ferox - I've been recommended peole cannibal flicks lately and realised it was about time I rewatched a few of them myself. I started with my all time cannibal favourite Cannibal ferox, and it has stood the test of time. Fantastic film that I've always considered better than both Eaten Alive! and Cannibal Holocaust. That's how amazing this film is. The gore scenes er brutal as fuck, the acting is what you expect and the overall atmosphere is brilliant. Amazing film!

Pieces - This film has two taglines. 1) "Pieces... It's exactly what you think it is! ", and 2) "You don't have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre!". The seond is the best tagline of all time, and it retty much describes this film very well. Pieces was a drive-in favorite at the time it was released and it's easy to understand why. Über violent slasher sleaze with amazing murders and cool atmosphere. It's just a great piece of 80's sleze cinema. It also has one of the most random, memorable scenes ever as well. If you've seen it you know which one. Great film!

Fascination - Jean Rollin is well known for making erotic horror films, mostly vampire films, and this is one of those. I've seen it before, and I still love it. It has a dream-like atmosphere, it's visually stunning, the dialog is very cool and the acting is pretty good. But it's the atmosphere that makes this film. Its pacing is slow and its surely takes its time to build up, but it does it so well. And the schyte scene. Damn, it's fine! Being an erotic horror films this obviously is an acquired taste, but do not misunderstand; this isn't a porno film or a softcore film or anything like that. It's just a horror film with a bit of erotica to it.

30USD is a normal price for CDs in Norway.

 I was expecting a horror movie though. xD

And that's what you got, because Black Swan is a horror film.

Awesome, Jigsy, and a bit surprising.

You'll find a shitload of behind the scenes pictures from all kinds of movies, but I've got a weak spot for behind the scenes pictures from Godzilla flicks. So much awesomeness! Some of the best behind the scenephos along with the ones from Metropolis.

What a lot of people don't know is that there's been produced several kaiju films outside of Japan. A lot of eople seem to think that kaiju is only Japanese monster films. Gorgo (Britain), Yonggary (South-Korea) and even Ghostbusters (USA) is also Kaiju flicks. Even the North-Korean propaganda flick Pulgasari.

For those of you who does not know the story of Pulgasari:

Kim Jong-il wanted North-Korea to make great films so be shown international, and he was a huge fan of South-Korean actress Choi Eun-hee and director Shin Sang-ok, but due to the problems between South-Korea and North-Korea, Kim had first Choi kidnapped before Sang got himself kidnapped too, and Kim made him them make this, and 8 other films, for him. They were held in North-Korea for 8 years before they managed to escape.

Pulgasari can be found on youtube with English sub. Good film!

Some of them are really good as well. Mothra, Daimajin, Rodan, War of the Gargantuas (sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the World), Half Human, The Magic Serpent and so on.

There's so much great shit to choose from. You also have non-Japanese films that would go into this category. A lot.

A lot of these are also Ishirō Honda films, which alone is a sign of quality in itself, and the likes of Mothra and Rodan and many others have also been in up to several Godzilla films.

I'm pretty sure it was for the shock value and aesthetic reasons, and each band tried to be more extreme than the previous one and took it another step in the more extreme direction. Heavy Metal Army, G.I.S.M., Mein Kampf, Rosenfeld, Rommel. Not only did it shock, but it also looked "badass". And all this was around the same time as Brazilian bands like Sepultura, Holocausto, Escola Alemã did the same, Atheist and others did it in America. I think Slayer was flirting a bit with it too, without being too sure. So yeah, I am pretty sure it was nothing more to it than this than that.

Off topic, but still: Lemmy of Motorhead had one of the largest nazi memorabilia collections in America, and thee's pictures of him with nazi uniform and all that around on the web. But for him it is all about the aesthetics, and nothing else.

And Jeff Hanneman of Slayer used to have a huge collection of nazi memorabilia.

Rosenfeld? Fucking hell, man! This should get a proper DVD release. Brilliant band, and one of the best VK bands ever.

 

but does anyone else see something off about Sui at a neo-nazi concert?

Neo-nazi concert? What?  I don't know about Rapes, but Rosenfeld were never neo-nazis as far as I know. They, just like a billion other metal bands around the world at the time, used the swastikas and all that nazi stuff the same way the punks before them did. Just for the shock value. Nothing in it.

Yeah, a supergroup they are. Scott from legendary crust punkers Doom, Adrian Erlandsson from legendary melodic death metallers At the Gates, Hamish Hamilton Glencross from legendary epic doom metallers Solstice and death/doomersMy Dying Bride and Gregor Mackintosh from legendary death/doomers Paradise Lost.

I was very disappoitned with Vallenfyre's debut album. It wasn't bad, but not very impressive either. I'll rather listen to billion of other, (new) doomy death metal bands that does it a lot better.

As for Paradise Lost, they're two first albums are amazing, as well as the demo compilation Drown in Darkness - The Early Demos. Their next two-three albums are allright as well, though nothing outstanding. Absolute worth checking out. I'm not too keen on the things released after that, but if one's into goth rock/metal there's absolute some things of quality to get there as well.

I have to bite your leg when you call it dark metal (yes, I know you meant it's dark metal, not as in the genre ). Not that dark metal is a real genre, but for some reason it always worked fine when talking about the good, ol' Bethlehem albums. One of them named Dark Metal as well. It's not exactly black metal, it's not death metal and it's not doom metal, but something inbetween all these genres. Bethlehem was a very unique band.

Apcalyptic Dance, from Dark Metal

Schatten Aus Der Alexander Welt , from Dictius Te Necare

Teufelverrückt Gottdreizehn, from Sardonischer Untergang im Zeichen irreligiöser Darbietung (SUIZID)

Three great songs from the great, unique albums. The vocals on Dictius Te Necare, by Rainer Landfermann, is one of my all tiem favourite vocal performances. The vocals are extreme as fuck, tormenting, uncomforting, cold and insane. A bit like the vocals in Silencer, but unlike the Silencer dude Landfermann doesn't come off as a clown.

"Until "Dictius Te Necare", Bethlehem faced censorship and was even banned from playing in some German cities. It started when Matton gave one copy of their first demo to a 14 year-old boy. After a while his mother started to call the band, saying that because of their music, her son become aggressive and built a "Satanic altar" in his room. In cooperation with other parents, they started a crusade against Bethlehem and their "satanic" music (ironically, Bethlehem were never satanic)."

I haven't seen the new Godzilla, so I am not gonna say anything about than one. I am looking forward to, it's a Godzilla film after all. But I don't have high expectations. And there's been man Godzilla films where the focus has layed on other monsters. So that's not a new thing.

And you have much to look forward to. There will never be any Godzilla film as good as the first one, but a lot of the sequels are amazing as well. One thing to remember, though, is that as Godzilla got popular the films turned into kid's movies and stuff. That's a fine thing to remember.

Yeah, it was. Such a shame. The man is nothing short of a legend.

Former Celtic Frost bandmates Tom Gabriel Fischer and Martin Eric Ain have paid tribute to the Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger who passed away in Zurich on May 12.

Giger's painting Satan I adorned the cover of Celtic Frost's second album To Mega Therion and the artist remained friends with Fischer until his passing. The singer, who now fronts Triptykon, issued the following statement to the media.

"For the first time in 74 years, last night was a night not illuminated by the indescribable light that was H.R. Giger.

H.R. Giger became our mentor, against all odds, when we, somewhat audaciously, first established contact with him some 30 years ago. At a time when almost everybody ridiculed, ignored, or even obstructed the music the then almost completely unknown Swiss underground band Hellhammer was creating, Giger listened to us, talked to us, and gave us a chance. Not least at a time when he was at one of many peaks of his path.

A little more than a year later, his exceptionally stunning art made what might be one of Celtic Frost's most important albums, To Mega Therion, even more significant. Other links to Giger's universe also manifested themselves, almost as if it was predestined.

Eventually, after many more years, the mentorship became a friendship. It was a friendship and a personal connection I valued infinitely, and it also included his wonderful wife, Carmen, and many other remarkable people that were part of his universe.

When Celtic Frost came to an end so acrimoniously in 2008, H.R. Giger and his wife were among those who witnessed my uncontained despair and stood by me. That Giger subsequently agreed to collaborate with my new group, Triptykon, and thus enabled us to release our first album, Eparistera Daimones, with one of his most dramatic paintings on the cover meant the world to me.

It apparently pleased Giger, too. He told me so on several occasions, and he completely stunned me in October 2011 by proposing that we continue the collaboration between him and Triptykon. I would have never asked for such a thing, because I never would have wanted to appear insatiable. He brushed such reservations aside, and it was his mentorship, friendship, and art that enabled us, once again, to release a second album on which music and cover art formed a seamless symbiosis. Only a few weeks ago, he held the result in his hands and loved it.

Regardless of anything I may write about H.R. Giger, however, none of these words will ever be able to truly, accurately describe him as a person and as a friend. It is utterly inconceivable to imagine a world without his wit, his perception, his genius, his horizon, his determination, his humour, his friendship, and his immeasurable kindness. And yet, we are now left in exactly such a world."

Contacted by TeamRock, Fischer's former Celtic Frost bandmate, bassist Martin Eric Ain, also offered his condolences.

"I was shocked to hear of H.R. Giger's untimely passing," he said. "Giger was an artistic giant with a fantasique vision and at the same time he was a humble human being. And he was the first to truly believe in Hellhammer / Celtic Frost and for that i'm ever grateful. H.R. Giger will be sorely missed but never forgotten, his art is not of this world that he has now left behind. My thoughts are with his family and friends."