Bear

As far as Japanese music goes I think I have to go with Pyg's Flower Rain Rain. No idea what they're singing about, but it's such a beautiful track. It was more or less made famous in the west when Boris covered it on their album Smile, but the original is better. Good stuff! If not this, then a Kohh track or something. Maybe a bit of a weird choice, but the beats, flow and lyrics in these two songs are gorgeous to my ears. Pretty slow too, as well as very emotional.

Finally a new She Past Away. album. After one listen it's far from as good as their previous stuff, but it still sounds really good. Not as dark, a bit weirder and less catchy. But check it out, guys.

Matty Matheson, man. What an absolutely beast of a human being. Genius, if I may say so. Hilarious guy! Best quote: That's a perfect tomato salad, you can't even see the tomatoes. He's so cool that even the comment section looks good: -"So much oil that the USA wants to invade it."

You and Famine both. You'll end up partying with Famine and the guys from М8Л8ТХ and Adolfkvlt. Everyone dressed in black pants (doesn't matter if it's jeans or sweatpants, as long as it's black), black jackets (leather or bomber jacket), a black cap and a black fanny pack.

Can't believe no one is talking about this album. This is technical death metal drenched with absurd synth and magic atmosphere. Occult, futuristic sci-fi death metal. Masterpiece! It's not quite as good as The Key, but it does sound like The Key. This could've been an album filled with tracks that were deemed not good enough for The Key, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Not at all. This is up there with the best death metal albums of the last two-two and a half decades. Dear god!

The first thing you should do is to look outside of the top 20 charts. Because there's not a lack of rapper who either go fully old school, lean towards the old school or just experiment quite a lot. I can see artists and groups like Run the Jewels, EL-P, Killer Mike, Czarface, Ruste Juxx, Reks, Earl Sweatshirt, Flatbush Zombies, Chance the Rapper, Freddie Gibbs, Madvillain and more just to mention some. And then you have legends like Ghostface Killah releasing Twelve Reasons to Die in 2013 and Twelve Reasons to Die II in 2015, both among the best hip hop albums ever released. So hip hop is still going strong in the US. Hip hop is a lot more than what the teens listens to today, just like Jrock and visual kei are way more than anime openings and endings.

The Music Box - This movie feels a bit like an international movie with people from all "across the world" in the roles, as well as an Italian director. A bit like they did in the 60's, 70's and 80's in Italy, but back then they just dubbed everything so it was fine. Here they all speak english and a lot of them seem so uncomfortable in their roles, and the acting are for most part stiff as hell. Story is decent and all, but the acting just didn't do the movie any favors. Skip. The Perfection - Smart, fun and twisted horror movie that does a lot right. I ain't gonna say much about it other than that it is recommended, because as soon as you watch a trailer or read a plot synopsis you've ruined the best part of the experience. Recommended! Netflix acquired the rights to it too, so it's available there. Book of Monsters - Fun little low-budget b-movie with a lot of homages to previous horror movies. It was made and financed by a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, and the cool thing is that the people who donated got to help decide the creature designs. That's very cool! They also got to vote on one of the characters and what he was supposed to be. Not the best movie overall, but cool monster design and loads of practical special effects does help a lot. Another cool thing where the obvious homage to classics via the monsters.It was six of them all in all. The masked slasher villain, a beast, critter, shapeshifter, abomination and yurei. You'll recognize these from movies like Friday the 13th, An American Werewolf in London, Critters, Alien, The Thing and Ringu. Cool shit indeed. The Funhouse - Very cool early 80's slasher by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Great atmosphere, good setting and nice acting. Not one of the best slashers in the 80's, but top notch nonetheless. It Came from Outer Space - mid 50's horror sci-fi classic that's just...awesome. It's really cool and feels almost surreal at times. It's not Jack Arnold's best movie, and it doesn't really come close to Tarantula or Creature from the Black Lagoon , but it's as gooas e.g Boss Nigger and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Must-see for fans of 50's sci-fi.

Fuck me, The Boys looks neat as hell. Is this the superhero series we've all been waiting for? Looks really absurd and fucked up. Haven't read it, but will see if I can pick it up pretty soon. Seems a must-read.

Captain Marvel - This has gotten pretty mediocre reviews, but I don't get why. One of the very best MCU films so far if you ask me. And there's two very simple reasons for that. 1) it doesn't feel like a MCU-film at all, and 2) it doesn't feel like a superhero movie. And this is what I would say about all of my top 5 MCU films. My favourite MCU films are those that are different and doesn't feel like a standard superhero or MCU movie. This feels more like a half-corny sci-fi actioner, than an actual superhero movie. And I like that. But ti does suffer from a lot of dodgy CGI and the 10-15 minutes where she wnet bananas and looked like Superman on steroids. But other than that I found this to be really solid and entertaining. Stockholm - "Based on the absurd but true 1973 bank heist and hostage crisis in Stockholm that was documented in the New Yorker as the origins of the 'Stockholm Syndrome'.". This black comedy/crime movie stars and EXCELLENT Ethan Hawke who really carries the majority of the film on his shoulders, but Noomi Rapace were surprisingly good, and Mark Strong and Christopher Heyerdahl delivers some very good performances as well. I honestly thought this was really funny. Absurd, weird, wicked, witty as hell and exciting. Very much recommended!

Fuck yes! This track fuckin' rips!

https://thegrindmother.bandcamp.com/ This is the type of band that will be seen as a gimmicky joke band, but Grindmother, consisting of RainForest (Corrupt Leaders) and Grindmother herself who's RainForest's 70 year old fucking mom. But this shit is actually legit as fuck. Their debut EP, Age of Destruction, is 10 tracks and 12 minutes of brutal grindcore in the vein of Wormrot. So it's more than a gimmick, it's actually legit and enjoyable grindcore.

You do that. A few more: Eastern Front 1914 Minenwerfer Truppensturm Zerstörer

Slagmark is another pretty cool band. Pretty unique technical black metal.

Ah, aight. Well: Endstille, espcially Dominanz. Very cool album. Vreid Operation Winter Mist War (Sweden) Cobalt Harza I think most of those are war themed, if not only war themed.

Do you mean war themed black metal? Cuz war metal (also known as bestial black metal) is something entirely different. War metal are bands that play a mixture of mostly black and death metal, and now and then they' mix in thrash and grindcore as well. Some notable bands worth checking out: Blasphemy Archgoat Black Witchery Beherit (The Oath of Black Blood) Sadomator/Sadogoat Abhorer

As a fan of black metal I obviously disagree, and I don't really see how THIS or THIS sound more like a stray dog being beaten to death with a tambourine than THIS and THIS. But to each their own. I love both the VK songs I posted btw. But I do agree with the first part of your post.

It does, but the similarity ends there IMO. These VK prettyboiz uses it for shock value or just because it actually looks good/cool whatever, and probably with a poor understanding of the subject. While the black metal musicians actually lives these lives and wholeheartedly believes in the ideology behind it all, and knows a shitload of the history behind it.

1) Do you like X Japan? Yes, I like their old stuff when they were a proper speed/power metal band. Aside from Art of Life I think their 90's stuff are absolute garbage. 2) Do you think they get a lot of undeserved hate around the VK community? No. 3) Opinion on Yoshiki? Disgraceful dick, but was one hell of a cool drummer back in the 80's. 4) Do you think they are overrated? If so why? No, I do not. I think a lot of their 90's releases are overrated as fuck, but not the band as whole. 5) Is the love for X Japan deserved? Why or why not? Yes, because they were influential to DA MAAAAAAAAX and great as fuck back in the days. 6) Hide or Sugizo? Neither? Honestly don't care about either.

Why not? I've had several friends with benefits and it's been pure joy for both parts with no problems or drama whatsoever. As long as both parts are on the same page and share similar views of how it should be, chances of having a bad experience is pretty low un my experience.

https://batushka-panihida.bandcamp.com/releases The full new Batushka album from Krzysztof Drabikowski. Sounds like more of the same as the debut, and that's cool enough. Probably not gonna play this quite as much as I did the debut when it was released, but it's good. New Denial of God track. Now this is gonna be awesome. Vothana was formed in 2003, released 15 demos, four EPs and a split from 03 to 08, and now, after 11 years of silence, he's back with his debut album. This is gonna be aweomse. Grim and epic black metal in the vein of Moonblood, Vlad Tepes, Lycanthropy's Spell and more. Will probably be among the highlights of the year for me personally.

This is a hard one IMO. I don't know how it is in the VK scene, but in metal and punk and so on its not unsual at all to "steal" music, from just a riff to almost entire songs, or hell, even a bands complete sound, just to pay tribute to artists and bands. And they're not considered rip off at all. But I think it has to do with how it's done, how open the bands are about their influences and so on. But it's hard to draw the line where a band goes from a rip off to a tribute band, and vice versa. And while I have enver read an interview with Grieva, I just don't consider them a rip off. To me they come off as an original tribute band (along the lines of Disclose, Warhammer and so on). Where their only mission is to recreate something great that was lost as time went on. But what do I know? Warhammer spent years and years to hunt down the right equipment so that they could re-create the guitar tone, bass sound and drum sound of Hellhammer. Their covers could also have been Hellhammer cover. But they're never considered a rip off, but an original tribute band. And i think this comes down to how open they are about it. They just want to continue what Hellhammer started. Same with Japanese d-beaters Disclose. Everything about their releases are Discharge influenced. Only fuzzier, nastier and wilder sounding. But again they're a band that were opena bout paying their tributes to their favourite band. And I honestly feel like this is the case with a band like Grieva, but as I have never read an interview with them I don't really know.

Håhåhå! Holy shit guys, Gaahl and co did it. This is just out of this world. Original, atmospheric, epic, grim and dark. A truly unique approach to the pagan side of black metal. Sounds like a mix between Trelldom's classic masterpiece Til et annet... and Helheim's last album, Rignir, which also happens to be a very original sounding album. Well, I can also hear a bit of influence from other new Helheim albums. But that's awesome. A must hear, guys!

Not Japanese, but I would kill to get my hands on the "blood filled" Friday the 13th vinyl that was released some years ago. See through vinyl with moving red liquid inside. Probably the sexiest lp I've ever seen. So smooth!

Furie - I consider myself someone with an above average knowledge on Asian cinema in general, but there's a few countries I do not know at all and I think this is the first Vietnamese movie I've ever seen. Furie is a martial arts/action flick much in the vein of Taken. It doesn't feel as fresh as Taken did, but it does provide way better and more intense action scenes and because of a stunning performance by lead actress Veronica Ngo you get a film that feels much more emotional as well. It's cool, it's stylish, it's brutal and it does make the best out of each scene, despite some of the fights being cut a bit too much. But highly recommended for fans of action.