Bear

Bead, you're making my October the best I've ever had yet.

Early 2000s-late 2000s
Most of my favourite visual kei bands released their best stuff in that period of time, and I am pretty sure that 30+ out of 40 favourite visual kei albums was released during these years. Kagra, Merry, early days of Mucc and Gazette and so on. So this was an easy one.
 
 
1980-mid 1990s comes in second for me because of the early isual kei metal bands from this time. X Japan, Rosenfeld, Aion, Gargoyle, Rommel, Mein Kampf and so on.

1. Do you feel like you are entitled to free music? If you do, why? If you don't, why not?
 
No, but it doesn't really concern me either way. I'll leech as long as I can.
 
2. How do you feel about people refusing to share their music because they want to support the band?
 
I don't think anyone actually believes that not sharing affects the bands revenue in any substantial way, so anyone who uses that either just wants to feel special and important for supporting their favorite bandomens drinking and whoring or uses it as an excuse for not being arsed to share. "Who are you? Why should I share you anything" is a more acceptable response and it should end all whining right then and there. 
 
3. In relation to the second question, what do you think of people who tell others not to share something they themselves paid money for as they think its content is exclusively for those who paid for it?
 
Kids who want feel like they belong. Undoubtedly the same people who come up with stupid names for fanbases like SIXTH GUNS!111 and then paste them everywhere. DON'T SHARE FANCLUB MATERIAL WE R HERESY SIXTH GUNS!!1111 
 
4. Do you think entitlement to free music is worse in visual kei than in other communities?
 
I haven't really seen hoarding and entitlement to the same extent anywhere else, but then again I don't listen to anything else where the demographics are even remotely similar to this. The visual kei scene is a combination of unique set of circumstance that very much enable this kind of behavior, and I don't just refer to entitlement but the hoarding, bragging and idiotic herd mentality ( SIXTH GUNS!!111 DON'T SHAER!!1 ).
 
5. How do you feel about people who deliberately share releases in low bitrates to encourage you to buy the CD?  Do you think that if someone does decide to share, you're entitled to the highest rip?
 
Ugh. If you go through the trouble of sharing something then do it properly or don't do it at all.  
 
6. Have you ever been approached by people, either on Monochrome Heaven or last.fm, who wanted you to share something? If you didn't want to share, how did they react? What did you think of their reaction?
  Yes, but I don't really have much to share so it's never a problem and I always oblige. I understand the begging can probably get extremely irritating for people who are known for having huge collections. 

Early 2000s-late 2000s
Most of my favourite visual kei bands released their best stuff in that period of time, and I am pretty sure that 30+ out of 40 favourite visual kei albums was released during these years. Kagra, Merry, early days of Mucc and Gazette and so on. So this was an easy one.
 
 
1980-mid 1990s comes in second for me because of the early isual kei metal bands from this time. X Japan, Rosenfeld, Aion, Gargoyle, Rommel, Mein Kampf and so on.

I don't think Mortuus were that good on Plague Angel actually. If I'm not mistaken he came after it was written and didn't get to put his touch on the album, and I think that shines through. It's as if they wrote music to fit Legion's vocals, and then he left and Mortuus cae in and they jst didn't bother changing anything. I just don't think it fits his vocals much at all. But that's just my opinion.
 
Rom:512 however, fits like a fat girl in a pair of fat jeans. The production is the best they ever had, and Accuser / Opposer are by far their best song ever. A.A. Nemtheanga is as good as he ever was, and the chemistry between him and Motuus are fantastic. Both helping eachother to sound even better. Impressive song with some impressive vocal work by both.
 
 
Also, gotta add that Mortuus is an insane vocalist. Few harsh vocalists have had such a range. The only people with a bigger vocal ranger than him within the genre, are people who are also talented clean singers. Insane guy. Shame he doesn't sing on many albums that I enjoy though.

Awards are overrated and doesn't mean shit. All these big awards have been a joke since long before I got into films.
 
 
Also, The Room is fantastic. One of very few films I've given 1/10 (which equals so bad it's fantastic).

That guy is annoying. One of the more punchable faces in the world at the moment.

That guy is annoying. One of the more punchable faces in the world at the moment.

That guy is annoying. One of the more punchable faces in the world at the moment.

That guy is annoying. One of the more punchable faces in the world at the moment.

Sleeping Beauty (1959) - Starting with the original, now finally remastered in Blu-Ray. After all these years still one of my favourite Disney movies. The new remaster looks gorgeous if you compare it to the original film. The voice acting is of course very dated but it doesn't really bother me a lot. Watching this classic pretty much convinced me once again that Maleficent is one of the best written Disney villains of all time. Insanely creepy, cruel, but yet so elegant and classy. The christening scene is still my favourite scene of the movie merely for how tense it is. You simply KNOW something bad's going to happen because this lady could possibly not show up uninvited out of spite, right? Great pacing, lovely characters (Merryweather is still my favourite of the fairies!) and an amazing ending battle. Will definitely get the Blu-Ray when it releases in Europe!
 
Maleficent (2014) - Following right up with the reboot. I was really excited for this movie because of Sleeping Beauty being one of my favourites. Did I have high hopes? No, not really. Yet, unlike Bear, I thought it was a good movie. Elle Fanning's acting left something to be desired (overly joyful Aurora started to grate me at some point urgh) and there were a few minor details that bothered me (lack of accuracy when it came to the personality and casting of the three good fairies, Maleficent not turning into a dragon herself) but overall I really liked it. Angelina Jolie slays as evil Maleficent too (DAT CHRISTENING SCENE). I personally wished her make-up and outfits would've resembled the classic outfit a bit more, but that's what it's a reboot for I guess. I'm really not an expert such as Bear is, I just sort of go on "did I like watching it". Which is funny considering how awfully picky in movies I am. But since this movie has mixed reviews the best way to judge would just to watch it yourself.

Killing Them Softly - Oh fuck, what a film! Slow-burning, atmospheric, credible and gritty noir-inspired crime from Andrew Dominik, who with his three films have just gotten much, much better with each of them. Brad Pitt's doing one of the best performances of his life so far, and as far as films goes only Inglourious Basterds, Snatch oand Se7en are better.
 
Dirty and dark crime with long, credible and so, so, so well-written dialogs, brutal and realistic violence and a fantastic portrayal of the different sides to the gangsters personality.
 
The only reason I am not giving this a 9/10 is because of the slow-mo shooting scene. Could've done with the slow-mo. But other than that, great. Andrew Dominik is a really impressive director. I am awaiting his next film, but with his slowpoke tempo I guess that we'll gotta wait a long time for that.

That guy is annoying. One of the more punchable faces in the world at the moment.

Merry covered a Pantera song. Way better than the original, but still shit.

I started my Octoberfest yesterday, and I actually started with an episode of an anthology series. In 2002 Mick Garris gathered some directors known for their horror films to dine together, and he would do the same later with other directors. During this time Guillermo Del Toro went over to a birthday girl and told her "happy birthday from the masters of horror", and so it all started. A few years later Garris decided to make an anthology series and gathered the likes of Carpenter, Argento, Dante, Landis, Miike, Coscarelli, Gordon and Hooper and more to make a TV-series. I watched this went it was first released almost 10 years ago, but I don't remember much, other than Carpenter having the best episode. I'l have to watch it all again someday, but I went on and watched Carpenter's episode last night.
 
John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns - As we all know, Carpenter made some fantastic films during the 70's and 80's, but as with most directors during these years, he lost it later on. Well, during the 90's. Besides a film or two he's not made anything worthy of anyone's time from the 90's and till now. Well, and this episode, because this episode is fantastic. Or, this short film is fantastic. It's an original, dark and suspensful piece of horror cinema. Extremely violent for a Carpenter piece, but he's handling the violence and blood in a fantastic way. It's really creepy, and the theme song is fantastic. As most Carpenter theme songs it's very Goblinesque, and that's awesome.
 
All in all, a very enjoyable piece of horror.
 
Le Fin Absolue du Monde!
 

It's a shame, but he's not a very unique or special drummer in any way possible so it shouldn't be very hard to replace him with someone who'll do just as good, if not better than him.
 
Hope they won't disband because of something like this, though. No need for that, at least not musical speaking unless he writes a shitload of their music.

Most of THE CRAZY SKB's stuff is quite enjoyable, IMO. He's sort of infamous for being both an underground wrestler and a hardcore punk vocalist, as well as the fact that his live performances usually feature lots of stuff blowing up. Check out QP-CRAZY, Hightechnology Suicide and Moudoku for some examples of his stuff. He's collaborated with Anti-Feminism's Kenzi at some points too.
Dokusatsu Terrorist are also quite amusing. Angura kei/punk mixture that pokes fun at and parodies pretty much everything, from North Korea up to Ayumi Hamasaki and Ultraman. Like most of the Angura classics, I don't think they're active anymore sadly enough...
Shine Shine Dan is another cool and somewhat underrated (at least among Western listeners) Japanese punk band. To me personally they are sort of like precursors to acts like KYOKUTOU GIRL FRIEND and Merry in that they blend a sort of "traditional" Japanese attitude with punk. They were signed to the legendary Nagomu Records label for a brief period of time, so you know it's good. (Not to mention the fact that they named themselves after the villains of the classic Japanese superhero show Rainbowman)

Last movie I watched was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. There's not much left to say about such a legendary movie, so I'll just keep it short. Deserves its legendary status, great set design, great atmosphere. 
 
Also can totally see where the band cali gari got some #looks inspiration, the Doc. himself at some points reminded me of Ao for some reason lmao

Silence of the Lambs - Yes, again. Amazing crime/thriller movie from the early 90s with phenomenal performances by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. Perfect pacing, a continuous creepy vibe throughout the movie and the suspense throughout the final few scenes makes this one of my favourite movies. Definitely not for everyone (since it can get a little bit gore-y at times), but if you're into this kind of stuff it's definitely a classic.

Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan - Thanks for mentioning this, Bear! I'm a sucker for old-timey/classic special effects and this documentary was a treat to watch. It also made me recall how I might've seen two Harryhausen flicks when I was little but never really connected the name to the product (they were Clash of the Titans and One Million Years B.C.). The ending was heartwarming.
 
Gone Girl - Got to see this new David Fincher movie at a special advance/press screening and I gotta say it was fantastic! Maybe a bit overly long but a very effective mystery/thriller with more twists and turns than a pro rally driver could handle. Ben Affleck and especially Rosamund Pike were excellent in their respective roles. So much darkness, corruption and manipulation, it was delicious. Recommended!
 
The Game - Since I was in high spirits after seeing Gone Girl, I decided to go back and watch some Fincher films I hadn't before. This one was a nice dark little rollercoaster with Michael Douglas. The tone of the ending surprised me a bit tho, in that it was so unlike how they would end a movie like this if it was made in recent years. A solid film, all in all. Won't become my favorite but it was good.

Yeah okay sorry my bad got a little overboard with this .
Altough i cant post anything from their new album cause its nowhere on youtube so you have to go to download this . But here is something from their Indie Era . They are way better on their new album , but there are still some good songs in their indie era thats worth to mention .



And here is one more good band , but they are more harder . Great Melodic Hardcore/Punk Rock band .

And one more , one of my favs on the Beatdown Hardcore scene in Japan , Loyal To The Greave .

If anyone wants i can upload their albums .

I do like punk and HxC, I just never really give myself the time to step into it more often. Exploring it is difficult seeing as especially early punk from the 80's to early 90's is hard to come by nowadays, both as actual physical copy as well as rips. I did some exploring not too long ago and found two bands I really like. 
 
GASTUNK
 


 
The Execute
 


 
They probably weren't that deep down in the underground though. 

I'm not a fan of punk that much but it's my husband's favorite genre, so thanks!  I recommended a lot of the bands he hadn't heard of.

As most of you know, I'm quite a fan of punk and its subgenres, and the Japanese punk scene sure deserves its own thread on the forum. I guess everybody on the forum knows bands like The Stalin, Anti-Feminism, Balzac, The Piass and so on, so I won't make a big deal about those, even though I am a fan of several of those. But feel free to talk about all kinds of punk from hardcore to d-beat to crust to horror punk to grindcore to skate punk to street punk to thrashcore to psychobilly and so on, but keep it to the bands that are on the punk side. Take grindcore as an example: please do talk about grindcore, but keep it to the bands rooted in punk.
 
Bands like S.O.B., Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror played a type of grindcore that belongs in this thread. These guys basically played hard, brutal punk with metal influences, unlike grindcore bands such as Impetigo, Terrorizer and Repulsion who were more on the metallic side and played and more death metal influenced grindcore. Same goes with metalcore and whatnot too. You get the point.
 
 
 
 
 
 
I'll start and post some of my favourites from the Japanese scene throughout the time:
 

Gauze
 
Formed in 1981, Gauze turned out to be one of the most influential Japanese punk bands of all time, if not THE most influential band from the punk scene in Japan. The band is recognized throughout the underground punk scene in the whole world to have released two of the best hardcore albums of all time with 1984's Fuckheads and 1986's Equalizing Distort, and the band proved to have a massive influence of the scene in Japan, as well as underground scene all over the world. So the band did get lots of recognition, but far from what they had deserved IMO.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR1f17xEzSo
 

S.O.B.
 
Another highly influential band, but unlike Gauze this band had more influence on the grindcore scene throughout the world, and grindcore legends Napalm Death, Brutal Truth and Carcass have all told lots about the influence S.O.B. had on them, Lee Dorian, vocalist on Napalm Death's two first albums, have always been open to how the band borrowed a shitload of S.O.B. riffs for their 1988 masterpiece From Enslavement to Obliteration. Lee Dorian and Shane Embury even went on to play on 1989's Thrash Night EP. The band started out as a brutal and fast hardcore band, before evolving into a pure gindcore band with 1990's What's the Truth?. Their debut EP Leave Me Alone consists of 9 songs, clocking in on 09,16 minutes, and their debut album consists of 18 songs, clocking in on 19:42 minutes. Too short? Nah. With the intensity of the bands music the lenght are more or less perfect.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Eib9a4GM5M
 

G.I.S.M.
 
G.I.S.M. are robably best known for their strange live shows where Sakevi did plenty of strange things, like running into the crowd with a chainsaw, attacking front rows with a lit flamethrower, beating random concertgoers with a club, and firing gun shots on stage with a revolver, as well as attacking journalists and photographers who try to approach him. But beneath this, we find one of the early metapunk bands, blending hardcore and heavy metal into one raw, dirt mix. Their second album saw the band leaning more towards heavy meta, though, with close to no hardcore left in their sound. It's a great album, but not close to as good as their debut, Detestation.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twFu0ZABwvk
 

Disclose
 
Disclose are one of the hundreds and hundreds of Discharge clones, but unlike all the other clones, this band is actually more or less just as good as the original. Disclose plays d-beat and sounds like a fuzzy and distorted version of Discharge, and for someone who worships the altar of Discharge it's impossible not to love this band. There's not really more to say. Fantastic band!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv7-ziKfbIQ
 

Framtid
 
This band here, is one of my all time favourite hardcore bands. Framtid isn't a very productive band, and during their 20+/- year long career they've only released two full lenghts (16 and 21 minutes long), a few demos and a few split releases. So yeah, not very productive and it took them 11 years from their first to their second full lenght. But who gives a fuck when the quality of what they're releasing is as high as it is? Two genius albums and two of the best in the genre. Raw, dirty and brutal hardcore. This band is hardcore hell!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPJ07f4V6q8
 

Zouo
 
There's not too much info on this band around, but what I do know is that this band played top notch hardcore. Dark and dirty, with obvious G.I.S.M. influences, though the hardcore side of G.I.S.M. Fantastic band!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bavbNYSA8_s
 

Death Side
 
Pure hardcore with fantastic leads and great riffs and vocals. Not as raw or ugly as some of the other mentioned here, but just as good as most of them.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1gJHPGoPS8
 
 
 
Other great bands to check out:
 
Unholy Grave
Deathpeed
Kriegshög
Outo
Gudon
Electric Funeral
Crow
Paintbox
D.B.S.
Ghoul
Kuro
Nurse
Disarray
The Rustler
Swindle Bitch
Kyah
Mental
D-Clone
Forward
Confuse
 
and
so
on
 
All these are well worth checking out IMO. Great bands, al of them.

As most of you know, I'm quite a fan of punk and its subgenres, and the Japanese punk scene sure deserves its own thread on the forum. I guess everybody on the forum knows bands like The Stalin, Anti-Feminism, Balzac, The Piass and so on, so I won't make a big deal about those, even though I am a fan of several of those. But feel free to talk about all kinds of punk from hardcore to d-beat to crust to horror punk to grindcore to skate punk to street punk to thrashcore to psychobilly and so on, but keep it to the bands that are on the punk side. Take grindcore as an example: please do talk about grindcore, but keep it to the bands rooted in punk.
 
Bands like S.O.B., Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror played a type of grindcore that belongs in this thread. These guys basically played hard, brutal punk with metal influences, unlike grindcore bands such as Impetigo, Terrorizer and Repulsion who were more on the metallic side and played and more death metal influenced grindcore. Same goes with metalcore and whatnot too. You get the point.
 
 
 
 
 
 
I'll start and post some of my favourites from the Japanese scene throughout the time:
 

Gauze
 
Formed in 1981, Gauze turned out to be one of the most influential Japanese punk bands of all time, if not THE most influential band from the punk scene in Japan. The band is recognized throughout the underground punk scene in the whole world to have released two of the best hardcore albums of all time with 1984's Fuckheads and 1986's Equalizing Distort, and the band proved to have a massive influence of the scene in Japan, as well as underground scene all over the world. So the band did get lots of recognition, but far from what they had deserved IMO.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR1f17xEzSo
 

S.O.B.
 
Another highly influential band, but unlike Gauze this band had more influence on the grindcore scene throughout the world, and grindcore legends Napalm Death, Brutal Truth and Carcass have all told lots about the influence S.O.B. had on them, Lee Dorian, vocalist on Napalm Death's two first albums, have always been open to how the band borrowed a shitload of S.O.B. riffs for their 1988 masterpiece From Enslavement to Obliteration. Lee Dorian and Shane Embury even went on to play on 1989's Thrash Night EP. The band started out as a brutal and fast hardcore band, before evolving into a pure gindcore band with 1990's What's the Truth?. Their debut EP Leave Me Alone consists of 9 songs, clocking in on 09,16 minutes, and their debut album consists of 18 songs, clocking in on 19:42 minutes. Too short? Nah. With the intensity of the bands music the lenght are more or less perfect.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Eib9a4GM5M
 

G.I.S.M.
 
G.I.S.M. are robably best known for their strange live shows where Sakevi did plenty of strange things, like running into the crowd with a chainsaw, attacking front rows with a lit flamethrower, beating random concertgoers with a club, and firing gun shots on stage with a revolver, as well as attacking journalists and photographers who try to approach him. But beneath this, we find one of the early metapunk bands, blending hardcore and heavy metal into one raw, dirt mix. Their second album saw the band leaning more towards heavy meta, though, with close to no hardcore left in their sound. It's a great album, but not close to as good as their debut, Detestation.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twFu0ZABwvk
 

Disclose
 
Disclose are one of the hundreds and hundreds of Discharge clones, but unlike all the other clones, this band is actually more or less just as good as the original. Disclose plays d-beat and sounds like a fuzzy and distorted version of Discharge, and for someone who worships the altar of Discharge it's impossible not to love this band. There's not really more to say. Fantastic band!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv7-ziKfbIQ
 

Framtid
 
This band here, is one of my all time favourite hardcore bands. Framtid isn't a very productive band, and during their 20+/- year long career they've only released two full lenghts (16 and 21 minutes long), a few demos and a few split releases. So yeah, not very productive and it took them 11 years from their first to their second full lenght. But who gives a fuck when the quality of what they're releasing is as high as it is? Two genius albums and two of the best in the genre. Raw, dirty and brutal hardcore. This band is hardcore hell!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPJ07f4V6q8
 

Zouo
 
There's not too much info on this band around, but what I do know is that this band played top notch hardcore. Dark and dirty, with obvious G.I.S.M. influences, though the hardcore side of G.I.S.M. Fantastic band!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bavbNYSA8_s
 

Death Side
 
Pure hardcore with fantastic leads and great riffs and vocals. Not as raw or ugly as some of the other mentioned here, but just as good as most of them.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1gJHPGoPS8
 
 
 
Other great bands to check out:
 
Unholy Grave
Deathpeed
Kriegshög
Outo
Gudon
Electric Funeral
Crow
Paintbox
D.B.S.
Ghoul
Kuro
Nurse
Disarray
The Rustler
Swindle Bitch
Kyah
Mental
D-Clone
Forward
Confuse
 
and
so
on
 
All these are well worth checking out IMO. Great bands, al of them.