Visutox

Watched IT (2017) today and it was so good. Definitely has a darker vibe than the first adaptation and also has a good humorous tone which I totally loved. It is also differently built up and there are some small details that differ from the old version. Pennywise is absolutely amazing and seems even crazier than the one from 1990. Bill Skarsgård is the man, he killed it. I have only good things to say about this movie. One of my favorites of the year. 

Thought I'd just throw out a few rcommendations for overlooked death metal releases of 2017. Just a few that seems to have flew under most peoples radar:
 

Venenum - Trance of Death
 
An album hard to decribe. Death metal with some progressive elements. For fans of Tribulation, Morbus Chron, Excoriate, Necrovore, Invidious.
 

Venenum - Trance of Death
 
Death metal with some progressive touches. For fans of Invidious, Necrovore, Venenum, Obscure Burial.
 

Obscure Burial - Obscure Burial
 
This feels like cheating, but this is a compilation of their two demos. Most excellent! Black/death metal for fans of Necrovore, Incubus, Invidious, Ensnared.
 

Rude - Remnants...
 
Old school death metal with a new sound. For fans of Pestilence, Morbid Angel, Death, Autopsy, Possessed.
 

Cryptic Brood - Brain Eater
 
Death/doom for fans of Autopsy, Coffins, Winter, Druid Lord and Anatomia.
 

Vampire - With Primeval Force
 
Epic, Castlevania-sounding death/thrash. For fans of Possessed, Tribulation, Necrovore, Repugnant, Merciless
 
 
 
I've got more to come.

Too hard to only pick 2. So I'll break the rules and pick 6.
 
甘い暴力 - 名前がない
GAMEOVER - continue
Initial'L - FIREFLY
ルクス - LOVELESS
Sioux - Last scene
-真天地開闢集団-ジグザグ - 『メンヘラ』はじめました

Look waht you made m3 do - Taylr Swift

I haven't kept up with music at all this year and I haven't heard many Japanese albums. Only one I can think of is Evil. But my favourites as far as I can remember would be these:
 

Rude - Remnants...
Rude formed in 2008 and released their debut album Soul Recall in 2014, an album that happens to be one of the very best death metal albums post-1995. So my expectations were extremely high for their new album Remnants... This time around they sound a bit less Pestilence-esque than on their debut, but there's still many touches of classic bands like Pestilence, Death, Autopsy, Morbid Angel and Possessed in their sound. It sounds old school and familiar, but at the same time they've really found their own sound with this album and added a few new twists. Superb album! Not sure if it's better than Soul Recall, but it's amazing nonetheless.
 

Black Magick SS ‎– Kaleidoscope Dreams
Black Magic SS gives us another taste of their unique brand of occult psychedelic rock, and once again it's almost too catchy. By far their best piece of music till now, and I'm one of those who couldn't stop praising any of their other releases. This band is as good as they are unique.
 
 

Wampyrinacht - We Will Be Watching. Les cultes de Satan et les mystères de la mort
I'm a huge fan of the 90's Hellenic black metal scene, and whenever a band comes along and release something that sound like it was written and released in 1993-94 alongside classic albums like Thy Mighty Contract, Crossing the Fiery Path, His Majesty at the Swamp and Eumenides I'm just totally into it. Now Wampyrinacht isn't a new band at all. They formed in 1995, but since them they only released a demo in 96 and an EP in 1998, and this album was actually written between 95-99 and recorded between 00-02. So it's not a new band at all, and not a new album in that sense. Riff-wise there's a lot of classic Hellenic black metal riffing similar to old Rotting Christ, Varathron and Necromantia, as well as nailing the atmosphere of those times. But it's not just rehashing or anything. It's new and it's unique, and most importantly it's absolutely brilliant.
 
 
 
My three picks of the year I think.

I can't merely choose two! This year has been full of great releases already, although not so much on the Japanese scale. Internationally however... what a blast. I'll be sneaky here and choose two international releases and two Japanese releases, hah.
 
International; 
 

 
"Tchornobog" by Tchornobog.
— I can barely even describe this album. It is an infinitesimal blackened death metal journey through a bleak science-fictional world, composed by merely one man with a fantastic mind full of otherworldly and otherplanetary ideas. Four gigantic tracks that cover a vile and unknown landscape of metaphorical events and sensory overload. I cannot call this anything but absolutely brilliant.
 

 
"Terrestrial Mutations" by Droid.
— Where Vektor left many of us feeling with quite empty void inside of ourselves, Droid appear with their second release and it's everything a thrash metal fanatic could ever hope for (although not with blackened influences, but a great deal of significant progressive effects). It's classic, fresh and timeless all at once in both its musical, technical as well as its lyrical contents. I will be listening to this for many years to come.
 
Japanese;
 

 
"Death Is A Flower" by Creature Creature.
— Every little spawn of Morrie is wonderful, with "Death Is A Flower" being of course no exception. It feels rather dark and eerie, and emotionally encumbered as is always the case with this band, but perhaps the members have taken it up a notch. There are moments that feel quite panicky and distressed, primarily lead by cunning guitarwork that builds tension and startling moments at exactly the right time.
 

 
"13" by cali≠gari.
— This release is just as quirky and unconventional as you would expect from cali≠gari, but there is still a nice balance between their usual peculiarities as well as generally more friendly songs for everyone's ears, and both sides are very, very enjoyable and easy to listen to. Just imagine listening to this in a cloudy mob-and-maffia bar in the 1920's. Jazzy elements, horns and smart basslines aplenty! 

If you plan on checking out dungeon synth I would really recommend you checking out the classics first. It's a genre that's incredibly uneven and hit & miss. It's usually totally amazing or total dogshit. You rarely find something inbetween. But if you're into medieval atmospheres you'll do wise in checking out the genre.
 
Early Mortiis, Thangorodrim, Lord Wolf, Erevos, *Silentium, Cedamus, Jim Kirkwood and so on are the perfect soundstacks for an evening with hours and hours of Dungeons and Dragons with your friends. The music actually sounds nerdy as fuck. Dark, medieval fantasy music. A lot of it is like Summoning without the metallic part.
 
 
Silentium is a must for sure. At one point point in the middle of the medieval atmospheres of the demo The Ancients' Wisdom it breaks out in something closer to traditional SNES music like the osts of old Castlevania games. It's just absurd, but it works and it's a really nice tune. My favourite on the album. This was the side project of Munruthel,the drummer of Nokturnal Mortum from 1994-2003.
 
 

Formed in 1995 and released a demo in 95 and an EP in 98, but they were silent between 98 and 2017 and didn't release a single thing in that period of time. But their debut was released earlier this year and is one of the best releases of the year, if not the best. Original and unique, but without losing their classic Hellenic sound. They got the same, classic Hellenic feeling as old Necromantia, Rotting Christ, Varathron, Tatir, Kawir, and the newer band Ithaqua. Been spinning this album a lot lately and I absolutely love it.
 
Must have for any fan of Hellenic black metal!!!

Certainly black metal, but since I'm interested in discovering lots of dungeon synth I think I'll take recommendations of both if possible. Will start with From the Throne of Hate, then! Thankies. 

This resonates with me so much. 
 
People tell me I should have more respect for myself and not get into these jobs I'm looking at because I have a degree but I just want money coming in so I can focus on my career more. I don't care how 'low' the job is. 
 
Also have my mixed feelings about my field, so I'm going down a harder route career wise for now. 
 
Being in your 20s sucks. What even is my life rn. 

You could say so, but it's actually been 4 years since their last album. 5 years when the new one comes out. But it doesn't feel that long at all. Time's running fast atm.
 
 
But bands like Emyn Muil, Moongates Guardian, Elffor, Druadan Forest, and Ered Wethrin have made the wait a bit shorter with some Summoning-esque albums, especially Emyn Muil and the best of Moongates Guardian helped on the wait.
 
The new Elffor is superb btw. It's not metal, but dungeon synth and medieval ambient. Probably the best I've ehard from Elffor till now. It's got a huge Summoning-vibe going on throughout the entire album too. Very The Lord of the Rings-esque. Could listen to this while reading the books for sure.
 
 

Best news since forever. One of the best and most consistent black metal bands out there if you ask me. I always know that when Summoning releases something I'll be more than pleased. And the teaser sounds super promising.
 
Lugburz 7/10
Minas Morgul 9/10
Dol Guldur 10/10
Nightshade Forests 10/10
Stronghold 10/10
Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame 8/10
Lost Tales 7/10
Oath Bound 10/10
Old Mornings Dawn 10/10
 
Fun fact: the two members of Summoning does not rehears anything before recording, and their guitarist, Protector, does not own a guitar. He just borrows one for each recording process.

So much analysis.
What's wrong with stating what you don't like about today's Visual Kei?
People did the same thing ten, fifteen, twenty years ago and most likely the same exact debate is happening in Japanese circles too. I don't think this is only happening in the west.
 
Visual Kei has gone through different phases, some more memorable than others and that have made a greater impact. It's not like everything today with Visual Kei is bad or a disappointment, but perhaps there is something about the style that's missing. In the end that's what forums are for: debate.
 
No one complains when you state that you love today's Visual Kei then why does it bother you when someone criticises it? You can do the same thing with older eras of Visual Kei, whatever you opinion may be. If you start stigmatising people for comments that you don't like even though they are personal opinions that harm no one then people will feel discourgaed to leave comments and a forum should be open for differing opinions.
 

When AvelCain announced their disbandment, I was very disappointed, especially because they only released one fantastic album and I was still waiting for a second one. I wanna say that I'm still sad about it, except I'm not. After おまじない, which I still love to this day, they quickly went downhill. With the 輪廻転生 single, they didn't "go out with a bang," they didn't even fizzle out,  they effectively killed themselves, which is rather fitting for this band. I enjoyed (most of) everything up 'til mid-2015, I still do, but they just ran out of juice near the end. I'd still like karma, eve, and maybe one of the early ex-members to form a new band.
 
I am kinda pissed about SCREW disbanding! Sure, PSYCHO MONSTERS and SCREW weren't incredibly fantastic, but 昏睡 was a sign of life and 覚醒 blew everything since 2011 out of the water. Don't you just love it when a band calls it quits right after they show great improvement!?
 
I'm even more pissed about girugamesh disbanding. When I first heard "period," I thought, "how the fuck can these guys leave after something amazing like THAT???!!!!" But, y'know what, they're the ones that went out with a bang!  "period" was holy motherfucking incredible! While I don't think I can say it's their best song ever, it's certainly their best song since 壊れていく世界.

Girugamesh and Sel'm hit me hard. These were bands that were around and putting out great material when I was first getting in to VK, and they were some of the very few that were still remaining. They felt kind of like nails in the coffin.

Due to my hiatus this list was horribly delayed and I'd like to apologize for that, but I still feel like a lot of us are not over the hard hitting band break ups in 2016 so the wonderful users of MH as well as the awesome ORz members got together to write up some memorials for them. So without any further delays, here are some words for the great bands that called it quits.
 

10. 凛-THE END OF CORRUPTION WORLD- (2010-2016)
 

9. Sel'm (2004-2016)
 

8. FoLLoW (2013-2016)
 
 

7. SCREW (2006-2016)
 

6. DuelJewel (1997-2016)
 

5. BORN (2007-2016)
 

4. AvelCain (2012-2016)
 

3. DIV (2012-2016)
 

2. 少年記 (Shounenki) (2011-2016)
 

1. ギルガメッシュ (Girugamesh) (2004-2016)
 
Please share with us what bands you're missing this year and let us know what you think about this list!
 
 

Man I haven't heard SADS for years, and it sure feels good to blast some while doing a strip tease around the house. 

The Tracklist is on itunes jp now!
1.ENVY
2.FEED THE FIRE
3.LOST IN FAITH
4.BURY ME
5.R.I.P.
6.INSIDE OUT
7.STAY
8.COLORBLIND
9.F.T.T.T
10.UNINVITED
11.AFTERMATH
12.A DECADE IN THE RAIN
https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/fateless/id1264669010?app=itunes

Yeah, the new Battle Dagorath is very good. But as always with this band, I wish the production was a bit rougher.They've always been a very nice mix of Paysage d'Hiver and Darkspace. Which totally works of course. But I wish it was more lo-fi sounding.
 
And since you brought up an album released on Avantgarde Music, let's continue that trend:
 

Selvans - Lupercalia
 
 
Atmospheric black/folk metal with clear influences from acts such as Negură Bunget, Nokturnal Mortum, Kampfar and such. It's keyboard-heavy and folky, but it never gets jolly and happy and all that. Released in 2015, but it's only recently I've really gotten into it. Really, really good album.

Totally, i think i will go for a female though, and most likely black.

Females are quite territorial though, especially in small pens or enclosures, so a male might be a better choice for your first rabbit. Before our boys came we had two females who were especially nasty and would attack you the second you came close, unfortunately we had to get rid of them because of that. They came from the same family so I am not sure what was different. Our boys ended up in the same pen and were the sweetest things (Wolly's brother passed very early, he was severely handicapped) so for males it's not quite as much of a problem.

I second this! 
 
I need me a cutie bunny one of these days. 

Summer nights with my little girls.