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This is something I've been thinking about the past few days. There are so many iconic bands in the scene, many who are no longer active (or perhaps just much different from their best-remembered eras), but we often discuss offhandedly bands or musicians who feel heavily inspired by or give a "similar feeling" as another band or musician. I'm not talking about "homage-kei," (this isn't a thread about グリーヴァ's GAUZE-era Diru covers) rather bands that seem to fill a certain niche within the context of the modern scene that perhaps another band did in their heyday. I guess the best way to say it is...which bands do you think have the "same energy?" (keep in mind this is just for fun, really - not trying to say any singular band is the same as, as good as, as profound as, etc. as any other band) _______________________ I'll start with one of the most obvious... DIMLIM and Dir en grey It's rare to hear mention of DIMLIM without mention of vocalist Sho's many "Kyo-isms," though I rarely feel those statements are made in a negative way. I mean, it's true -- he is the rare VK vocalist who manages to mimic not just the mannerisms of Kyo, but much of the range, tone, melody, and "noise" that Kyo has become known for. Maybe not with the same level of finesse or control, of course, but for a young musician in a new band, it's pretty impressive. With that being said, I think DIMLIM as a whole fills a certain particular niche in the scene that Vulgar/WTD-era Dir en grey did, taking heavy and chaotic song structures and injecting them with flourishes of melody. There is a certain atmosphere on both CHEDOARA and Vulgar/WTD (most specifically) that feels unlike other bands that may be doing something similar at face value. I know a ton of people who have been fans of Dir en grey for at least a period of time and I always recommend DIMLIM as "Dir en grey with their proggy nu-metal elements replaced with proggy metalcore elements." I don't think that's perfectly accurate, but at least a decent way to get new fans through the door. Both bands also have a ton of crossover potential, Dir en grey's already realized as they've become more and more well-known in western and European metal scenes, DIMLIM's found in the fact that they appear to be one of relatively few VK acts that play strictly VK shows as well as non-VK shows. For an audible example of why I feel this way, I'd personally put "...物狂ひ...なりて" and "朔-saku" side-by-side. Both tracks, in my opinion, manage to transition from fury to melody seamlessly without ever really sacrificing the "edge" of the song itself. The listener gets just enough "relief" from the chaos to get them ready to get tossed right back into it. The whole "heavy verse, poppy chorus" thing is done to death in modern metal, especially with many of the more popular metalcore bands of the early-mid 2010s, but the way it's handled here is notably different in that the mood of the song never feels lost to me - the atmosphere remains the same from beginning to end, it's just that the way it's expressed has changed. Place this all in the context of modern VK and I feel DIMLIM is "carrying the torch" in a way. Their style, at base level, is quite unlike that of Dir en grey (even now), but the threads that connect their sounds and the type of presence they have feels very similar to me. Hardly the same band, but much of the same energy. _______________________ That ended up much longer than anticipated, so I'll hold my other thoughts for a later post, but I'd really like to see what others think on this topic. I'm excited to see some fun comparisons.