please, when did deg stop being v kei?

[miyuu 40]

about until Withering to death.

but nagoya styled bands still pass for visual kei even though they can be liked from people who don't know or like visual kei.

can pass for just a simple rock style.

i don't know if it was planned, but it's the natural thing that comes usually when you grow older to want less visuals.

people and years are changing. the whole scene changed. and old school visual style disappearing.there is no way they would be so visual as the beginning for their whole life.(unless they are kisaki xD)

but what they did after marrow of a bone. is something different. they changed completely. like they are a different band.

[TheBistroButcher666 228]

Their style of visual changed dramatically when 'Six Ugly' came out - more modern, left the 80s/90s glam-visual looks behind. Vulgar/WTD-era was their best visual period with their strongest PVs to date.

But they didn't stop it completly until Marrow of a Bone. It was toned down after time - their looks got more 'normal' with each picture and PV they released. Almost like they had planned to phase it out from Six Ugly.

What's interesting to note is that Kyo always seemed more 'visual' than the others in the later part of this period -

if you look at their Saku PV, this one of Kyo's most famous visual looks. Yet it wasn't for Kyo's presence and their use of make-up, the rest of the band barely looks visual.

Same goes for Kodou PV as well. Take Kyo out of the equation and things suddenly seem more normal (although this is probably one of the best pictures of the band):

Here's a good one - were they still visual in the Ryoujoku no ame video? Were the promo pics for MOAB and the GRIEF PV when it completly stopped?

Ah! Good point bringing up Saku, that shit is still pretty damn visual. I remember there wasn't much complaining when Saku came out and most people in my clique of friends (IRL and interbutts) really liked it but I think partly because Kyo was still pretty visual so appeased a lot of people. However I remember Withering to Death there was quite a shit storm since the visuals had significantly toned down. I know people called Vulgar era Americanized (this was before my time in VK) but I remember Withering to Death being called Americanized a lot.

Also I think Clever Sleazoid Kyo was also still pretty visual, I can't find a decent picture of the band from that time and then I started watching Mariyln Manson videos on YouTube. I mean just watch this shit.

tVa9BJIAPjI

I remember there was a lot of controversy around this song because I remember this was one of their first really heavy songs that lacked a dramatic melodic chorus. I remember there being a lot of bitchfits over this.

[Furik 832]

The band was not visual during the "Ryoujoku" photoshoots aside from Kyo wearing a top hat.

As for the Grief photoshoots, the band wasn't visual either. Kyo wore a leather jacket (similar to their current look).

[ramrod 108]

i think the visual title comes in relation with their overall popularity too.

Once a band makes it as popular as dir en grey or later pierrot and even nightmare, they kind of stop being reffered to as visual kei alot of the time.

[Pretsy 1343]

Didn't Kyo have umm...Child Prey-ish appearance (with make-up, yes) during one of their recent lives?*

I know this is irrelevant but that might give a clue about their relation to visuals.

*not sure if this is a rumor but you can help me!

[LIDL 692]

some people told me that Kyo never drop VK attributes

because he is the only one in the band

that still keeping his blondes (yankii looks)

i laughed a little

[inartistic 1150]

to be honnest.

Hibiki (Calmando Qual)

doesn't even really get what is visual kei. and what is good visual kei.

He did ask fans a lot what good visual kei bands are.

But yeah.. it doesn't mean if they are under starwave that they are 100% visual kei.

I'm glad someone else shares this sentiment! Starwave is definitely not a completely visual kei label, even though that was its purpose. There's a certain “spirit” that real visual kei bands have, and it doesn't matter how “visual” you dress if you don't have that spirit.

Admittedly, it's something that's undefinable (an “x factor”), but it's just a feeling that I've developed after being a fan of visual kei for x years. For example, THE SOUND BEE HD, Calmando Qual, and jealkb might be “visual,” but I absolutely do not consider them visual kei; but on the other hand, TRIGGAH is wearing suits and light makeup, and I absolutely do consider them visual kei. I don't bring it up often because it seems so subjective, but maybe I'm not alone here.

---

For me, it also comes down to the “spirit” when talking about DEG. I absolutely consider VULGAR visual kei; Withering to death was a transitional period, but I still feel that spirit, so I still consider it visual kei, even if loosely. CLEVER SLEAZOID, too, was still visual kei in my eyes, but Agitated Screams of Maggots, on the other hand, was not. That's the point that the “spirit” felt different for me, and so that's when I consider them to have made the transition.

So I would say: VULGAR is visual kei; Withering to death is transitional; MARROW OF A BONE is definitely not visual kei. And to bring it around to today, I would say they're becoming “visual” (with the zombie makeup), but obviously not visual kei.

(And on that note, everything they did for a few years seemed to scream to me “I HATE YOU MOM AND DAD, YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND ME *rebel*”, so I'm glad that they've finally matured enough to realize that visuals don't automatically make them visualkeijapanfagz.)