What's good in VK this year?

[CAT5 9075]

Hey guys. Would you all be willing to point me in the direction of some good VK releases from 2011? It's not an area of music that I follow avidly, so I fear that I may have missed out on a few cool releases. So far, I've only hear 9GBO singles (which were excellent), the latest lynch. releases (great), and "TOXIC" by the gazette (which I didn't like initially, but need to listen to again).

So yeah, what else do I need to hear? My ears are ready!

[Tokage 5930]

MERRY's BEAUTIFUL FREAKS is pretty tootin'.

[CAT5 9075]

^ oh yeah, I listened to that. I just didn't know if I should mention them or not, haha ; )

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Alice Nine - GEMINI Cool style, good stuff if you'd like some semi-light VK with catchiness and content

LUNA SEA - LUNA SEA Although just a re-recording (of their classic debut album), it's awesome: kickass production, instruments, vocals, the works!

XA-VAT - Endo Crazy-ass cheesy retro-yet-futuristic synth pop/rock with a very "big" sound. Members include Ishii Shuuji, Sadie Pink Galaxy, and Közi.

the god and death stars - addle apple Only a mini album but what fine music it has! Reminiscent of the studs, melancholic/bitter alternative rock.

...hmmm I think these are the only ones I can think of (edit: oh and Lycaon's Uso to onna to [ ], buuut it's pretty unpopular, so I won't recommend it XD).

[Manic 361]

I don't listen mainstream bands, so i'll write some indies vk band~

Signal - MELT - Well, this was the most awaited release for me in 2011. And the whole band is freakin awesome.

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Synk;yet-シンクイェット - 『[Re]:birth』

- This guys surprised me. Never heard of them before (i think this is their first band), but they are big potencial. They guitar parts sounds like Megaromania, so i totally luv them xD

Lustknot. -

- These guys are new in the scene as well, and don't have too many release (2 single), but these singles was a really impressive begin

DEPAIN -

- I remember, Ryuka formerly band was totally awful, the guy couldn't sing... but now he's fine. And DEPAIN is even better

Megaromania -

- I can't skip my favorite band

This isn't their best release, but the title track has too much coolness

愛狂います。 (Aicle.) - Tokyo Sky Tree

- I know, oshare isn't a popular style, but this (live distibuted) release is a little bit different xD

This isn't sound like an usual oshare song, so i totally recommend to this song all of you

English isn't my native language, so i can't write a long review, as that i'd like to, so it's enough~ XD

[Zeus 7997]

I'd just throw in A's White Album because I know you liked them initially. Other than that, refer to Jigsaw's post + what you've already listened to and you're done. There really wasn't too much stuff that "wowed" me this year.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

I wish I could say "Holy Grail," but I really can't get myself to do it : / . I liked that album, but it resonates as "sub-par" for me. Seconding on XA-VAT, plus I really liked lynch.'s "I Believe in Me." The 己龍's "夢幻鳳影" was good as well, as were some tracks on their following singles. Megaromania's "Phantom to the Past" was very good as well, and their mini-album was pretty good too but you probably wouldn't like them at all. There were a few other singles here and there that I liked too, but I won't dote on them.

To be honest, there were a lot of new things I listened to this year that I liked, but rarely anything aside from XA-VAT "wowed" me this year.

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

LUNA SEA - LUNA SEA (re-recording); it's kick-ass, however the original is still better for me, but the production quality of the new one is mindblowing.

XA-VAT - 艶℃ ; Also a great album, both are more then worthy to check out.

Got no more atm...

[TheBistroButcher666 228]

There hasn't been anything this year that has really blown my mind, only band to release songs that made me want to leave on repeat forever was Misaruka's single Merrow and online distributed song Curse of Contract. Cailleach Rosary is also pretty good. People like to compare them to Rentrer en soi but they're certainly not a carbon copy but they have something about them that makes me understand why people would want to make that comparison. They have an album soon which I hope has new material and not full of old songs that have already been released. They are part of Kiwamu's label Starwave so they benefit with their music being easily available to international fans.

Overall though, there hasn't been anything in Visual Kei that's really sucked me in. There's been a few good things here and there but nothing that has really excited me. Ru:natic's new single was great but they seem to focus more on live activities, they also appeal to more niche Indie VK fans. I'm keeping an eye on Misaruka because I've really liked everything they have released but trying to not get attached since I feel like they could easily announce a disbandment.

[madygrain 515]

This year was a really good year over all, many good releases. But the ones that truely stand out for me are:

XA-VAT - 艶℃: pretty good album. Easy to enjoy even for a person who's not into dance music. Great retro catchyness.

Galapagoss - Soy Sauce Impulse/Black Including All: best newcomers hands down this year imho. Recovering the spirit of metronome and putting all the things he learned with FLOPPY to good use is the best thing Sharaku could do (that are not reuniting metronome of course). Both releases are great.

A - White Album: the big surprise. A delightful collection of songs full light and exoticness with an outstanding performance. I hope the band explores this not-so-dark style in the future.

Megamasso - Loveless more Loveless: the band's best to date. Varied easy-to-listen and intense pop-rock songs. You don't see such good taste when it comes to arrangemets when it comes to this kind of visual key pop.

Nightmare -NIGHTMARE: Finally delivered their album! and sure it did not disapointed me. The band expanded their limits quite a bit with this one and raised the level of their performances and their creativity, really blurring their confort zone. There is no song that it's not AAA material.

There are other good releases such as Penicillin's WILL, Kaya's Queen and amber gris' Pomander but this ones really pleased me. Also, looking forward to Cali+Gari's new LP.

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

The XA-VAT and Kagrra, albums are the ones I'm still listening and will be listening to in the future. cali≠gari disappointed me this year with two unremarkable singles, which also makes me worried about their upcoming album.

I enjoyed Kiryu's album for a ( albeit, short ) while and the Lynch album had some good songs.

Singles... I can only remember the 9goats releases of which I'll just stick with the first one. The second didn't leave much of an impression on me initially and I haven't bothered to try it again ever since.

2011 didn't give me much at all in terms of VK, but gladly I got tons of other stuff from another scenes to listen to.

[fitear1590 2414]

ユナイト: STARTiNG OVER'S

I rated this a 9/10. Wonderful pop-rock (fuck "oshare kei"), with heavy bits and technical guitar parts throughout. Overall, a very solid debut album. You actually listened to "starting over" on TT and said it was "quite listenable," haha.

己龍 (Kiryu): 夢幻鳳影 album or 叫声 single

Creative band with a very crazy, "japanese" signature sound. Mahiro's vocals are usually the biggest turnoff for people, but he's one of those "not the best singer, but excellent vocalist" types. I think he really works with what he has well and it goes nicely with the weird music. He even won me over with a more "normal" track, 叫声, but the b-sides have more weirdness.

ジミニークリケット (Jiminy Cricket): 色の無い向日葵

Just a tiny maxi single, but these guys are very much influenced by Moran, if that helps.

I honestly don't find "A" to be so amazing, other than their great violinist. Guitar-wise, they don't really cut it for me. But I will say, I enjoyed the song "Viva la casta!" despite it ripping Jikkendai Marmot's style.

I realized making this list, that I discovered more old bands this year than actual new stuff, haha.

[MY BFF HEIDI 7]

everything by kiryu & moran this year pretty much owned.

vior gloire is awesome & so is suzaku. i also love the new kisaki project

[Augie1995 325]

Para:noir's- Amaryllis/Cosmos. Amaryllis is this really heavy song from them that just absolutely blew me away at how good it was and the rest of the songs were pretty much in the same range as that.

Alice Nine's GEMINI. Pretty amazing songs including songs like the GEMINI trilogy which was such a treat~

Nightmare's NIGHTMARE. they really set the standards with this album which completely showed them expanding and taking to different sounds and they worked well with them.

Mejibray's sliver.exe. This band is honestly one of the 2 bands that debuted this year that I can see going really far and their music is just amazing. this mini album showed many great things from them Vocal-wise and guitar-wise.

Signal's MELT. The 2nd band that debuted this year that I think just makes the most insane music and they showed it with their first maxi single, MELT.

[Senedjem 510]

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[Rize 1593]

hmm.. for me which coming into my mind now:

Mejibray - Killing Me & Slivers.exe (both are really awesome)

D - 皇帝 ～闇に生まれた報い～ (can't get enough of the title-track ^^)

the GazettE - TOXIC (Good enough to listen^^)

BORN - Psycho Diva (still my favorite BORN single of this year)

LM.C - THE LOVE SONG (OP theme from an anime and it's good.^^)

[The Libertine 2]

I like threads like this make me reflect on the year (so easy to forget good stuff)

the great:

-9goats singles- so wonderful. Especially draw.

- Plastic Tree- ammonite- solid album. From thirteenth friday to end nothing less than great.

- Merry beautiful freaks

- OCQ ogle cat quiets it

the good:

lynch- I believe in me

gazette- toxic Haven't listened to it much but it was fairly good I remember.

kagrra album- I can't even remember it's name. Standard kagrra but one of their less memorable releases. Still good enough.

xa-vat- Fun and funky album. Still prefer goabed and cali=gari but would like to hear another release from them.

the ???:

Can't remember heidi's mini album but remember it was decent. Got to listen again.

[fitear1590 2414]

Forgot to mention this.

朱鷺-toki- - 夢想曲

I really enjoyed this release. Interesting riffs and a cool atmosphere overall.

I'm not even sure their explicitly "visual kei," but their sound is really refreshing.

[Yasupon 18]

Let's not forget the indie bands, although there's many singles to think of all at one time. >.>

I'll have to check out fitear's mention.

Also it's nice to see some Silvers.exe mentions since that mini was better than expected. Who knew putting that lead guitarist from Toon Factory and Genki from Vanessa together would turn out so awesome?

[Pretsy 1343]

Hmm...

XA-VAT - Endo

Goatbed meets a big variety of cheesy dance genres from the 80s - probably the best electronic VK album, methinks.

UNiTE - Starting Over's

Solid vk pop release. Must-try for everyone that wants to look for the softer side of good *pretty boy* genre.

Alice Nine - Gemini

I can't say anything bad about this record atm nor count the flaws in it - but it's the best A9 album, at least for my kind of prog geek.

Amber Gris - Pomander

I remember myself liking and listening to this record alot while being outside - it has a nice indie-ish vibe in it, dunno.

Also:

朱鷺-toki- - 夢想曲

I really enjoyed this release. Interesting riffs and a cool atmosphere overall.

I'm not even sure their explicitly "visual kei," but their sound is really refreshing.

^ this.

Won't count any singles in since I've been quite unsure about this year's singles. 9GBO's Draw and Cali-Gari's # were the ones I liked the most tho...

The rest is either unexplored in my case or just disliked for a reason or two.

Conclusion: Good year for vk pop, bad year for heavy acts (I can't find anything interesting in MEJIBRAY's music, sry guys)

[madygrain 515]

I am shocked with all the love Starting Over's is getting on this post. I like VK pop rock for the most part but this release really did not stand out for me in any way.

Cool to see people liking it so much tho!

[ginHigure 22]

Only one word: Unite.

[gyakutai 12]

I would suggest you MERRY's Beautiful Freaks and GazettE's Toxic.

[ginHigure 22]

I would suggest you MERRY's Beautiful Freaks and GazettE's Toxic.

not my taste in music!

[Kaito-sama 1]

Guys..guys..your missing some of the good stuff here. I think there was quite a few solid releases this year, stuff like:

NoGoD - Genjitsu - I could say "Typical nogod stuff" where typical means "Really damn good" - worth some attention, id say.

The gazette - Toxic - Probably one of the most anticipated releases of the year, at least on my end, and for a lot of people. Nothing I

hugely disliked on it, and overall great

Nightmare - Nightmare - Before this(and their Sleeper EP) I never paid attention to these guys, but this was a surprising release. Nice stuff.

Para:noir - A 21g meaningless existence - Another nice vk band with some electro influences, they've left a good first impression on me for sure.

Zuck - Noise World - I'm surprised I like any "pop-rockish" band, but the songs these guys just make me want to do an embarrassing little dance

Exist Trance - True EP - True was a really good single, I don't think Ive heard anyone say they dislike it...probably my favorite thing

Ive heard from them.

Alice Nine - Blue Flame - Another "Pop-rocky" song I actually liked, one of their few "mainstream" songs ive enjoyed.

There were a lot of good releases this year, just cant wait to hear from other bands like the new VII Sense stuff in feb.