New VK vs. Old VK

[Wonrei 108]

White-kei bands will always, ALWAYS be forgotten about. It totally messes up people's arguments about how 90s VK was all dark goff, when a majority of the bands that were actually popular were playing floofy pop-rock XD

yeah, if you asked about visual kei that's probably what most japanese people are going to remember: the 90's bands like glay, sophia, wyse, etc

[Ikna 1225]

I tried to mention the white kei guys as well, see my line about "frilly New Wave boys with Boy George make-up". But yeah, I am a bit ignorant against the bands that totally had no real visual style per se but still counted as VK, such as later Fanatic Crisis or Blüe (who dressed rather mundane). And even those bands weren't a bunch of idealistic host boys. I'd even go to say that Soft Visual kei was generally more accepted as regular Pop-Rock or J-Rock groups anyway. Most people knew them rather as that than visual kei (let alone the fact, that many japanese people don't even know what VK is, but they are aware of the bands associated with the term. This especially seems the case with groups like Shazna, Sophia, Penicillin, Jeanne Da Arc or L'arc~en~Ciel.

 

However: blackdoll was talking about the type of bands in very exaggerated couture and with white painted faces, not about soft kei bands. I don't think it would make so much sense to conter with that anyway, since White kei isn't comparable to most of the modern "Br00tal" Metalcore influenced bands, that seem to be in trend now. I actually don't even know if Soft visual kei still exists, it always seemed to me that it just fusioned with the regular japanese rock scene and Oshare kei pretty much took over to be the "light, bright side of VK". Correct me if I am wrong.

[Biopanda 2675]

Very barely. I think soft visual is pretty much what morphed into oshare bands. if you follow it from late-90s proto-oshare bands like l'luvia and MELODY to mid 2000s oshare, it's easier to see the connection than straight to what is around today. I suppose there are a few bands that I think might take some influences from soft visual, but the only one I can really think of at the moment is Euphoria. I suppose there are other bands that are stuck in the 90s as well such as Kreuz Kafka, but I'm pretty sure they were just pulled out of a time capsule XD

[Wonrei 108]

In a sense I always considered Shazna an almost oshare band. Shit they were too happy, even if compared to other 90's pop rock vk bands. There were many of those bands and yeah, I guess they kinda became a sound left on the 90's... too bad because that's what I like the most about 90's visual kei.

 

I personally am very partial to Old VK, these pop rock bands being an important part on it. There's just nothing like their sound these days... stuff like that single D-shade album, early Siam Shade, Craze... they had a punkier edge but still had the melody sensibilities from visual kei.

[Kikyo_official 12]

I Prefer Bands Like. . .

La'Veil MizeriA

Ru:Natic

Ｃｒｕｃｉｆｉｘｉｏｎ Crucifixion クルシフィクション

BUG Scream

己龍 Kiryu <-- not really an "Old School" band but FRIKEN AWESOME!!!

 

. . .

These are Litterally the Only Bands I like That are new or Recent that actually have the Old Sound I love and Low Quality Pictures and Music <3 Danm I love everything about these bands~!!!

 

--

 

More bands I love and Like

 

† La'Veil MizeriA †
† サディスマリィ Sadiesmarry †
† Ru:Natic †
† Crucifixion . . . †
† BUG Scream †
† Aliene Maφriage †
† NéiL †
† Syndrome †
† Madeth Gray'll †
† VAMPIRE ROSE †
† CELL // La'Mule †
† AvelCain † 
† Sleep My Dear †
† 己龍 Kiryu †
† DAS:VASSER †
† JyuLie †
† SHIVER †
† Lareine †
†クオリア Qualia †
† グリーヴァ GRIEVA †

† Madieduor †

 

I love Bands that sound anything like any of these bands~!!

 

oh ughh Also Excuse my horrible English if none of this makes sence! I try my best!

[Kikyo_official 12]

I Prefer Old School Visual Kei WAY WAYYY More then the NEW crappy stuff thats Out. .

 

The new stuff is just usually bands that so lots of Fanservice too get more fangirls OR that stupid sparcley bands too!!

 

((please excuse my bad english..))

 

The Lower the Quality is WAY better! I Hate HQ Stuff!!

 

I Love bands that Wear lots of makeup! That wear BIG costumes that are scary , Feathery , Leathery , Have Princess looking Drummers > XD , Music that sounds Phycho-ish , Anything Scary , Crappy but awesome Low Quality Pictures & Low Quality Music!!

 

all that = Perfect

 

--

 

About the GRIEVA thing. .they were from RELOAD. .a Happy-ish ughh band I guess...I don't really think that they can really pull off an Old School VK Look because everytime I think of them I think of how they looked in RELOAD...All there music sounds the same from RELOAD...No difference! it all sounds the same to me. .

 

Oh When Kyouki (Yoki) & Roku (Taku) were in a Band Called ヴェルゼ (Vell;ze) I thought they were really good! haha but when RELOAD formed I was all like "deefuk is dis shit" LOL xD

 

And then Came Along GRIEVA -- "Awhh Shit bro , not what deefuk day gonna do?" LMFAO xDDD So they decided to make an OLD SCHOOL VK inspired band haahahah WOW!

 

They think we can all just "FORGET" about "THERE PAST IN RELOAD" or Kyouki & Roku's Past in the Band ヴェルゼ (Vell;ze)?!! haha Wow Fail..

 

To me GRIEVA just ughh pisses me off..I have no problem at all with them "Copying" as people say but hey~

 

just look at there old bands then look at them now..HA! Makes me wanna laugh so hard! i mean like DEEFUK ARE THEY TRYING TO DO?!! HAHA!!

 

Really? WOW? a Band Company they are in?! Psshh WOW really with DIAURA?! Another Wannabe band?!! hmm

 

ok ok Sorry

 

I sound really mean right now..ughh I'll just leave.. Goodbye ahaha xD

[Gaz 1097]

More bands I love and Like

...

† グリーヴァ GRIEVA †

To me GRIEVA just ughh pisses me off..I have no problem at all with them "Copying" as people say but hey~

just look at there old bands then look at them now..HA! Makes me wanna laugh so hard! i mean like DEEFUK ARE THEY TRYING TO DO?!! HAHA!!

oh i see! it makes perfect sense ;>

[miyuu 40]

i am bored to quote about @Kikyo_official .

you remind me metal  or goth or old school punk scene who refuse to listen to bands or take them seriously
because "they are not original enough and they are fake". they put limits everywhere, even inside the band's songs.

this is one of the things i hate in these scenes . i am so done with this pretentious bullshit of an attitude. 

 one of the things i liked about vkei , maybe it has  many  bad things, but they sure feel free to do whatever they want.

but i agree with you grieva don't really remind me old school either.

what i don't get with grieva is how did they get from so unlistenable(reload) , to actually decent.
 even if you copy, it doesn't mean you can suddenly write better.
i could never listen to reload but i am ok with grieva

[Bear 1817]

You're so far off with those comments. The metal community really isn't close minded. Like not at all.

 

 

And Grieva sounds pretty good. They sound like a band that made a shitload of songs in the late 90's, but then split ut, for so an reform 10 years later and record those songs. Old school sound in a modern production.

[miyuu 40]

maybe i just met the wrong people in the past.

 

i like grieva. but to be honest i don't see them as an old school band. and i love their visuals but still they don't seem so old school to me.

what other band except deg do they remind from old school vkei? maybe i don't know enough bands.

as much as i like them they seem more modern to me than old school and i don't have a problem with that just saying.

 

edit: i don't know it's confusing to me. maybe it's impossible to be old school again because it's 2014 lol

[Zeus 7997]

maybe its impossible to be old school again because it's 2014 lol

Nothing in the visual kei scene is impossible. If Grieva does well, I can see a mini 90's visual-kei revival as newer bands follow in their steps to emulate success.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

That's already happening: La'Veil Mizaria, Ru:Natic, Gauzes, Cell, Grieva, Dezert (sort of: this is more of an early-mid 2000's homage-kei since they literally ripped from D'espairsRay / Lynch / Kagerou / Nega), Crucifixion. Ru:natic kind of started it, but I don't think it really held water till Grieva became popular and Cell became steady.

 

Edit: I guess you could also consider Vallquar on that list as well, but they're more of Metis Gretel part 2.

[Champ213 1858]

I actually think that GAUZES is probably the band that comes closest to a "true" 90s sound. Just listen to a song like ナイフ.... that's like a textbook example of a 90s vk song.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJWfy62Emlg

 

 

Of course even in the 90s there were already different directions in vk, so modern day "oldschool" band will also naturally sound a bit different from each other.

[hyura 465]

i like grieva. but to be honest i don't see them as an old school band. and i love their visuals but still they don't seem so old school to me.

what other band except deg do they remind from old school vkei? maybe i don't know enough bands.

as much as i like them they seem more modern to me than old school and i don't have a problem with that just saying.

 

I think it's just less obvious because the Dir en grey influence is so strong, but they really copy all kinds of bands from that era.　

For example 孤独人形症候群

 

sounds like a way edgier version of AZALEA's 滅びの庭.

http://youtu.be/6dfPL_e5HqE

 

And 黒い涙

 

sounds very very similar to 密室白昼夢 by Earl Grey. (unfortunately I didn't find that one on youtube.)

 

But there are more.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

^ Interestingly enough, that Earl Grey song sounds like La'Mule's "Fantasy." Influenception 

[Ikna 1225]

Old VK seems to be about taking some melodies and notes from your favourite bands and making a new song of it in general. The whole imitating and copying of each other is probably one of the reasons VK was quite homogenous in the 90s. Not that this has changed much, but instead of emulating Luna Sea, X or Kuroyume bands have started to copy other groups (such as Gazette).

(but errr… we already had the whole Grieva copies Diru discussion)

 

Anyway… I thought about making a new topic, but then didn't since I don't know if it would deserve it's own thread, but are there any modern Vk bands, that are "oldschool" friendly? I mean mostly bands, that have a rather modern sound (and possibly look), so aren't really "kote kei" or comparable to Ru:natic, Grieva and the likes, but who still have a strong musical connection to the older scene and could be appealing to someone who mostly listens to the old stuff from the 90s to the early 00s.

I am trying to find some new VK bands, but most of the stuff I find seems really just the average Electro Rock, Pop or Metalcore music which is so hip at the moment. So far I've discovered cocklobin (who disbanded, sadly) and I have checked Dezert and I kind of like them.

[Champ213 1858]

Well.... there's DEEP RAVE, who are clearly jumping on the LUNA SEA train.

 

 

I guess their current look is still somewhat oldschool-ish, but a band like that could make pretty much any sort of music nowadays. I wouldn't necessarily expect a LUNA SEA worship band behind that look.

 

 

And there's still the question if and how much the departure of Rumina has changed their sound. I guess we will know soon, they will release a new mini-album next month. (Oddly enough, the new mini-album is self-titled, after their first mini-album having been self-titled as well.... can you get any more confusing? )

 

 

And I recently came across this band (Yes, they have a long-ass number in their name). They have no band photo on their homepage, but the music gives me a strong oldschool vk vibe.

 

[Biopanda 2675]

Scarlet seems to be another doujin VK band(they're selling their cds at comiket)? There were a few that popped up in the past that were total oldschool worship(biggest one that comes to mind is Gravel). I'm totally digging the sound though and deff will be keeping an eye on them if any of their stuff ever leaks out(unlikely, I guess :<)

[seikun 317]

This is what I like about old school Visual Kei that I don't find in todays bands.

Insanity, speed changes, sinister guitar melodies, hypnotic bass and guitars, etc.

 

[Igyou_Hime 80]

I personally prefer old VK. I really liked the mid 90's when so many was kind of gothy to the appearance. The music obviously, just like any genre, has trends and I'm not that into the type of music most modern VK bands do...

They all have this very polished look, and so does the music.

[Biopanda 2675]

I personally prefer old VK. I really liked the mid 90's when so many was kind of fruity to the appearance. The music obviously, just like any genre, has trends and I'm not that into the type of music most modern VK bands do...

They all have this very polished look, and so does the music.

 

[Champ213 1858]

Scarlet seems to be another doujin VK band(they're selling their cds at comiket)? There were a few that popped up in the past that were total oldschool worship(biggest one that comes to mind is Gravel). I'm totally digging the sound though and deff will be keeping an eye on them if any of their stuff ever leaks out(unlikely, I guess :<)

 

If you mean stuff by Scarlet-insertrandomlongassnumberhere-: their 2 releases are availible on CD Baby!. One of them is even for free! I got both of them, if you want I can share - but it's only 4$, so...

 

Never heard of Gravel before though.

[Igyou_Hime 80]

 

I personally prefer old VK. I really liked the mid 90's when so many was kind of fruity to the appearance. The music obviously, just like any genre, has trends and I'm not that into the type of music most modern VK bands do...

They all have this very polished look, and so does the music.

 

 

Awesome video, nothing like that would appear these days

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

Deep rave sounds really cool, love the luna sea influence. Funny enough the guitarist was part of Gill'e Cadith.

http://www.vkdb.jp/DEEP+RAVE.html

[hyura 465]

Old VK seems to be about taking some melodies and notes from your favourite bands and making a new song of it in general. The whole imitating and copying of each other is probably one of the reasons VK was quite homogenous in the 90s. Not that this has changed much, but instead of emulating Luna Sea, X or Kuroyume bands have started to copy other groups (such as Gazette).

(but errr… we already had the whole Grieva copies Diru discussion)

 

Anyway… I thought about making a new topic, but then didn't since I don't know if it would deserve it's own thread, but are there any modern Vk bands, that are "oldschool" friendly? I mean mostly bands, that have a rather modern sound (and possibly look), so aren't really "kote kei" or comparable to Ru:natic, Grieva and the likes, but who still have a strong musical connection to the older scene and could be appealing to someone who mostly listens to the old stuff from the 90s to the early 00s.

I am trying to find some new VK bands, but most of the stuff I find seems really just the average Electro Rock, Pop or Metalcore music which is so hip at the moment. So far I've discovered cocklobin (who disbanded, sadly) and I have checked Dezert and I kind of like them.

 

I actually don't mind the copying at all. Just many people see grieva as a Dir en grey cover band when in fact they take influence from lots of places (Although Dir en grey is obviously number one) and do pretty well at their concept of bringing back the late 90s/early 00s era.

 

As for currently active bands I enjoy that fit into the maniac theme without being overly nostalgic... Did you try AvelCains latest releases?

It reminds me a lot of the more aggressive Nagoya-kei bands that were active around 03 or 04, think Chelsea or Puppet Mammy.

BUG scream is also a very nice band. They do have lots of nostalgia about them, but don't really come off as an oldschool copy group.

They sound a bit like the Soleil band S.

 

Well you propably tried those anyway. : /