Your top 10 favorite visual kei bands?

[Atreides 454]

I'm sure this has been done before but I'm curious to see what the people on this forum think.  They don't have to be in particular order.

 

For me, in order:

 

1. Luinspear

2. D

3. Due'le Quartz

4. Gilles de Rais

5. Aioria

6. Sectma

7. Velvet Eden

8. Anonymous Confederate Ensemble

9. Megaromania

10. PIERROT (mainly because I LOVE Kikurui Pierrot and Pandora no Hako)

 

 

 

Anyway, interested to see what everyone here likes for visual music!   Also, feel free to post your favorite albums by your favorite bands if you wish. I didn't, except with the nod to Pierrot, because I like basically everything they put out.

[Guest Magatsu]

Visual Kei?!

 

Well I give you my top 15

 

1. Acid Black Cherry -> Well Janne Da Arc isn't VKei so I pick ABC since Yasu is calling himself VKei. I love almost all his songs. He is so skilled

2. D.I.D. -> Akane Akane!!!! whorship him!! But I really love their music, sounds amazing, good vocal, good vocal breaks in songs etc

3. IIII-Ligro- -> To bad that they are on break now and only left with 2 members. this band could been grown so big.

4. SHIVA -> they where so damn great. to bad that they aren't around us anymore T_T

5. DAMIJAW -> Ka-Yu Ka-Yu his master BASS!! <3

6. NOISY CROWDS -> Lovely old school music <3

7. CELL -> lovely old school music <3

8. NightingeiL -> Also such perfect old school music <3

9. TRANSTIC NERVE -> name change name change.. well their oldies where also amazing!

10. defspiral -> transtic nerve under a newest name <3

11. DEZERT -> hopefully theyw don't disband soon! I love to see them grow

12. DIAURA -> not perfect but great band, hopefully they grow more

13. GRIEVA -> new band? no old members who know how to put oldschool style into a new jacked!

14. DIV -> A little bit to jumpy sometimes but I wonder where those guys will be in a few year (at least if they stay together)

15. Despair's Ray -> one of the better bands I've ever saw live ^^

 

*note, I don't see Calmando Qual as a visual kei band; and the CQ music I truly love is in their NON-VK time. that's why they aren't in dah list; Otherwise they would be on place 2

[lichtlune 915]

1: Lareine

2: Versailles

3: Malice Mizer

4: Syndrome

5: Moi Dix Mois

6: Mirage

7: Zi:Kill

8: Madeth Gray'll

9: Deshabillz

10: Aliene Ma'riage

 

For the time being i guess its something like this. 

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Nice thread idea! I'll try to leave little comments with my picks to not make it too boring to read.

 

cali≠gari / Gotta love the diverse sound, they can be crazy but surprisingly poppy too. Good mixture of post-punk, new wave and other random influences.

 

KYOKUTOU GIRL FRIEND / Kickass punk-rock sound with some awesome guitar play and catchy songs. Very raw and honest sounding stuff, shame they didn't last too long.

 

LUNA SEA / The rhytm and the interplay of the two guitars (and SUGIZO's signature sound) makes it for me. So many classic tunes that inspired many bands from the '90s onwards!

 

deadman / Whenever I listen to them I get sucked into another world. Gloomy, fragile and a bit manic, what's not to love?

 

MEJIBRAY / I love how 'beefy' the guitars sounded when I first listened to them - yet they were not trying to be br00tal or anything, just some killer straightforward modern VK with catchy hooks.

 

Merry / My 'old love'. A great combo of nostalgic and more modern sounds, these guys really know how to set a cool atmosphere. Nero's drumming will forever be absolutely superb!

 

Grieva / Hell yeahhh, old-school's back! Such a nice feeling to listen to their music, kinda in that late '90s way, but with a suped-up production.

 

MALICE MIZER / Dat diversity. From baroque-influenced twinkly guitars to cheesy goth-disco they were the best! Something amazing to be found in all their eras.

 

Nega / One of the more unique and interesting sounding ones from the UCP bunch. Love the creepy, dark, aggressive vibe! Jin gets a lot of doubt and hate but imo he was perfect for this kinda stuff.

 

Miss Jelly Fish / Reminds me a little bit of BUCK-TICK, very nice moody and atmospheric stuff, with a beautiful voice.

 

Runners-up or almost-vk-but-not-quite-so-didn't-include-them:

 - BUCK-TICK

 - XA-VAT

 - LAB. THE BASEMENT

 - Vior gloire

 - MUNIMUNI

 - Mar'derayla

 - ROUAGE

 - Aliene Maφriage

 - Noir fleurir

[Champ213 1858]

My top 3 are more or less in order, after that I find it hard to do proper ranking, so I just ordered them as they entered my mind.

 

I also only included bands that have released a decent amount of stuff. Personally I find it kinda odd to call a band that only has a handful of songs a "favourite". There's a bunch of bands I really liked that released only 5 songs or so, but I justr don't think it's a good enough sample.

 

 

1. Raphael

2. ElDorado

3. Jils

 

As you can see, I have a huge sweet spot for older, melodic vk of the late 90s/early 00s.

 

 

4. Aliene Ma'riage

5. Madeth Gray'll

 

Yes, I also like the darker variant of late 90s vk.

 

 

6. LUNA SEA

 

Luna Sea was one of my first big jrock loves, so they must be included,

 

 

7. BUCK-TICK

 

Obviously you can argue about the vk-ness of Buck-Tick. But I decided to include them anyway. Sue me for it!

 

 

8. Metis Gretel

9.  バビロン

10. Lareine

 

Some slightly more recent bands I enjoy. (Hey! Lareine only disbanded in 2007! That's pretty recent for my standards!)

 

 

Didn't quite make the cut:

 

La'Mule

Cell

NightingeiL

L'eprica

Versailles

A

Malice Mizer

天照

Vasalla

Denno:oblaat

emmurree

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

I'm too boring to bother with explation so:

 

1. LUNA SEA

2. Kuroyume

3. BUCK-TICK

4. ZI:KILL

5. Gilles de Rais

6. Malice Mizer

7. Dir en grey

8. Guruguru Eigakan (do they even count? lol)

9. NéiL

10. MUCC

 

(After number 6, it's not in any "rank"-order, too difficult to decide).

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

I'm so bad at ranking things, so don't really take this to heart, but:

 

1. Bearsighs

2. Malice Mizer

3. Penicillin

4. E'm~Grief~

5. 弥叉

6. Baiser

7. Madeth Gray'll

8. Rentrer en Soi

9. Megaromania

10. Grieva

 

Honorable mentions:

 

-Aliene Ma'riage

-Vior Gloire

-Cali=/=Gari

-Metis Gretel

-The Kiryu

-Moi Dix Mois

-Kneuklid Romance

-D'espairsRay

-The Piass

-Ru:natic

[hiroki 5521]

Well, I have a very different list from the ones above.

 

My top 10:

 

1) vistlip

2) DELUHI

3) SINCREA

4) ZUCK

5) ALSDEAD

6) girugamesh

7) xTRiPx

8 ) baroque (mainly their stuff from 2004 and before)

9) Kagrra,

10) Guild

 

LUCHe. and Ray℃ would have easily made it into the top 10 - but they only have a handful of songs released for now so that's somewhat unfair.

 

SID is excluded because they are not quite vk-ish anymore

 

I do appreciate the music of some older bands: Kuroyume and Raphael ("old" by my standards..) among others. But to include them in my top 10 just for the sake of "balance" would be quite dishonest XD

[CAT5 9075]

I'm not a big VK fan, but...

 

• Renter en soi
• D'espairsRay
• 9Goats Black Out
• MERRY
• BUCK-TICK
• LYNCH
• Dir en Grey
• NightingeiL
• lynch.
• The GazettE

[Flame-X 441]

The first 5 are ranked.

 

1. LUNA SEA
2. Dir en grey
3. D'espairsRay
4. Gazette
5. girugamesh
6. lynch
7. D
8. Janne Da Arc
9. ViViD
10. Nightmare

Wow that last 5 was harder to choose. I guess I'm not into VK as much as I was before.

[digi 192]

It's really hard to pick JUST ten, but I suppose I'll try. Here goes nothing:

 

Cali Gari - What's not to love about them, really. Older Cali Gari was especially my favorite. Funky, yet catchy all at the same time.

 

guniw tools - I don't even think they count as visual kei, but still. I adore all of FULL's projects ;_;

 

deadman - Mako's voice is incredibly soothing, and so is the instrumentals as well. Really gloomy, just like Jigsaw said, but still great.

 

SEX-ANDROID - May or may not be classified as vk, but whatever they are, they are simply amazing.

 

BUCK-TICK - Ah, Buck Tick. I don't think I need to explain this one, haha.

 

Sandwich de 120 pun? - Eiji projects never fail to amaze me, seriously. Really creepy lyrics, but the music itself is very misleading. I guess beep boops have that certain power ;<

 

guruguru eigakan - Love them to bits and pieces. Quirky as hell, but so great.

 

yazzmad - I wasn't all too fond of them at first, but they've really grown on me since then. Absolutely adore them now

 

Plastic Tree - Really nice, melancholic/shoegaze-y music, that usually puts me into a good mood. Ryutaro has an outstanding voice that lulls me to sleep very easily (in a good way of course). Needless to say, Tadashi's a very talented bassist.

 

HOLLOWGRAM - Yeah, they're pretty new, but the recent release they put out has got me hooked. Flawless. 

 

But yeah, this is just my list. I'd definitely recommend trying out all of these bands if you haven't already~

All of them are really great, and in no particular order.

[Tokage 5930]

- cali≠gari

- Plastic Tree

- Merry

- Guruguru Eigakan

- Inugami Circus Dan

- Buck-Tick

- Strawberry Song Orchestra

- 9goats black out

- Metronome

- Sandwich de 120pun?

 

5 runners up:

- Guniw Tools (not exactly sure they count. That's why they're here, otherwise they'd be 2nd place)

- SEX-ANDROID

- LIPHLICH

- (old) Mucc

- amber gris

[CAT5 9075]

- cali≠gari

- Plastic Tree

- Merry

- Guruguru Eigakan

- Inugami Circus Dan

- Buck-Tick

- Strawberry Song Orchestra

- 9goats black out

- Metronome

- Sandwich de 120pun?

 

Bruh...you kinda borderline cheatin' with a few of these, but I can't say shit cuz i am too >__>

[Atreides 454]

Nice picks from everyone.  I saw a few of you mention cali≠gari, I may have to check them out.  Also, I was going to include Guniw Tools in my own list but I didn't know if they would be considered vk or not. 

[Senedjem 510]

Amber gris
La'cryma christi
RONDE
Deadman
Laputa
Sugar
lab.
EINS VIER
cali gari
SCARE CROW


I'm very much into that 90's melodic borderline prog sound

[CaRaN 212]

1. xTRiPx

2. UNiTE.

3. the GazettE

4. DIV

5. DOG inThePWO

6. Royz

7. SuG

8. Girugamesh

9. RoNo☆Cro

10. DaizyStripper

 

 

Only the first 3 are in order. I decided not to include disbanded bands, but Juliette and bis would totally be on the list. Kameleo would totally be on the list too, but they've kinda disappointed me with their latest releases, so I decided not to include them either.

[JukaForever 758]

Not ranked

 

artist - album

 

LuLu - nippon iryou kakumei

 

I love their theme and the music accompanying it.

 

Versailles - Holy Grail

 

Extreme aesthetics are wonderful and the symphonic nature of their songs is addictive

 

Calmando Qual - BLACK SHEEP

 

Love their dark sound and Black Sheep was the first album that me hooked on them so it is my favourite.

 

Phantasmagoria - Wailing Wall

 

One of the first bands that I really liked but didn't really follow them while they were active. I loved listening to their lives in youtube so I don't really have a favourite album but the large compilation of Wailing Wall is sufficient I guess.

 

Mejibray - Emotional【KARMA】

 

Each one of the band members have a unique character individually and it passes on in their music having such a cool blend of ideas.

 

X - Vanishing Love

 

Love the metal sound and an effortless transition to ballad/emotional ensemble.

 

Signal - CHAIN

 

This band just had fresh sound to typicaly VK bands and I liked every one of their songs.

 

The GazettE -  NIL

 

I love love the multitude of songs with a deep/deeper meaning to them made by this band. They have an uncanny ability to make me groove to subject matter that I normally wouldn't.

 

Yazzmad - Yazzmad

 

One of my new favourites, loove the vocals and instruments. I guess music jumps out to me first from this band not their music.

 

JUKA!!!!

 

Everything and anything with this guy in vocals, I absolutely love his vocals and compatibility with different genres. Moi dix Mois has him in a gothic type of music, Hizaki Grace Project was basically metal, his solo works tries out different rock-infused genres but the ballads are the best at this time, XOVER sees him with light rock and finally VII Sense has a typical VK sound although a hot mess musically. This dude is so fun to listen especially if you mix all those bands' songs and works together for a master mix of Juka vocals.

[violetchain 912]

I really struggled to think of ten that I listen to more than an album from. I haven't really been listening to much visual kei for the past few years.

Generally, I like bands that started in VK and went in a different direction. List is in no particular order after the first four.

 

GLAY (if the first album counts as visual kei)

^I say it does because of videos like this

KUROYUME

BUCK-TICK

Psycho le Cemu

media youth

DIR EN GREY

metronome

MALICE MIZER

THE SOUND BEE HD

Calmando Qual

[Pretsy 1343]

Not in particular order, and going along with violetchain's way (a.k.a citing those bands who have been involved with VK earlier):

 

Kuroyume

Buck-Tick

Dir en grey

L'Arc~en~Ciel

La'cryma Christi

Alice Nine

Luna Sea

Mucc

Malice Mizer

Merry

 

Runners-up ( ~5):

 

SuG

9Goats Black Out

Kagerou

Penicillin

Rentrer en Soi

[sai 868]

Not sure if I can even get to ten at this point...

 

9GOATS BLACK OUT

シド (SID)

A (エース)

lynch. (do they still count as visual kei?)

DEAD END

Kagrra,

BUCK-TICK

Alice Nine

 

These are the only VK bands I still listen to on a regular basis, so I guess this list is the best to make atm.

[Muma 97]

I tend to switch it up quite frequently but at the moment the bands i'm feeling the most are

 

Plastic Tree (not sure if they count but I've seen them mentioned on here so screw it)

BAISER

SCREW

DEATHGAZE

D'espairsRay

SINCREA

 

honorable mentions, but currently not feeling them

amber gris

MUCC

deadman

DIV

Kagrra,
NightingeiL

 

and because i'm a big fat CHEAT here are the first ones I got into because of publicity and ease of access but I can never let them go completely u_u

The GazettE

Alice Nine

Dir en Grey

Girugamesh

[violetchain 912]

DEAD END

Are DEAD END considered visual kei? Because if so, I'll trade Calmando Qual for them on my list. I've been listening to ZERO a lot recently.

[CAT5 9075]

I'm loving how no two lists here are alike. It's interesting how such a small and homogenous scene has garnered such a diverse fanbase. I can dig it! ; )

[saishuu 3220]

1| Kagrra,

2| LUNA SEA

3| RENTRER EN SOI

4| D'espairsRay

5| NoGoD

6| Plastic Tree

7| Shulla

8| ヴィドール

9| deadman

10| バビロン

 

Yeah. 1-5 are in order, the others I like pretty much equally. Decided to not include any "honorable mentions" because the list would simply be too big.

By the way, I know ヴィドール started to suck once they turned major, but their indie stuff is just unmatchable and hard to ignore.

[Atreides 454]

Are DEAD END considered visual kei? Because if so, I'll trade Calmando Qual for them on my list. I've been listening to ZERO a lot recently.

 

I love Dead End also. They definitely had an impact in the earlier visual kei scene but I don't believe they were considered part of the genre.  Ghost of Romance is one of my favorite albums of all time.