Does anyone else miss the drastic style of vk?

[Koike 301]

that's your childhood trauma showing up beholders share tbh.

the entire madara era music, looks and videos are iconiq and are still ripped off by lesser coming up bands, remaining superior 10+ years after.

Oh the music was good I admit, but I just never found the looks appealing. Maybe I just am a boring person who prefers more casual look with blazers and cardigans rather than all those accessories and complex outfits.

[blackdoll 907]

Because old school Visual Kei has its own distinctive sound that caught my attention and interest. There are many music styles that also have a sinister dark sound, but Visual Kei does it in its own way and a way that I love.

 

Also, I like how old school Visual Kei talks about and conveys an element of mental insanity both lyrically and musically.

 

But whether or not a band talks about insanity and those things or not I miss what I listed before with my poor English and lack of knowledge of technical terms: fast drumming, changing speed, etc the way old school used ot do it.

 

But still some bands out there are doing some things: GRIEVA, Vallquar (still active?), La'veil Mizeria.

i guess you are stuck with something you can't have. also for looks i get my dractic shit from other form of entertainment. like American horror story had that one really disturbing scene in season 2 that, and game of thrones had the red lady give birth to the shadow man. idk care for lyrics either because their are cruel storylines.  anyway i will never understand.

[shiroihana 182]

On 1/4/2015 at 9:42 AM, doombox said:

I guess that's the thing, isn't it? It used to be a subculture, and now it's following pop culture. I miss the older styles a lot too they were what made visual kei attractive to me in the first place. I especially miss the bands that centered around creepy and/or grotesque concepts. 

I don't think anyone could have said this any better with any less words, absolutely. The culture was very distinct and a very acquired taste before it became more pop-inspired. You could listen to a song by a visual kei band back then and think "Woah, this is a visual kei band!" while now there are many visual kei bands today where that distinct sound has been replaced with a more familiar family-friendly indistinct pop-rock sound, and I can only imagine this shift to continue over time as the scene continues to change with the years.

 

As for looks: while it's easy to write of looks as trivial because hey a band is supposed to perform music right? You can't listen to pictures. Looks are a very distinct facet within the visual kei scene and if you're really invested into the genre you can sort of get a feel for how a band will sound like just by looking at their photos so it truly is a unique artform.  I have discovered many bands that I enjoyed that caught my attention because of their looks. 

 

Finally I'll just add something that I'd hate to admit but it's my opinion and I'll say it. The skill level in visual kei today has increased significantly since my favorite era. These new kids in the scene are perform faster, heavier, more impressive music overall compared to the indies music from the era I grow up listening to. I see vocalists in the scene today like the vocalist of Purple Stone and many other bands and while they don't have that old fashioned distinct esoteric raspy visual kei voice that I love I can commend that these guys really know how to perform a song and these vocalists are hitting notes that most vocalists wouldn't ever attempt to hit back in the era I grew up with.  

[Nagisa 131]

Yes, I guess I can say I "miss it" even though I wasn't around for the older stuff when it first came out. Both the aesthetics and the sound were so different back then.

[JamesR 119]

 I always associate this 'ogre' fashion style with the nu-metal VK bands that were common during the mid-2000s, like Dio and Gregory