Your First Favorite VK Band

[koroshiyaichi 12]

2001 with X japan, Dir en Grey and mucc (Aishuu <3)

[p0pp3r 27]

For me it was in 2006, when Nightmare was singing Deathnote's ED/OP. Can't believe it's already been over 10yrs... 

[Triangle 345]

I freaking loved An Cafe in 2008. I don't even know how I found out about them, but I remember I bought a magazine that had bands interview and one of the bands from that month's publication was An Cafe and at first I thought they were...cute girls XD. And then I looked them on the internet and got so into them, I started watching a lot of videos and had all the discography and basically that's how I found out that all the anime songs I've been listening until then were from the "jrock" genre XD.

[evenor 1655]

L'arc~en~ciel

 

 

[hermitosis 7]

Malice Mizer

 

I stumbled upon Bara no Seidō while searching for some goth bands on the internet. I can't remember but finding Malice Mizer may have been how I got into gothic lolita fashion as well. That happened at around the same time. Then I became more interested in visual kei as a whole and the rest is history.

[urumomo 22]

I think SID was my first. I knew what VK was because of my interested in Japanese fashion movements but I never really knew SID was vk. The first band that I actually got obsessed with was gazette around 2013. I remember liking alice nine, diaura, mejibray div, sug and daizystripper a lot too. Nowadays I still like gazette but prefer their older stuff. Other than that I mostly listen to 90's vk. Compared to a lot of you guys here I still feel like a fetus haha!

[Luceillia 8]

my first favorite vk band was dadaroma!

[Yuri 30]

Dir en Grey and Girugamesh

 

A friend of mine sent me Vinushka and instantly I loved it. It was also time when Girugamesh was popular and everybody was listening to Reason of Crying. Good times...

[maryeon 28]

On 07/12/2017 at 4:32 PM, Triangle said:

I freaking loved An Cafe in 2008. I don't even know how I found out about them, but I remember I bought a magazine that had bands interview and one of the bands from that month's publication was An Cafe and at first I thought they were...cute girls XD. And then I looked them on the internet and got so into them, I started watching a lot of videos and had all the discography and basically that's how I found out that all the anime songs I've been listening until then were from the "jrock" genre XD.

I could almost copy and paste what u wrote but with me it happened in 2009. I came across this german magazine called popcorn that was sold in a shop close to my middle school (yes I was that young). I saw an cafe on this calendar (this was january) and I thought they looked so different and very loud and colourful so I gave them a listen and was hooked from then on. I quickly got into d=out, sug, alice nine, gazette, dio and others. Haven't stopped listening since. 

[Sickle 903]

In 2004 an ex girlfriend send me the song "The Final" of dir en grey, was love at first sight

Edited December 23, 2017 by Sickle

[Triangle 345]

On 12/24/2017 at 2:48 AM, maryeon said:

I could almost copy and paste what u wrote but with me it happened in 2009. I came across this german magazine called popcorn that was sold in a shop close to my middle school (yes I was that young). I saw an cafe on this calendar (this was january) and I thought they looked so different and very loud and colourful so I gave them a listen and was hooked from then on. I quickly got into d=out, sug, alice nine, gazette, dio and others. Haven't stopped listening since. 

I think  we are talking about the same magazine. It had the same name and most of the interviews were from when bands toured in Germany and I think our ghetto people here just translated every number of the magazine and would sell it like that XD. Maybe that's why they stopped releasing it at one point /copyright got to them eventually XD/.

[Hell2U 6]

Raphael who I found out about after hearing their song as the intro to this old show based on Journey to the West

[Vercingetorix 185]

Schwarz Stein: visual kei's answer to the Pet Shop Boys. #HoraTilIDie

[Ozileras10 371]

SID was the first one.

Then The GazettE 

[maryeon 28]

On 24/12/2017 at 9:14 PM, Triangle said:

I think  we are talking about the same magazine. It had the same name and most of the interviews were from when bands toured in Germany and I think our ghetto people here just translated every number of the magazine and would sell it like that XD. Maybe that's why they stopped releasing it at one point /copyright got to them eventually XD/.

I suppose you're right. I do remember it talking about their european tour. Wow what are the odds? I used to collect the posters that came with it... 

[Triangle 345]

On 12/27/2017 at 6:14 PM, maryeon said:

I suppose you're right. I do remember it talking about their european tour. Wow what are the odds? I used to collect the posters that came with it... 

Hahaha same ! Even at school people would trade posters and someone would buy one number of the magazine and would get passed down to everyone in class XD. I miss Popcorn XD

[mikazukichan 16]

My first introduction to visual kei was in early 2004 by some friends in university. The first thing they showed me was Dir en Grey (Yokan, then Raison D'etre in quick succession XD), however my first favourite that I had to have EVERYTHING of was Miyavi. I'm pretty sure I have a complete physical discography of his up until 2009 sometime, actually XD Favourite song is probably the one that got me obsessed with him in the first place: Ashita, Genki ni Naare. First *band* that I loved that much was Kagrra,, and they remain my number one band to this day, with Urei being my favourite song of theirs.

[JimHarper 28]

First band was Zilch. I'm a huge Killing Joke fan and got to know their bass player Paul Raven (RIP), who got me a copy of the album he'd recorded with hide. Loved it, so I started looking for other Japanese bands. The first major discovery was D'espairsRay, who just blew me away. They were my first J-rock gig too. After that it was Girugamesh and LM.C (second and third J-rock gigs lol). 

 

Not entirely comfortable admitting that Gackt's 'Diabolos' was an early treasure too..

[koutetsuhime 15]

My first favourite band was Dir en grey some time back around 2000. I remember Gauze wasn't that old yet. I can't at all remember how I found them, but I remained a huge fan from Gauze all the way til Withering to Death. Sometime after that I just lost interest in the changes in their music. I was so suuuuuper into Dir for so many years, had a fansite, super involved in the Dir en grey LJ community and Batsu threads, wrote cringy fanfics I wish I could forget, even ordered an expensive as fuck aknot only dvd set once. A 5 or 6 year run isn't too bad, but I was still really sad when I stopped liking their new music coming out. I still listen to them from time to time, but nothing past WtD still.

[AyaRukiA 33]

The gazette my friend told me about them ♡

I know lots of bands now but gazette still my favorite. 

[The Moon 989]

either malice mizer lareine or dir en grey i cannot remember due to my mental condition x 

[karai · ebi 505]

It was definitely Gackt, but very specifically Dybbuk, Uncontrol and Ares because the songs weren't credited on the site and Youtube didn't exist yet I had no way of knowing what/who I was listening to until later.

I found the songs by chance because I was trying to find a copy of the Plavalaguna opera song from Fifth Element on radio blog club...but a bunch of random shit came up instead, good thing lol. Eventually led to Malice Mizer and on from there.

Edited March 21, 2018 by karai · ebi

[GreatNorthernVK 183]

It was Malice Mizer back in 2001, but quickly found Luna Sea, X-Japan, Plastic Tree and Guniw Tools shortly after.

[Mamo 1172]

My first vk band as well as my first favorite was girugamesh and the first  song I heard by them was Jarring fly.

[BrenGun 2261]

It was GACKT,

But it's already so long ago, so I don't know which song I did listen as first from him. But it was kinda in 2000-2001.

And then soon to Dir En Grey, Janne Da Arc, Pierrot, Rice....