What is your opinion about not japanese visual kei bands?

[IruAx 10]

What's your opinion about not japanese Visual kei bands like Crestillion, Seremedy, etc from Sweden for example ! 

Many people say than they don't be visual kei, only the japanese could be visual kei. 

[suji 8317]

Here's a similar thread about this topic~

 

[saishuu 3220]

they are all terrible and should kaisan

Edited February 17, 2018 by saishuu

[Kira_Uchiha 92]

They stick too much to stereotypes rather than taking VK and make their own spin on it. Taking inspiration from Japanese is fine, but they're not Japanese, and trying to copy them makes Western VK either bland or cringey af.

[reminiscing2004 617]

I think the poor reputation surrounding non-japanese vk bands is a result of a lot of those bands being musically gimmicky, poorly recorded/mixed, or just downright to be fair. However, to be fair, a lot of japanese vk bands are all of those things.

 

Music is the bottom line. If some brand-cringy brazil kei band happens to make some really promising and exciting music, I'm all for it

[Haniel 547]

Are rare good bands , the look turns out to be very ugly, outside that seems more transvestites than really a band. Primarily in Brazil besides doing some "cospobre" and copying the sound The Gazette

[MidnightRoseOfVersailles 7]

There are a few non Japanese VK bands that I like, such as Tenshi no Yume (Mexico), Lucy, Silver Ash, Lilith (China), Lucid (Germany), Angel Heart, Eve (Korea). But I'd say in general, mostly the European bands - especially Swedish - don't sound good at all. 

 

 

Sometimes it's not even that they're particularly bad, its just that they're not really VK. They simply play some form of generic, westernized style of rock and slap on some makeup and call themselves VK. That's my only issue with them, the false labeling. But if they sound good, I really have no issues with what country they're from. 

 

[Himeaimichu 1535]

I don't generally mind them but none of them really spark my interest. Most just sound like generic western metalcore.

The only one I "like" is Bataar, but even then, they're pretty generic.

Like, I don't mind metalcore, but 90% of the western ones all sound like Asking Alexandria or BMTH, neither of which personally tickle my fancy (but I'm more of a Thrash Metal, Alternative Metal, Nu Metal and Groove Metal kind of person)

[Bear 1817]

Am I the only one who find it hilarious when people bash western VK bands for being generic, yet 98% of the VK bands they listen to themselves are just as generic?

[merchenticneurosis 441]

I find myself not being a big cheerleader for western vk but i'm very open for it. I've done bunch of my friends bands music videos (DIE/MAY) since i work in makeup, and they're really good guys. Personally don't like all of their stuff but i got some favourites, for sure.

Would be really interesting to see a western kote kei-band, if that would be made properly but i don't think there would be enough fans anyways, so considering, hopeless.

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

I don't care for them because everything they do is mimic bands I already like (but often worse, the exception here is Disreign's latest stuff) which means there's no point in listening to them.

[Laurence02 185]

I don't particularly hate them, but I wouldn't really call them "visual kei" per se.

While many would argue otherwise, for me, the term "visual kei" is a term which has sprung from the Japanese underground and indies movements, which has roots in the Lost Decade and therefore is uniquely Japanese in one way or another. Because of this, I am hesitant to call Seremedy "visual kei", as much as they are a "visual kei-inspired" band. And I don't hate those kinds of bands.

[RipAChip 0]

bluntly sh*t

[Saishu 1589]

On 2/20/2018 at 12:14 AM, Bear said:

Am I the only one who find it hilarious when people bash western VK bands for being generic, yet 98% of the VK bands they listen to themselves are just as generic?

Dude, yes. This. 

 

All these criticisms towards western VK bands can also be aimed squarely at Japanese ones, so using those faults as reasons to discredit a western VK band comes across as vaguely discriminatory. 

[suji 8317]

On 2/19/2018 at 11:14 PM, Bear said:

Am I the only one who find it hilarious when people bash western VK bands for being generic, yet 98% of the VK bands they listen to themselves are just as generic?

2 hours ago, Saishu said:

Dude, yes. This. 

 

All these criticisms towards western VK bands can also be aimed squarely at Japanese ones, so using those faults as reasons to discredit a western VK band comes across as vaguely discriminatory. 

But there are good Japanese vk bands so...

[Himeaimichu 1535]

I personally think there are quite a lot of boring/generic bands in both the Japanese and Western Vkei scenes. The main difference is that the Japanese ones tend to sound like other Japanese bands, and the western ones just sound like other western ones. 

I guess essentially, I view both scenes similarly. There are some good bands, but there are a bunch of generic ones out there too. 

[Bear 1817]

And? None of us have said there isn't. You can be both generic AND good, as generic doesn't equal bad. But the fact is that the vast majority of VK bands are immensely generic no matter how much you love or hate them, so stating that you don't like non-Japanese VK bands because they are generic makes no sense. They're no more generic than 80-90% of the VK bands these people love themselves.

 

How many non-Japanese VK bands has there been so far, over the past 10 years? 50? Guess what, I can 50 Japanese VK bands formed in the past 3 years that's as bad as the worst of the bunch. But when there's 50+++ new VK bands forming every single year some of them are doomed to be good. But there's a lot more bad bands formed, than good, and there's hella lot more generic bands formed, than original.

 

This is basically like when people in the 90's bitched about how many good black metal bands Norway had compared to Denmark and how Denmark fucking sucked. But Norway had 200+ more black metal bands formed during the 90's. So of course Norway was doomed to have more good bands, and a better scene. It's natural. Just like Germany had a much better thrash metal scene than Norway in the 80's. But again it's natural as Germany had something like 220 more thrash metal bands formed during the 80's. Get my point? Japan having good VK bands, as opposed to the west. But it is only natural as Japan has around 45614581434631 more VK bands in general.

 

But we weren't discussing that. We were discussing people throwing "generic" towards the non-Japanese bands, even though the majority of the Japanese bands they like are generic as fuck too. It's silly.

 

 

And just for the hell of it. I have yet to hear a non-Japanese VK band I like. In fact I think they're all godawful. But not because they are generic or not Japanese or anything like that, but because they make music that I simply find awful. But again, I think about 95% of all the newer VK bands formed over the last 10 years that I've heard is equally bad. And just as generic. Same shit really.

[suji 8317]

Name 5 (five) Western vk bands that are actually good and can be taken seriously...

 

I'll wait.

[Bear 1817]

How about you try to read a post before you decide to reply?

[Himeaimichu 1535]

11 minutes ago, suji said:

Name 5 (five) Western vk bands that are actually good and can be taken seriously...

 

I'll wait.

The only good "non-Japanese" Vkei band I really know/interests me isn't really VisualKei, and isn't really Western, they're just a Korean heavy metal band that wears Vkei-looking makeup and all. 

When I said there are some good western Vkei bands out there, that was more of just a general statement, because there are some western Vkei bands that aren't as well known that were pretty good. There is one Italian one I knew of that was skilled, and not cringey, but I can't remember their name because I never took much interest in them. 

[suji 8317]

2 minutes ago, AimiGen7 said:

There is one Italian one I knew of that was skilled, and not cringey, but I can't remember their name because I never took much interest in them. 

Are you talking about dARI? I remember liking them a while back, but then I lost interest when they started doing more pop music and wore less makeup.

[nekkichi 6043]

 

13 minutes ago, suji said:

Name 5 (five) Western vk bands that are actually good and can be taken seriously...

 

I'll wait.

sure

 

ミレーヌ  ファルメール

プラシーボ

ザ・キュアー

マリリン・マンソン

ummm lemme think of the fifth one let's say スージー・アンド・ザ・バンシーズ

 

all v. good, I dig!!

[Himeaimichu 1535]

1 minute ago, suji said:

Are you talking about dARI? I remember liking them a while back, but then I lost interest when they started doing more pop music and wore less makeup.

I don't think so. The band I knew of was an indie one whose bassist followed me on instagram a long while back. They're probably no longer active anyway. I'll check through my followers and see if I can find it again

[Mamo 1172]

Esprit D'Air is the only one I like at all but I'm not even sure if they can be considered western since they're all Japanese but based in the UK.

Edited February 26, 2018 by Mamo

[Himeaimichu 1535]

15 minutes ago, Mamo said:

Esprit D'Air is the only one I like at all but I'm not even sure if they can be considered western since they're all Japanese but based in the UK.

I forgot about those guys. They're pretty cool, but I haven't tried a lot of their stuff.