Visual these days?

Idle curiosity: besides the usual Malice Mizer/Schwarz Stein alumni, anyone listen to any active visual-kei bands? Who's "in" these days?

I really only listen to Moi dix Mois and D these days. I keep trying other stuff but nothing else holds my attention for very long, especially not what's considered to be "in". Other than that, I mostly listen to western neo medieval type music.

Most of the bands I like branch off in one way or another "the usual Malice Mizer/Schwarz Stein alumni" but I also like D, LM.C and amber gris. Guess Versailles is not active anymore, but I also listen to them XD
I listen to the latest CDs of Art Cube, and wondering what will the "Individual Direction" sound like...

These days... I guess even though Luna Sea and Buck Tick are back, they aren't really all that visual anymore... But I still listen to Kain pretty frequently I'm going to go ahead and say JILS as well because the're on again-off again... (Yes, that is ex-Moi Dix Mois' Touru on drums~) Basically if Yukiya is involved I'll listen to it, no matter what it is I'd probably even listen if he put out an audio cookbook or read Books on Tape or something

I sed to know so many bands a fex years ago but most of them disbanded and now I just listen to D and Versailles but as said above they're not active anymore.
Aside from that I just don't know anymore how to discover band that will stay in the scene more than a year.

It's disapointing!

I don't like most modern bands, and the ones I like are already "old", lile BULL ZEICHEN 88, you could say it's VK, but it's all guys who have been around forever. Plastic Tree is my favorite band now for a while and it's old.

So I don't know =/, I tried to listen to other bands, but nothing was quite good for me. I do like other non VK bands from nowdays, though, like School Food Punishment.

I don't like most modern bands, and the ones I like are already "old", lile BULL ZEICHEN 88, you could say it's VK, but it's all guys who have been around forever. Plastic Tree is my favorite band now for a while and it's old.

So I don't know =/, I tried to listen to other bands, but nothing was quite good for me. I do like other non VK bands from nowdays, though, like School Food Punishment.

Dog in the Parallel World Orchestra shows potential.

Probably my favorite group these days is Suicide Ali, their last album was actually quite good, and since industrial-ish VK bands seem to be few and far between, their sound is somewhat unique among active groups. I still check up on Velvet Eden every now and then, though their output doesn't interest me as much as it used to. Other than that, I have a cursory interest in a few newer bands, such as lll Ligro, DIV, and Black Gene for the Next Scene. I still consider myself a fan of the genre, it is just a problem to find newer bands that hold my interest these days.

CELL is good. They're basically La'Mule reboot.

Zig+zag is amazing, female vocalists, clock work orange themed costumes. If you're a sexually frustrated girl you won't like them since it's not full of pretty boys making out.

Sabbat is amazing, they are not visual gay.

The current state of VK is host boys pretending to play music they didn't write.

The current state of VK is host boys pretending to play music they didn't write.

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A statement so succinct that I suspect I am in the company of Oscar Wilde. (though Oscar probably would shed any negative connotations when stating this)

I've been consistently disappointed by the modern VK acts recommended to me. Though most of what I see marketed as visual kei hardly even registers to me as such. Yes, these bands dress up (horribly), but there's no real concrete or even abstract concept behind their look or work. It's pompous of me to try and assert that there is an absolute truth behind any art movement, musical or otherwise, but I've always felt that the goal of VK is in trying to communicate an essential concept through a body of art (Malice and Misery) or inspire the listener to consider a story (Velvet Eden does this -- the disorganized releases can really only invite the listener to consider and explore, IMO).

I don't mind my expectations not being precisely met - everything needs to evolve. But I see a consistent lack of effort.

I highly recommend, rather than any of the bands I've heard, that those looking for something to fill the void of vkei in their hearts explore doujin music. Many musicians in the scene release gorgeously illustrated story albums in gothic styles. I highly reccomend any of Sound Horizon's work from Eleison up until Marchen. Marchen is horribly overproduced. I also reccomend the singles of AYUTRICA. The full-length story albums are a bit on the taxing side (one I listened to sounded like a really bad shojo manga drama cd. egh.)

HarpersBizarre wrote:

(though Oscar probably would shed any negative connotations when stating this)

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I dunno, even that good-for-nothing Bosie wrote his own poetry, or tried to XD

HarpersBizarre wrote:

I highly recommend, rather than any of the bands I've heard, that those looking for something to fill the void of vkei in their hearts explore doujin music.

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Awwwwwwww yeeeaahhhhh

I like a couple Touhou groups / doujinshin bands. I still don't really get it but all I know is Demetori and 黒夜葬/kokuyasou are super rad.

Gazette is still really popular, Glay is trying to make a comeback (they have a HUGE poster up at a nearby major cd store), but from what I can tell personally, and I've not really dabbled too hard into this stuff since the last time I was a regular in the forums, there really seems to be more middle-of-the-road bands gaining ground at the moment who can still rock out but don't necessarily need to dress up to do it. This helps get their brand of rock a broader audience and still allows them to put out more VK-esque pvs when they want without alienating a potential part of their audience by cornering themselves into a specific niche, like this example. Not a bad idea, really. You could suggest that it's sacrificing something to go that route, but it feels more like a way of keeping your options open, I think. DEG is an example of a band that cornered themselves so much into being VK that when they tried to get out of it it proved impossible. So, maybe it's a smarter route and we should be looking more on the fridges of the VK genre, or just outside of it, for new, worthwhile bands that are worth listening to today. Thoughts?

I listen to "-lin- the end of corruption world" which is basically Phantasmagoria version 2. Kisaki and Riku are the only members from Phantasmagoria that are in it I think. But they have only put out 1 album like a couple years ago.

Glay's not visual I don't think.

Speaking of borderline vis kei bands though, I was told Golden Bomber is pretty popular atm. They're funny.

faith wrote:

Glay's not visual I don't think.

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Ah. Well, I do remember them always getting lumped in in various places. Seeing as how they formed in the '80s, though, maybe they're in that pre-vk gray area BT and a couple other bands inhabit? I was never really into them, haha. Just thought it might've been interesting to mention.

I still go to some concerts when I have the chance to go to Japan, not as many as old days(started 2001) but I enjoy also the modern style of Visual. Recent was Moran and Gotcharocka which I went to several shows each, but popular now seems to be Hero, Kamereo, Bug Lug, Kodomo Dragon etc...
I do tend to follow artists that I knew from earlier, but sometimes its very fun to just join in to the acts...
oh, I like Daizy stripper too^^;

anyways I see the scene became so small in europe and so few organizors, it didnt even hit me Micro head 4ns came to europe, and it also means yet again Sweden missed the chance to even think about getting them here, but also noticed alot of the tour was cancelled so guess people arent that eager anymore? However I loved Dasein and RAP so I was so happy to have back Ricky, he is underestimated, has a really great voice, but yeah, so I missed the entire tour, but seems 4 concerts in germany, 1 russia and 1 finland tells that the scene is recently concentrated in just few countries...

Sex-virgin-Killer , QP-CRAZY,X-japan , By-sex,Gargoyle .