[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn5deTwFPTU[/youtube]

I've always been perfectly fine with all the jpop/jrock stuff and the usual Japanese shenanigans, so they're right up my alley. They're definitely good players though. As a funfact, the majority of the songs from Dir En Grey's first album have PVs.


Oh man, Onmyo-Za is quite good. I'm missing a ton of their discography as well, but I do enjoy what little I have.


I've always been impressed by how the quality of Galneryus pretty much stayed the same despite the vocalist switch. What Yama-B wrote is definitely god-tier, but Syu's songwriting is just as good. Angel of Salvation is a killer album. Of course, the title track is the big epic on it, and I love how it cleanly it incorporates that melody from one of Tchaikovsky's string quarterts (I can't remember which one, I think it's in the 40's) with Syu's crazy shredding.


Yeah, I find some pretty technical stuff all over the place. Even the really wacky-looking Visual Kei guys know how to play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR6FGRGk1UM

Most of the stuff I listen to is probably technical in some way or another; it's just how I generally prefer things. What I generally dismiss as wank is mostly generic techdeath bands.



That's a pretty fantastic performance. Sounds basically like the album except live.

I don't think I've ever went into the J-pop deep-end (I do like Perfume though), but I do like a lot of J-rock/J-pop hybrids. I-RabBits, 1000say, and Zwei I like a lot.


Onmyo-Za is my favorite band at the moment. They're pretty much the reason why I started focusing 100% on Japanese music. Thanks to last.fm, they led to Light Bringer, then Aldious, Cyntia, Destrose, Mary's Blood, and so on. Aside from Galneryus, nearly everything I listened to for half a year was Japanese and female fronted. That changed a bit when I got into MinstreliX (first vocalist is female though), Lightning, and Crying Machine.

Have you heard Albion before? They're an all-girl band who sound a bit like Light Bringer. Their upcoming album is one of my most anticipated albums this year (it should arrive in the mail early next week). Here's a PV:



Only complaint is the bass-drum sound, which is really loud and clicky. I think I'll just pretend that's the bass guitar. If you're wondering where the drummer is, she left the band after the recordings, but before the PV was shot. So they used her parts anyway. They shouldn't have any problems finding a replacement, considering how many female musicians are over there.


Indeed, that song is one of the best they've ever done. I was even more impressed that they pull it off flawlessly live too. Longing is one of their best instrumentals too - pure emotion and a perfect way to close off the album. Its kinda weird how a lot of their non-album tracks are really damn good too. "Metal Trigger" being one of my favorite songs by them (its the B-side on the "Hunting for Your Dream" single).


Yeah, that was pretty all over the place and weird. Definitely not bad though.

The vocalist reminded me of the guy from LeVia (or would that be the other way around). They're pretty much visual kei power metal formed by ex-時空海賊 Seven Seas members. Mind you, LeVia's vocalist sounded a bit like 時空海賊 Seven Seas's vocalist. I don't listen to too many visual kei bands, so maybe they all sound like that. The only other one who I played a PV from was Deathgaze (out of morbid curiousity). Wasn't bad though, pretty fast and more aggressive than expected.

I found this to be pretty neat - MinstreliX and Matenrou Opera's guitarist doing a live guitar cover of Angra's "Carry On".


For me, its either technical or atmospheric/emotional (can't seem to combine the two very often). I generally dismiss Dream Theater clones as wank. Same with a lot of western neoclassical metal bands. I find most of that stuff really boring, yet the Japanese neoclassical metal bands are really good. And I find most power metal bands over there have neoclassical guitar work (Galneryus' influence, no doubt)


I own that DVD, its a pretty nice show. Its kinda strange how on sites in Japan like HMV Japan and Amazon.jp, that DVD has pretty low fan-submitted ratings. Its like, if they can do better... fuuuuuck. Mind you, I think that's due to the setlist because they play Genesis in its entirety and there's some songs that should've been on it. I kinda wish it could've been 2 hours long or something.