VK Fashion #1

Screw, the perfect blend of just about every band out there! Their look for their album Fusion of the Core was funny because you could tell who plays what by just looking at them. Blonde vocalist, red haired guitarist, black haired bassist, brownish haired drummer. But now, there's a bit more going on, even if the vocalist does look like Ruki. Everyone else looks really boring and generic. This is one of those bands who obviously won't be visual for long. Pretty soon we're gonna see them in suits.


Sug is so adorable. Just look at them! It's just too bad their looks are all they have going for them. The outfits are pretty nice, especially Takeru (You know, the only member people care about, despite the fact they're all lookers). The vest is so cool. The hairstyles aren't so great, but they're made up for by everything else. If only I liked them...


wearing matching clothing-- a sign of suckage! Look what it did to Alice Nine. While before their visuals had me interested, and they had a certain aura, but now they look like.. some band. If it weren't for Tsubuku (green/pink/black hair) and Mi-ne (glasses), I wouldn't know this was Billy. Blegh.


SHUGA DESU-- I mean, Sugar is lookin' fly with their elaborate costumes. I'm definately liking it. Everyone's outfits are so detailed and well-designed with nothing tacky or out of place. Koto actually has this really cool skirt thing going on but you can't see it here, unfortunately. Their official page, http://sugar-ant.com/ has full pictures of each member. I've always considered Sugar to be a very well dressed band.


Danger Gang is looking cool, too. Waka's hair is so cool. The colors work so well. Drummerlady is looking a bit awkward with the funny hair and odd makeup (which reduces her prettiness by like 50), but everyone else is looking cool, even if they are just.. their normal selves with bigger hair.


Siva has never looked cool until now. The guy on the far right who's name I won't bother learning has really really cool hair, and from what I can see, cool makeup too. Everyone else is.. everyone else, but they still look awesome. They look like they'd sound pretty good, but unfortunately they'll never top their first song, Beautiful Drug.


LM.C.. Maya is cute blah blah Aiji is old and wears tons of makeup and requires photoshopping.. their outfits are boring.. blah blah blah.


Unsraw is.. still Unsraw. The vocalist's hair finally doesn't look like crap, but otherwise, everyone else is just.. the same as they were before. Not that I'm tired of it. I'm actually quite fond of it, but they don't seem to change often. I wonder how long they'll wear those masks.

So! Now for our awards...

Most adorable: Sug
Best dressed: Sugar
Best hair: Siva
Best makeup: Siva
Worst dressed: Billy
Best all around: Sugar, Siva (It's a tie!!)

Dir en grey - Dozing Green

The title track had a sample that did nothing impressive, and that's because it was the lame chorus. The rest of the song is really nice; I really loved the parts where there were those gorgeous background vocals. Kyo's not really what I pay attention to for most of the song, though the shrieks at the end are really awesome. It's.. for once, Die. His playing was actually expressive this time around, and really fit the mood of the rest of the music. I'm not really impressed by Shinya or Toshiya here, but, with them all together it's great. I can't wait to see what they do when they remake it.

Hydra -666- is a strange.. 'remake'..thing. Kyo does some awesome vocals here (he sure does them growls and squeals), and Shinya does some extended double bassing which is cool. Die is his normal self here, though. I listen to the Kaoru parts more than the Die ones. Something generally just sounds rather.. VK about this song. The riffing, the timing, all that reminds me (ironically) of Diru copying bands. Not that this is a bad thing. I love it. It has a general atmosphere that will most likely be very much improved on.

The live recording of Agitated Screams of Maggots is pretty good. And by pretty good I mean 'The best I've heard Kyo sound on a CD'. He doesn't fail at the screaming or skip 1000 words, he actually pulls it off, and that's what's impressive. Bad thing is his and Toshiya's vocals are way too quiet. I guess it was just a little error with the sound crew. Definately impressive.

So I'd say that this is the best single Dir en grey has released since... Oh screw it. Ever. Most singles had one song, maybe a remix, and some live stuff. But usually the live stuff sucked. But here, it's good for all three tracks instead of just one. Definately a great release.

Stay tuned later this week or next week for VK Fashion, an unusually untreaded section where I express my opinion on bands' current visuals. See you next time!

Tribute To Phantasmagoria

A bunch of bands got paid to decided to pay tribute to Phantasmagoria! Now, Phantasmagoria is not the best band to be doing covers of, and these aren't the best bands to be doing them, but it doesn't matter since Kisaki is pretty much the current VK king/queen and has a contract of pwnage over them anyway. So, how did it go? Let's see...

Kibuya Honpo brings on their cover of Pixy false. It's.. okay. The vocal effects are actually fitting for the song and sound cool. But.. it sounds like the uninspired B-side of some pre-major-last-chance-to-hear-our-indies-sound single. That's okay, though, because the actual song wasn't too interesting in the first place.

Dali takes on Mikansei to GUILT and morphs it into their own style. It's interesting for the first bit. They actually appropriately Dali-ized the song, and it keeps chugging along at a nice pace, until their vocalist does that lame singing before the chorus. Then suddenly they get sloppy sounding. Now, I know everything is timed right, but something just sounds sloppy. It may be the production, but whatever it is just doesnt sound right. It's listenable, but not exactly awesome. And to think that this was actually one of Phantasmagoria's more awesome songs.

Hurts actually impressed me with unknow zero distance. They do some cool stuff. It has a modern VK attitude with an old VK style. I'm sure it will be a winner among the older VK fans. It's not dull or poorly executed, and the voice distortion actually isnt annoying. I like this one. I don't remember liking the original, so I guess that's a plus.

Bergerac likes corny synth. So of course they chose a song that could let them use it. So Actuate Eden was the song they picked. Their bassist not only can impress visually, but also with his skill. I don't care for their guitarists, drummer, or vocalist. All average. But.. the bass is coolest to hear. The song itself is average, too. It sounds like.. some late 90's Jrock song. The synth wasn't reverb'd at all which totally made the song feel cheap. Not to mention the horrible violin-esque sounds. This is forgivable, though. I didn't find myself wanting to skip to the next song.

Anjyu's version of Suicide Gemini leaves much to be desired. There's nothing special about it, even if the vocals are sorta interesting. Not much to say about it, other than.. NEXT!

Arc somehow pulls of Kyousoukyoku ~Cruel Crucible~ in a tolerable manner. Wait, no, above tolerable. More like... Gasp.. Good! It's worth at least a headbob. It rocks out, it stays interesting, and most of all.. it doesn't pale in comparison to the original! It's such a busy song, despite sounding simple at first glance. I don't know much about Arc, but it seems like they're the kind of band where the members are dull without eachother. Let's hope for no solo careers! They work well together, from what I can hear here.

For some reason VAGERKE didn't do Neo Ark, which would be really awesome, so instead they're covering NEVER REBELLION, which is really lame. This sucks. Moving on.

Hi, Nega! You're covering one of my favorites! Don't mess it uuuup~ Well, the beginning is nice. It goes smoothly up until...the bassist totally pulls a copout then the whole song turns into a 5 minute copout. No thank you.

AW, WHY DID SIVA GET TO DO NEO ARK?! That's a crime against humanity! There is nothing heavy about Siva. They totally ruin the whole screamfest part by just talking and growling. They ruin the awesome pre-chorus AND the awesome chorus with the stupid vibrato. Nice try there, Siva, but that won't cut it. You should've covered.. Nil Frontier or something.

Oh no. Doremidan doing Kami Uta. This is bound for failure. Oh never mind. This is good! It's not absolutely horrible, which I was not expecting. It's nothing that's worth writing something extensive on, but it's definately not something I'll never even think about listening to. The loud parts are awesome, I wouldn't expect them to actually do it better than Phantasmagoria themselves. Overall, this song is really good.

So, Kisaki, we now must say goodbye! Or not. Or we do. Or not. I don't know. All that matters is, you just figured out a way to sap more money by re-releasing your own music. You clever queen, you. See you next Cure!