It was an important year for Visual-Kei - international Visual-Kei, reunions, disbandments, and an array of great albums. But, which ones were the best? Which albums will have effects on the Visual-Kei scene? Join James as he looks back on the past year, and picks the most important albums of 2012, in three installments.
Certain albums were
excluded from running, such as miyavi, the GazettE, alice nine., and Kiyoharu’s
latest – on the grounds that they are great albums and will undoubtedly have
influence. I want to take a bigger, more in-depth look at Visual-Kei than the
surface level. Some big-name albums are in here, but I will explain why.
30. Kisaki Project featuring Satsuki, “壊詞~an
ideal of beauty Desperate~”
Kisaki is
somewhat of a staple in the Visual-Kei industry, at least in the underground.
Under Code Productions serves as a great transition stage for many different
bands, and has produced great music. In the midst of the closure of Under Code,
Kisaki restarted his old side project, Kisaki Project. Recruting Satsuki on
vocals, and a handful of other veterans in the independent Visual-Kei scene for
the band, with Kisaki on bass and music composition.
The album,
much like its title, is a sort of “ideal of beauty”. The album has a smooth
flow, and is composed mainly of melancholic ballads. It is by far and away the
most relaxing album on this list, and is somewhat ironic, given the turbulence
in Kisaki’s life at the moment. The album serenades the listener, and despite
its brevity, is a great album.
This will
be the only album we will get from the project, as they have ceased activities,
much like Under Code will in March. However, Kisaki Project went out on an
album that is so beautiful and serene, it feels as though one is sitting in a
Romanesque lounge being sung to by the band.
29. Creature Creature, “Phantoms”
This album
should, be all accounts, have been better. The singles off of it gave us all
high expectations, so for this album to be the end result is quite saddening.
Creature Creature is a band composed of some of the best musicians in the
Visual-Kei scene, Morrie from DEAD END and Hitoki from Kuroyume, to name just
two. They have done great discs before, and their singles knocked the ball out
of the park, so how did it end this way?
All that
being said, I should make clear: this is a good album. The singles just left me
with higher expectations. “Rakuen e” and “Kurameki” were phenomenal, and both
hearkened back to older Visual-Kei styles, yet maintained a haunting,
erotic-grotesque-nonsense vibe. The album, however, sets aside much of the mood
that some of its best songs achieve, in favor of a more disjointed, unbalanced
album.
The album does
maintain a rather consistent sound, but the flow and the connectedness that
their two previous singles had makes a laughingstock out of the album. But, yet
again, that should be a testament to how good of singles those two tracks were,
not how bad this album is. The album still showcases the talent of five superb
Visual-Kei veterans, and should be listened to, if nothing, out of curiosity.
28. AYABIE, “ANSWER”
Finally,
AYABIE, the seeming crown-prince of upbeat Visual-Kei, has gone major. After
myriad setbacks, losing their lead vocalist (who then debuted major before
them), and watching their ex-guitarist, Ryohei of megamasso, gain notoriety,
they finally released “ANSWER”. And it is a gem for the Oshare-Kei subgenre.
There are a
number of solid tracks on the album, both typical upbeat AYABIE, some slower
songs, and some more aggressive tracks. Ultimately, there is more of a variety
here than we are accustomed to seeing from AYABIE, which is a good thing.
There is
not a ton to say about this album, other than that it is a solid outing from
one of the greatest Oshare-Kei bands ever. It is upbeat, fun, and serious when
it needs to be.
27. B.C, “Blind Czarism”
B.C’s
single for “Clear voice” got some attention, but not nearly enough. With this
full album, B.C is back, and sets out to establish themselves as a very solid
experimental metal Visual-Kei band.
As
mentioned “Clear voice” is a stellar track, yet so is the rest of this album.
There is a haunting vocal style throughout, with airy choruses breaking up the
very structured, harder sounding verses. There is also the inclusion of the
utterly bizarre and calm, “D.D”, which initially sounded odd to me, but as the
track went on, and during subsequent listens, I truly came to love it, and it
showcases the range of B.C.
This album
gives us a clear view of a band that will surely gain prominence, due to their
distinct sound, and diversity of sound.
26. Angelo, “Retina”
Angelo’s
“Retina”, while a very standard sounding album, pulls off a sort of depth that
most pedestrian Visual-Kei albums lack, while also debuting Angelo as a capable
band.
The album
contains many solid tracks, all flowing together impressively, yet again, in a
way most typical, mass-produced albums. The album is technically solid, and the
band sets us up to expect great things from them in the future.
25. REALies – “to the REAL”
The
transcore genre has made significant inroads into Visual-Kei, but that is not
to say they have always been good ones. Para:noir can be taken as an example
and ASTRO BOY as a counterpoint. REALies, however, takes the transcore genre,
removes a great deal of its hardness and dark imagery, and couples it with more
traditional Visual-Kei to achieve something far better than most bands
experimenting with these tactics achieve.
“to the
REAL” is impressive as the first non-single release they have put out, and the
fact that they are a relatively new band is dually impressing. But by the time
the album reaches “Last A Gainst”, it is evident that REALies
has talent that
shines better in an album or mini-album setting than on a single release.
The
distinct transcore sound coupled with lighter Visual-Kei signs leads to a
successful blend that REALies uses throughout this album. “to the REAL” was released in a very smart
manner, in my opinion. It was released while REALies was still releasing single
after single in preparation for the release of “LEVEL.”, which allows REALies
to stay fresh in consumers’ minds. “to the REAL” is not the best album of the
year, but it offers a more upbeat, new take on Visual-Kei than most
independent, underground bands usually treat us to.
24. R-Shitei, “日本沈没”
Visual-Kei
and the concept of period pieces do not necessarily go hand-in-hand for most
people, yet, here is R-Shitei with a period piece album and an album cover that
looks like it is out of some bizarre hallucination.
R-Shitei
channels a sort of fantastical Imperial Japan for the albums uniting theme and
visuals, and uses other elements of Japanese culture, such as enka, in several
songs. The band also implements traditional Japanese instruments in several
occasions, giving those songs a depth that would have been lacking if they had
only used traditional rock tones. This is a welcome difference from most other
standard rock albums, and gives R-Shitei a sort of edge.
The album
has its up-tempo songs, and its ballads, and the uniting concept makes the
album stand out from others. R-Shitei has crafted at the least an interesting
album, and at the most, an album showing how Visual-Kei can be more dynamic
than most of us think.
23. Sadie – “THE BLACK DIAMONDS”
This album
is impressive because of the fine line it walks, if nothing more. “THE BLACK
DIAMONDS” can be seen as a near actualization of current pressures that popular
Visual-Kei bands face: what the agents/production companies want versus what
the artists may want to do. Sadie, based on their style before they even became
popular to their current degree, was a band that liked to experiment, however,
record labels don’t usually favor adventuring in the studio.
The dueling
between production and the band’s own style, direction, is evident in the
omission of the high-grossing track from earlier this year, “RED LINE”. The
fact that this track was not shoveled on to the album by the producers in
charge is telling, likely because it would not have fit with the atmosphere
that is created by Sadie for the album. But, tracks such as “Rain fall”, show a
heavy departure from earlier Sadie. Yet,
if this a indicator of how Sadie will be as a popular band, it is not bad
material per say, just not what one would expect.
The album
shines especially on only a few tracks, but, this shouldn’t be taken as saying
it is bad. Rather, it is a good album, because it excels as a cohesive whole.
This wholeness of the record is impressive given the fact that Sadie is
internally struggling with popularity, record labels, and their own evolution.
Yet ultimately, this falls short of “COLD BLOOD”.
22. BORN, “Vigour”
Maybe PSC
had a change of heart, and decided to stop making all of their bands sell out,
or maybe BORN is just special. Either way, BORN’s pseudo-major debut (they
still are not signed to a major label, but PSC gives them more status than
being independent, as they previously were) is solid, and showcases their
talent far more than their previous mini-album, “DOGMA”.
BORN
establishes their own sound in this album, one that is harder, with Ryouga
having crystal clear vocals on the chorus, and the rest of the band sounds
stellar. The lyrics are not on the same level as some of their past releases,
such as “RED DESIRE” off of “DOGMA”, however, they aren’t bad either.
Overall,
this album is a great reason to love BORN, and Visual-Kei in general, due to
its unique sound that stands out amongst other metal Visual-Kei bands.
21. AND –Eccentric Agent-, “宣戦布告”
Speaking of
metal. AND –Eccentric Agent- takes hardcore to new heights, and in the case of songs such as “BLAZE”, very
hardcore. This album however, showcases a different side of AND then previously
observed.
As mentioned, there is no shortage
of songs like “BLAZE” and “Liberate”, which show the usual, heavier side of
AND. Yet, the album also contains tracks like “Dione” which show a more dynamic
range to AND then previously seen, even by a lot of previous material. Their
songs are all expertly crafted, and even the assault on the ears that is
“BLAZE” has more layers and depth than most songs that sound as vicious and
violent.
AND has made a suberb album here,
one that is one of the best hardcore albums to come out of Visual-Kei since
Para:noir’s “nihilism.”, and it should likewise not be missed.
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