I only have time to do things like this at 2:30 in the morning smh.
Annabyss Coast - 双対のカレント
One of the best-kept secrets of the visual kei scene. This mini and the subsequent album were a breath of fresh air in a scene that was running its metalcore influences threadbare, and I thought that after some time to synergize they could be the next Rentrer en Soi…and then they went on hiatus for over eight years. As a result, no one’s really heard of this band. They’re really good.
heaven in her arms / COHOL - 刻光
Not sure if this split single is beefy enough to be considered an EP, but both these fantastic bands came together to release some furious and cathartic post-hardcore/black metal. Moments range from tranquil to absolutely chaotic and if you’re not ready you’ll leave feeling pummeled. At the time, it was a welcome treat from COHOL since they aren’t a band to release music often - for reference, I haven’t heard from them since 2015.
D.I.D. - Paranoid Personality
I’m really stretching the definition of what I call an album but bear with me, because there’s five types for this single and three tracks unique to each edition. Slam them together in a playlist and it functions as a Para:noir retake. Considering we never got a proper best-of for either Para:noir or D.I.D., and that there’s more than enough meat here to consider this an album chopped up into five pieces for profit, then Paranoid Personality fits the bill as a release that still has my attention ten years later. If nihilism. doesn’t send chills down your spine you might be a jellyfish.
Demetori - le Grimoire De reve
Anything Demetori does is worth listening to. This might be one of their more forgettable albums and it’s still power metal to the core, riffing forward at Mach 5 to the tune of Project Shrine Maiden themes. Sometimes it’s not clear where the theme ends and the originality begins. 夢は時空を越えて ～ Dream War alone has the type of core melody that rings in your head for hours if you let it.
As a general disclaimer, THE UNRAVELING by Dir en grey was released in 2013. I do not like this album. I like the title track and MACABRE. I recognize none of the other retakes. I am explicitly not considering it.
downy - 第五作品集『無題』
This. Fuckin. Album. Right. HERE. It gets me on a bad day. I have to thank @CAT5 for introducing me to this band. They are so talented that they rope you right into their world and fill your mind with musical textures so smooth they should play it as background music at the MoMA. No cap. If these guys sung in perfect English I think they would hit a completely different tier, probably even approach critical mass and go famous in international shoegaze waters…but I don’t need any of that to see the genius.
Second disclaimer, BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY by the GazettE was also released in 2013 and my opinion on that…
Remember that Spongebob episode where he has to write the essay about why he likes driving and he couldn’t get past “The” before having a crisis and burning his house down? That’s me talking about this album. It’s a blank piece of paper to me. I don’t remember it. Gotta just point that out too that I’m not forgetting, I’m explicitly not including.
-OZ- - COMPLETE BEST ALBUM
Back to the “long stretch for a justification to include this 4CD best-of 95% of OZ’s discography without mentioning that 2013 was an insanely dry year for me”. They were the darling of the scene at one point, but instead of disbanding they just stayed consistent for eight long years, never lost a member, disbanded when they felt they gave us everything, gave us this, and then all of them retired from music together. -OZ- was on that visual-kei anime 2-cour ascension arc with the OVA to put the lil bow on the top. Friends tell friends to listen to -OZ-.
Third and final aside, I’m explicitly not including Madrigal de Maria by Sadie because I only listened to this album once. At the time, I was not a fan of Dum Spiro Spero, and on first listen I thought that MDM was such a second-rate impression of DSS that I giggled uncontrollably like a newborn by track two, skimmed the rest, vaguely remember liking Viper for more than 30 seconds, left a remark on MH about how embarrassing this venture was, and never listened to it again. MDM ripped the final mask off Sadie and everyone at the time accepted that they could not do anything interesting without imitating Dir en grey in the process. Which is fine in my books, just accept it and get that cheddar, but since I legitimately haven’t listened to this album since it’s release I just can’t write up about how great it is. Because I’m not sure if I still feel the same way, and at 3:30 in the morning I dare not try and invoke the wrath of the household upon me.
Tokyo Jihen - Hard Disk
If I’m including OZ, then I have to include this. What’s more insane than a 4 CD best-of? How about an 8 CD best-of? I’m not kidding, because that’s what Hard Disk is. This put a cap on an era of Tokyo Jihen while the leader Shiina Ringo went back to her solo career. The end was supposed to be permanent, so they combined all of their music and then some onto this compilation. There was even a song on a USB stick.
tsubaki-VOICE - impact from this
I feel a bit dirty about including this since I didn’t get to hear it until much later, but tsubaki’s solo project is the continuation of 8-eit. If you know how I feel about 8-eit, then I don’t have to elaborate. If you don’t, then 8-eit was the best (and probably only) visual kei jazz band. And they were good. Real good. Then they “paused” but it was really a dissolution. This was the continuation, but I didn’t know about that right away. But now I do, and you do too, and he’s still active, and this is some great jazz rock. It’s not visual kei, but he’s been in and out of the scene so long it sits in that rare middle ground between visual kei and the rest of Japanese music, and I can’t suggest it enough to someone looking for something familiar but new.
AND - AGENT FILE FINAL
There’s a boatload of collection albums on my list, and for good reason - 2013 was dry for me specifically because it was a year where everyone I listened to heavy either disbanded or released something really weak. It’s a disbandment in AND’s case, but they did give us a 2CD best of that functions as a great encapsulation of their sound, which I can only describe as “budget early GazettE”. Like Wakaremichi to Disorder early. While many dismissed them as Dollar Tree GazettE, they filled a punky niche in the scene which I haven’t found a satisfying replacement for ever since they disbanded.
NEGA - NEGATIVISM -TRACE-
Another collection album? Yeah, 2013 was like that for me. This was NEGA’s second-to-last gift to us, and they ended up combining a bunch of deep cuts to create a whole greater than the sum of the parts. There was a live distributed track and an original composition at the end to sweeten the deal, and I’m also sure they remastered a few of the earlier ones for consistency from track to track. If you want a recommendation to start with NEGA, grab this and the first best of (NEGATIVISM) and have at it.
Yousei Teikoku - PAX VESANIA
Confession time: I hated this band the first time I heard them because I was passed one of their early works where Yui’s voice wasn’t that great. This band leveled up several times between then and now; this is one of those bands that has style and visuals even though they don’t consider themselves visual kei, and that might just be the secret to their success. They’re from the era where a band had a concept and they’ve executed on it since 1997. This was their fifth album and first major album and I did not think it would be this good. I listened to this because I was bored outta my mind and these guys caught my attention big time. You might be familiar with “Kuusou Mesorogiwi” (空想メソロギヰ) because of Mirai Nikki, but it was really the run from “Siege oder sterben” to “Kuusou Mesorogiwi” that forced me to re-evaluate my position. I’m still listening ten years later.
Onmyo-za - Ryuo Shugyoku
Another best-album? Yes, another 2CD best-album, from the band I occasionally stan to the extreme, although they didn’t disband they just had enough music since their last compilation to release another one. The remastering on this CD is such an improvement upon some of the originals that I originally thought it was a live recording. I can’t recommend it enough, but I say that for all of their albums so that’s not effusive enough praise is it?
Honorable mentions:
IIII-Ligro- - IDEOLOGICAL SUICIDE (still salty about their disbandment don’t mind me)
NoGoD - V (welcome return to form)
Nocturnal Bloodlust - Grimoire (it’s aight)
Suzaku - Zessaishu (essentially a best-of for them right before they broke up, fun but not the best)
385 - Ningen (what CAT said, I just don’t listen enough)
Ling Toshite Shigure - i’mperfect (what CAT said, I just don’t listen enough)
88Kasyo Junrei - 0088 (I go from not really liking this to putting it on repeat. Can’t tell ya why.)
Yeah, I didn’t like 2013 at the time, and there are a few things I do need to take the time to listen to, but writing this up didn’t change my impression of that year. My attention was really elsewhere.
