After seeing that Heidi. have had a 15 year career and given how quickly groups can disband I thought it would be fun to discuss artists you can’t believe are still active/together. As per usual this isn’t exclusive to the VK scene and it can be any reason why (for example, length of career, obnoxious bandomen)
My first pick is Chanty who have been active for almost a decade, why I’m so surprised they’re still together:
Shia (guitarist) was arrested for fraud
Chitose (founding member and guitarist) left the group
Naruto the next hokage pausing activities due to wrist damage
Losing one guitarist is bad enough but to lose a founding member and whom I imagine was one of the main composers is normally the kiss of the death but despite all this they’re still going. I’m sure there are far more surprising artists but this is the first that I thought of.
Even through a pandemic, Marco are still around and they haven’t released shit since 2019. And they’ve been active for almost 6 years now. Legit shooketh.
Too many to name, and Brengun listed some I had at the top of my head.
Walking around Tokyo past the live houses you always read about, they’ll have a board at the entrance with the bands playing and sometimes you’ll be surprised to see some old names. I believe I saw one in Shibuya for SAVER TIGER in even 2019.
It’s definitely a good thing. I enjoy seeing certain members never truly giving up the scene like Kyouka of Aliene Maφriage even though it looks like the latest tweets are from March now… And it looks like he’s actually just quit the scene since he can’t reach his “ideal voice”. No regrets, and the next venture is photography.
Getting back into the scene, I tend to favor bands with at least some members that have a history.
initial - because they destroyed a wonderful legacy
Gackt- alright we get it, you’re a 400+ year old bisexual twinkling pirate vampire. Go back to bed, grandpa!
Unite- don’t get me wrong, they’re perf I’m just surprise they’ve lasted past the Danger Crue
Records flushing event.
Dimlim- js
When I got back into J-Rock last year I was quite surprised to still see these band active in a good way though~
DIAURA
ARLEQUIN (アルルカン)
Royz
FEST VAINQUEUR
Kra (I respect 景夕 / 結良 are both amazing musicians, but there is no music / career contribution as Kra) Alice bloody nine heidi. (I can smell disbandment after their upcoming best album) NoGoD (I love how they used to be, each amazing singles and album with over half are great music, after Album Renovate just sounds rather boring, and What’s happening with them nowadays ?) 未完成アリス (Their music make me cringe, worse than BabyKingdom, I mean 未完成アリス aren’t even the kawaii style of Visual kei, and the music is way too cute.) 彩冷える (Remember back in the day when Ryouhei was in the band, and now …just no more pop please) CHIC BOY (Yep , boys)
A few of the others you guys mentioned I don’t even bother listening to : MUCC, SID, LM.C, just send them straight to
Plastic Tree would be one. Some people might not have realized, but they’re technically from the age of the Big Four and therefore quite a relic. I don’t think they’ve even had any significant breaks since going major? They’re approaching 30 years together and I’m guessing that at this point they’ll just keep going until Ryutaro dies some kind of kinky death.
This isn’t a rock/VK group, but I was really surprised that w-inds. decided to keep going after losing one of only three members. Especially considering that it was right before their 20th anniversary, so it’s not like they could just grab a new guy and keep rolling like a lot of the female idol groups do.
Since Keita was working on a big solo project around when the announcement came - I was pretty sure he was just going to go solo after cashing in on their 20th anniversary activities.
I really like the first song they released as a duo, Beautiful Now, though, so I’m curious to see how things turn out.
It’s too bad though. I always thought Ryuichi was the best-looking member.
boys)
