I’m not that surprised about Dimlim. Misc was commercial success, that’s where their confidence stems from. Even though people may not like their new style or the situation around the band, I’m glad they are continuing in their activities.
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How much of a commercial success?
I don’t have the data, but from what I’ve heard it was pretty high in Japanese radio charts. And if the numbers are correct, at some point it reached number 34 on iTunes and 64 on Apple music.
I guess Misc got more mainstream attention from outside of VK.
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Anthem and Loudness. They still putting out heavy metal albums and touring.
Happy bands like Jin-Machine and ムニムニ (and Vagu*Project) are still active.
heidi., lynch. Kra.
I’ve never met anyone who likes Kra and their earlier stuff is decent, but their most recent stuff? I think they profited a lot from being signed to PSC, but since then…
I fucking love heidi and they’re awesome artists and their music is enjoyable, but tbh their events seem to have gotten sooo small? And the past few albums all sounded the same, they just do…what they’re doing.
Same applies to lynch., but they seem to be quite popular despite putting out the same 3 songs for 10 years.
Adding Belle (ベル) to Chanty.
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re: heidi., It’s true and super unfortunate. When I saw them for 2 shows back in 2019 there was about 70 people at each show, and a lot of the same fans. They’ve never gotten the credit they deserve D:
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I don’t think there is any other real answer than heidi. and Kra. I haven’t bothered listening to whatever either has done lately despite the strength of their early output. Neither one draws as far as I know, and nobody ever talks about them outside of a tiny selection of people. There are other PSC survivors like Alice Nine, but at least they have fans. Obviously there are bands like Emmuree that have basically just a handful of fans. They just seem to kind of know what they’re in for, and don’t care. I guess heidi. and Kra are on that boat too.
And people listing commercially successful bands here. Come on, really?
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After heidi.'s 15th anniversary, I had a feeling someone would bring this up, haha. They’ve been my favorite band since 2008, and have only dwindled in success since about 2010. It sucks to watch it happen to your favorite band—I really want others to experience them the way I have. Ugh.
Of course, I hope they don’t disband, but judging on the fact that they’ve released 3 singles and said (in their latest interview) that they feel re-invigorated after 15 years to continue, I hope they at least have an album left. I think this corona bullshit really got to them, but they made the best out of it with constant live streams this last year.
To answer your question:
• heidi. (obviously)
• NoGoD
• SID
• D
• NOIZ
• DaizyStripper
• Alice Nine
• Matenrou Opera
• And maybe Angelo?
(there’s actually quite a few now that I look through my library lol)
Heh, they drew a bigger crowd than that when I saw them during their EU tour in Finland. That was still when any vkei gig in Finland would at the very least get 100 to 200 people attending no matter the band.
I wonder how their other shows from the tour were.
I remember hearing a few years ago that Pura was in their ‘final stages’ from one of the members. Can’t remember who. I could see it, as much as I love them.
What was that, 2014? I remember seeing them in LA that year, too. They really tried. 7 years. Crazy how time flies.
Yup, 2014. They had a dog shit Finnish “vk band” opening for them apparently, because no gig can be organized here without giving a spot to the friends of the organizer, and I gladly missed it. I remember it was a good show even though I wasn’t that familiar with their stuff. One of the last few real bands that came over here.
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Does X JAPAN count ?
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I think the commercial ones which have been mentioned are rather part of the “Holy fuck, they’re a vk band which has been around for 10+ years!!!” because § 1 of VK law is “Disband after 6 months. This does only apply if you start a new band within 3 months after the disbanding. If you end your career you can carry on for up to 2 years.”
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I am only still following two bands these days, being メトロノーム and UCHUSENTAI NOIZ.
Both have been around since the mid/late 90’s and are still active today.
メトロノーム however was on a 7 year hiatus between 2009 and 2016.
And both bands had line-up changes, but at least they are still around and either perform or release new music!
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Definitely thought Kra and SID disbanded a long time ago.
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For me it’s heidi. and Vistlip. I remember having friends that were super into them both 10 years ago and kind of assumed they both disbanded around 2014/2015 as that’s when most of my friends stopped talking about them. So when one of them announces that they are releasing a new single/album, I’m always surprised that they’re still around.
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Jin-Machine. Since 2005 and still super popular.
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The piass.
The band history and years of activity are really strange, so I wonder how they are still together…
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