Come to think of it, another one would be David; love Sui’s solo as Sui and his stuff with KISAKI, but David is just not for me.
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As someone who owns about 50 Cali Gari releases: you’re right, they are absolutely not gaijin friendly. From what I can tell on social media, they don’t seem to dislike overseas fans - they just don’t factor them into their business model at all. Which makes sense: their FC, lives, and merch are basically a well-oiled machine that has apparently been successful for them.
At the very least, their stuff is at least a little easier to access now than it was when I first got into them. More HQ rips circulating, and they’re kind of embracing streaming. Truly getting into them is an absolute chore though, and I can’t blame anyone outside of Japan for not making the effort
As for the OP topic, The Gazette and Girugamesh stand out to me the most as canonized VK bands that just will not click with me. Some early Gazette is alright, and I don’t hate their later material, it just doesn’t light my life up. Girugamesh seems like something I would have had to experience at the time to truly get, but I want to understand. I haven’t given up on these bands though. Getting into deadman and Luna Sea both took me a while, and I love both of those bands now.
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I didn’t even tried to explore MUCC’s discography since I didn’t liked kokoro no nai machi (I can’t really remember what was the name) and FUZZ.
But I idk I can give them a chance sometime (in the distant future…).
Thank you for saying that because I’ve literally worried that I may just be too entitled and feel like everything should be global, at least their albums seem to be, but yeah those DVDs and what they did with some of the stuff with deadman making it available for only a week rubbed me the wrong way, but that’s just jealousy I guess lol. Yeah I am glad that bands seem to be embracing streaming more since it seems to make a good chunk of change through Zaiko etc.
I always thought that there’s something wrong with me for not liking Girugamesh when they’re praised by everyone. I tried to get into them for 2 years straight. Came to like Chimera but that’s it.
They were the saviors and I loved 13’s reborn and their self titled but after that I dropped off and couldn’t care less about Giru and their revival.
Yeah that deadman DVD in particular stings, it’s consistently been one of their rarer, more expensive releases. If you get really into them, you can find most of their DVDs on auction sites - not the deadman one though (or if you do find it, it’s like 30k yen.)
Yeah I found it around $80 for the single with the DVD, but yeah I haven’t found the actual dvd in a long time.
I usually get into a band on their latest release and backtrack to their last couple of albums so I downloaded 15, 14, この雨に撃たれて, 憧憬、睡蓮と向日葵, and ブルーフィルム -Revival-. Is that a good place to start? They have so many albums that I feel I’d get overwhelmed and bored by the time I made it up to present.
Out of their recent material, I think Blue Film Revival and 15 are both good starting points! 憧憬、睡蓮と向日葵 is great too, especially for the summer. The other two releases have their perks, but maybe not the best places to start IMO. 12 and 13 are other post-reunion albums that are good entry points. If you have any interest in their older stuff, you really can’t go wrong with Dai 3 (a mini-album) or Dai 7.
I do think all of their stuff is worth listening to eventually if you like them, but best to use discretion with how you initially approach them. Their catalogue is overwhelming.
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Awesome, I’ll take your advice and report back!
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Is the older stuff with the new Shuuji or old Shuuji?
Dai 3 is with Bald Shuuji (#1), he stayed on until Dai 5 (or technically, the Kimi ga Saku Yama single.) With Blue Film, Dai 6 and beyond, it’s all Shuuji Ishii
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I’m honestly content with liking or not liking what I already do. Not every artist or piece of music out there is for me, so why force it. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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Idk, I feel like my music library would be a lot more boring if it consisted solely of stuff that immediately clicked with me. I like trying new things, trying to adapt my palate to sonic aesthetics and methodologies that take time to sink in.
That said, at a point there’s no forcing it.
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Yeah I’d like to start trying things that take multiple playthroughs to sink in and unveil their majesty to me. 
Alright, this is gonna be a hard one but I could not bring myself to care about MERRY past the first two albums. I’ve tried on many occasions but nothing gripped my interest in the same way that Gendai Stoic did. Lead singer’s voice is scratchy and nasally in a way that hurts my ears and that vibrato style does not help lol.
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Really enjoyed 14,15, この雨に撃たれて, 憧憬、睡蓮と向日葵. 12 and 13 are pretty good, but I like the latest two better and I didn’t really enjoy the Blue Film remake or any of the early Shuji 2 stuff. 
Unpopular opinion. I cant get into dir en grey no matter how hard ive tried. I dont know why but its prob the vocals for me just dont suit me.
Liquid. Im kinda surprised this is on the list. It kinda weird for me i guess theres just too many weird shifts in this guys voice for me to follow so im kinda like what am i listening to.
Tokami. This one is odd for me because i like SCHWARZKAIN but dont really like tokami i cant really get into them. I guess its the vocals in the early years and the instrumentals dont really do it for me.
Kuroyuri to Kage idk… Just a lot of weirdest in this band im not use to probably. I like momento mori and gulu gulu but dont like this band for some reason. I know everyone loved this band a lot. So far memento mori was the best in my opinion
Theres probably more but i just would have to look but these are the ones that come to mind.
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Both Jojo and Taa are nice guys tbh… I don’t like nowadays vkei (I’m into 80s hardcore punk and goth… I used to like 90s vkei but “overdosed”), but Lulu and Gallo are still that bands I really enjoying! How strange, haha😊