KARYU always looks immaculate.
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I really love that those guys are still playing together.
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That fuckin’ misleading opening sentence, lmaooo
Guys… don’t play me like this.
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Is MdM a live-only band now?
I don’t really see the point in this.
Luv parade emerged because Hizumi had problems with his voice/throat (?). That’s why they used Taka as a vocalist.
Now he’s in HUG pretty much singing in a band and now they have gigs together? So it’s safe to say they didn’t split up because of arguments or anything? But the voice/throat thing is now kinda… weird??
Why not just reunite at this point???
Ryo (HOLLOWGRAM, DALLE, ex-9GBO) is the one who sings in H.U.G, I think you’re thinking of NUL. Hizumi won’t even perform at this event, which is why I was so baffled about the whole “D’espa’s back, y’all!” opening line, haha.
As for Hizumi being kinda-active again, I think his reasoning was something like not being able to properly sing those old D’espairsRay songs in his current state (idk, his style in NUL. seems pretty much the same to me).
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Oh damn, I really did mix them up with NUL and got confused by the “despa is back” vibe sorry haha
still confused about why he’s performing with NUL
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Yeah, same here…
He addressed the situation in an interview last year (HERE):
Unfortunately, D’espairsRay ended its activities in 2011, but right now you’re active with the band “NUL.”.
HIZUMI: We had to end things as D’espairsRay because of a problem with my throat, but actually, that hasn’t fully healed yet.
[…]
I can’t produce those long, high tones I used a lot when I was in D’espairsRay well anymore. As such, I try to stay away from them when writing melodies these days and it seems to be working.
When I first started having problems with my throat, I spent a long time thinking about what I could do in the future. Singing didn’t make me feel any better. I built up a lot of stress and there was even a point where I hated singing. Because of that, I stepped away from it for a while but, because that period existed, now the feeling that I want to sing is growing. I want to do what’s possible for me now… like, to try singing in a different way or testing out different singing techniques. It’s really enjoyable.
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I think I remember that. The only option probably would be to restart Despa, release a new “adjusted” album and only play these new songs live. Questionable if people would go, but they could just add Hizumi and perform under the name of Luv parade too. But maybe they didn’t want that.
Also considering he doesn’t want to ruin his throat right away again, I don’t really see Despa (fully) returning though unfortunately 
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They did this in order to promote the online streaming tickets. But D’espairsray is not gonna be back
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the tinfoil hat theory is they disbanded because universal, their major label at that time and an infamous kiss of death for everything VK-adjacent, has booked them on a north american tour which was a commercial disaster, and they ended up disbanding as a result (to avoid paying the investment as a very modestly selling major band, I guess)
throat issues didn’t even come up as an excuse until after the disband iirc; the members themselves never had any beef between each other, karyu in particular is v. active in the indie/mid-tier major scene.
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I think Mucc also signed with Universal during Gokusai-Kyuutai era. what about Universal and VK?
I can’t think of any VK act that has actually profited from signing with universal. my personal dislike dates back to miyavi, the first artist from PS Company’s peak era to sign a major contract, immediately turning into shit and never really recovering from that.
12012, d’espairs ray and MUCC were the three bands that also have alienated a lot of former indie fans when signing with UV, which is why for example the gazette getting a deal with king records, or kaggra, majoring on columbia were both welcome news, but before that there were pierrot, who switched to universal for their last album, ran into some internal problems and disbanded, releasing one dry farewell single afterwards - not a single pierrot-adjacent band member ever signed with universal at all after that.
universal has never been a rock-heavy label and around 2010-2013 they almost exclusively switched towards promoting kpop in japan; I was under impression that they - whenever intentionally or not - treated VK as a risky, expensive, afterthought kind of investment, considering none of their protegé acts ever made it big - miyavi had enough promise to be the next gackt starting out, which all pretty much fizzled away until he dropped out from psc, got married, and more or less seemingly came back to his senses for like one album after that.
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I think I remember him tweeting about that before disbanding, but it’s also not unusual for a singer to have throat problems (especially in that genre)
could be… I didn’t follow them closely at that time because they stopped doing what I considered good music so long ago.
it was weird because typically vocal problems with established bands ended up as a year long break max, and they went straight to disbanding right after most of their fins probably expected them to pick up pace after venturing out in the US.
Now that I think back, there was definitely a bit of a health scare on Hizumi’s part with his vocal cords around the time of the band’s Europe tour in 2010, they even said they’d be taking a break after finishing their live obligations so that he could seek therapy and medical help (well, we all know what that lead to…). I remember thinking before the live “geez, I hope he’ll manage okay through the night” but he sounded mostly fine thankfully.
If D’espairsRay were to do a one day revival it would be songs with no screaming parts. Idk how that would turn out 
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isn’t it Karyu doing screams on H.U.G. album which sound identical to both early d’espa and their late songs i.e. deathpoint?
there’s the tried and trusted pre-recorded vocal layer if anything else fails…
Well, in 2014 they played Death Point and Garnet, both featuring quite some screaming, and also the background screams on Redrum’s Initium, which he produced sound like him (tho I weren’t able to get that album yet to see the credits), so it’s not like “can’t” and maybe more of a “not too good regarding healing” and he just doesn’t want to start something he can’t sustain.
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