KAMIJO

I really enjoy the Kamijo era currently, his deep voice is so relaxing but if I had to be honest I would have to say his Lareine era. His high pitched voice sounded so nice and every time I hear it, I have the urge to cry because how handsome it sounds aaaaaaaaaaa!!!

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For me, best kamijo is Lyrical Sympathy Kamijo, I love this transitional stage between his high pitch lareine era, and his modern clean voice. Itā€™s much deeper than usual and with an very colorful texture

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YESSSSS

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I always wondered about why he lowered his pitch with Versailles and funnily enough, he addressed it recently in Rock and Read (vol 107 for reference). Iā€™m paraphrasing but he essentially said that vocal style had an expiration date and he didnā€™t want people to see the band just as Kamijo from Lareine. He changed the style to make Versailles more distinct essentially, or so he claims!

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thatā€™s very cool, nice to finally read about his decision. Iā€™m glad he did that, Lareineā€™s kamijo is an aquired taste, and isnā€™t for everyone

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his best eras for me are early Lareine (including Laliene), New Sodmy and early Versailles. best tracks? well, Iā€™m a metalhead but I enjoy ā€œImagineā€ by New Sodmy and ā€œē™½č¶ā€ by Lareine the most. If I have to pick up greatest vocalists of all time, No. 1 must be Gackt and No. 2 must be Kamijo.
hmm, I still remember his moment on Gacktā€™s Nine Nine DVD which he stated he was a roadie in Malice Mizer, gave a brief advertisement of Versaillesā€™s new album Jubilee and gave a free copy to Gackt.
also, donā€™t forget ā€œćŠé”˜ć„å¶ćˆć¦ć€ćƒ™ćƒ«ć‚µć‚¤ćƒ¦ā€ lol. Versailles as a äø‡äŗ‹å±‹ is a fresh idea and funny. the ā€œgolden triangleā€ is Teru, Yuki, Masashi, which Kamijo often made them to solve all kinds of problems. ę„åœ°ę‚Ŗ恭态ēŽ‹å­ę§˜ļ½žļ½žļ½ž :rofl:

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I love all of Versailles but Lyrical Sympathy and Noble still have the sound that I gravitate towards the most and Kamijoā€™s voice at the time is one of the reasons. The first ChĆ¢teau de Versailles DVD also captures this darker tone. Also, his growling and screaming was probably at its very best during that era. I feel like he had a brief period of time where shades of his 2007/08 voice came through, right at the beginning of his solo career.

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HE DOES THAT?

Not to sound sarcastic, but iā€™ve only ever listen to a few Versailles and his solo works, and so far none of it had screaming. I thought he specifically avoid doing that in order to protect his voice, but it couldā€™ve been voices in my head telling me things. I donā€™t even remember if his rendition of Roses Blood Symphony had screaming or not.

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Teru is usually in charge of the screams in versailles, but kamijo does sometimes too. There is a bit in Shout and Bites and in Red Carpet Day.

In his solo, he does on Dying Table.

But it isnā€™t really screaming per-se, itā€™s more like an whispery low growl

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I heard that quite often

Iā€™m quite glad he doesnā€™t do a full on screaming because when a Tanbi Kei vocalist starts screaming, 90% of the time it starts giving me a sore throat lol (With the exception of Seth)

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ahuh, Sethā€™s unclean is like spoken words since his voice is so low lol.

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Ive always loved Kamijo but it seems his recent releases are a bit weak? What do you guys think? Songs like Noseferatu or Royal Blood are so damn good!

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yesss thatā€™s so trueee. Heā€™s growing older tho so itā€™s understandable how his voice in his recent songs sound so different all the time.

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our prince finally becomes a king.

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Teru only mimicks. The backing track provides the studio growls. When he is shouting for real (like when Kamijo holds his mic in front of his mouth in Shout & Bites), it sounds pretty awful.

Kamijo is mostly only growl-whispering since 2010 or so but during that earlier era, Iā€™d reckon, his guttural voice is quite decent and reasonably powerful. Also, Bass magic courtesy of Jasmine.

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Noticed not much talk about his solo project and OSCAR for instance.

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Might be a hot take but I think he peaked musically with SANG as a soloist.

Heart was super cool but I think his production skills was elevated on SANG. His voice sounds the most natural, the albums sound focused and production was on point ā€¦ then he did a classical version of the album. That album was special man.

I felt something was missing on OSCAR. I was hyped too with the 3 releases of Symbol of the Dragon, TEMPLE, and Persona Grata leading up to OSCAR. But something was off in that album.

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I think that OSCARā€™s worse sin is been born from the cancelation of PERSONA. It bacame bloated with older material, and got an identity crisis. And Iā€™m not a big fan of the kojima singles, I find Temple, Persona Grata and Symbol very weak songs, that are somewhat saved by new mixes in the album.

The new stuff we got there was great. The transition between Agenda and Habsburg sends shivers down my spine and beautiful Rā€™nā€™R provides the delightful cheesyness that I came to expect from Kamijo not taking himself so serious.

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AAAA I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT THOUGHT THE SAME ABOUT OSCAR

I agree with both @JukaForever and @foccius on both topics. While I do think SANG was the better release in his solo career, I do enjoy the new works on OSCAR.

Itā€™s just the inclusion of the old stuff that made it feel bloated to me. It was the very first thing I said to my friend after listening to the album for the first time.

@Vampirerockstar I also thought this was just me, so to not cause a whole whirlwind of fuss I just kept that opinion to myself. Until now. :joy:

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