I’m a little torn on which sukekiyo album could most fully be considered a ‘modern classic,’ but there’s no doubt they’re among the most singular bands to emerge from the visual kei scene in the past 10–20 years. I picked ADORATIO here because I think with this album, they overcame some of the initial stiffness and unsteadiness (especially in the composition department) that plagued IMMORTALIS, and created something truly experimental, visionary, and yet cohesive.
Say what you will about DADA, the unhinged Facebook troll, but Street of ALICE is one of the most monolithic classics in all of vk. KALM’s spectacular sense for brooding, off-kilter darkwave grooves — the kind that could turn any bat cave into a steamy dancefloor — combined with DADA’s macabre eroticism and his hypnotic, delicate despair in both lyrics and voice, resulted in one of the most memorable album experiences I’ve ever had. This thing smells like opium, sex and asphalt on rainy nights.
Listening to MAGICAL MOONIES is like gazing at a peculiar stone that doesn’t gleam or sparkle quite like anything else. The percussion ranges from tribal and kaleidoscopic to new wavy and punky. The bass towers over everything, coloring reverby licks and hypnotic surf-rock riffs in deep black, while Canou’s voice shakes and shivers with anxiety, love, and gothic swagger. It’s a ghostly artifact from a parallel dimension where the Beach Boys took shrooms with Robert Smith and Siouxsie Sioux, and saw the end of the world.
I can understand the idea of “modern” = “not kote” buuuut i can also understand the idea of the 2000s and 2010s being very different and each being worthy of their own thread
Granted in my personal understanding which may be complete bullshit to everyone else, “the 2000s” began the day after Gauze dropped and “the 2010s” ended with CHE DO A RA
(i have no idea what album is the similar delineator between those two tho, plz lmk if you think you got one)
I agree with a lot of the choices people made here so I will try to not repeat them.
Dir En Grey - Dum Spiro Spero
It might have been smarter to avoid using DEG here because they tend to rise up discussions but it would also be foolish to not include them. Dum Spiro Spero might not be their best effort or the most polished one but it’s impact on heavy visual kei post 2012 is undeniable. The sheer ambition of this album and almost absurdity of the band’s sound change even after MoAB and Uroboros made a statement. Without this album I believe there would be no Chedoara down the road, possibly no Providentia by D.I.D., 420 Theatrical Roses by Mejibray or Vanitas by Nega. Bands realised “shit we can do that?!”.
Deadman - in the direction of sunrise and the night light
Your actual favorite Deadman may vary but I believe this is the culmination of their work up to that point with basically just rereleases past it until their hiatus and eventual rebirth. I believe this is the album that most people even outside the Deadman fandom know. Even if you don’t like the rest of the album it has few iconic singles especially Follow The Night Light which I remember popping up on my Youtube recommended all the time when all vk bands I knew were just DEG. Additional cause for sorrow, follow the night light, when the saints go marching in (Seija no Koushin. technically this song wasn’t album original but I’ll include it anyway), this day.this rain. The album isn’t very dark per say at least compared to some of its contemporaries but it’s has very strong sense of longing a melancholy. Wanting for things to be better despite life refusing to accept your existence before ulitmately your hopes being squandered by disastrous fate.
emmurée - love letter - Dark Mania-
Now we get to truly dark albums. Emmurée to me have very solid sound but they don’t tend to be hit song makers or rather single material makers at least for me. But lo and behold, album that has several. I don’t know how many if any of the songs were actualy singles but you could pick like 5 out of the track list. The album is a depression generator, like a lot of nagoya kei works, but the sense of urgency and just the strength of the emotions of some of these songs is unparalleled. Where “in the direction of night light” longs for betterement love letter - Dark Mania - is fully content with the state of self with the inevitable outcomes that brings. You may be sad because of choices you made in life but despite the sadness you embrace your existance and see it through to the end. That’s what I think makes this album a staple of the genre and how it differs from it’s peers. There was a an updated version of thid album released with love letter - Dark Mania± which features additional song but strips back a lot of the more oppresive production and makes it too clean in my opinion. So I always tend tk listen to the original.
Gibkiy Gibkiy Gibkiy - in incontinence
I have always admired musicians with vision where you can see their sound or touch in all the bands they have been in. Taking the creative lead in a sense and building the bands around those ideas they have. In this case it’s Kazuma the vocalist of Gikbiy bringing all the ideas he had in Merry Go Round and all his subsequent bands like Smells and highfashionparalyze (in this case first Gibkiy album was just a remaster album of highfashion songs). This time the vision is listenable through and through with sound like no other band in the scene being driven in large by percussive parts of the music. Gibkiy’s music is almost tribal in some aspects while retaining the Nagoy Kei melodicism, melancholy and darkness. It’s less punky than it’s contemporaries but more methodical. One of the only bands where Aie’s doesn’t sound like he is playing in 5th iteration of “the god and death stars” ( you could add Dawn of God by them to the list as well tbh but that’s something I have to think about more). Kazuma as a vocalist is one of the most unique vocalists within the scene with one of the most impenetrable sounds. His whale like cries and wails aren’t for everybody but they also make Gibkiy work. It adds to the mystery to the band which worked miles overtime for Merry Go Round decades before. Where in the previous mentioned Nagoy albums you were in part a twisted victim of fate here you are the perpetrator. You are the beast in the night hanging around in the dark and comminting crimes of the least savoury nature. Same feeling Merry Go Round exuded but this time in well produced, sleeker package and star cast. Somewhat unlikely combo of musicans coming together, making one of the most unique albums in the subgenre past the peak of their carreers. It’s something we live for
And also such an interesting topic - I have heaps go songs I consider classics but I like the approach here of an entire album (I counted minis in as well). I also picked my personal favourite and/or defining song of each release.
My personal list of modern classics would currently look like:
I rarely see people w the same taste as me on this forum, but these are my picks:
Kagrra - [gozen]
I feel like this is, hands down, Kagrra,'s best album. It’s so different. It has real passion project vibes. All original songs, no singles. As far as concept albums go, this is timeless and no one makes art like this anymore.
Kagrra - 桜花爛漫 (ouka ranman)
cheating a bit since this is an EP, but all the songs on here are 10/10. If I had to show someone’s Kagrra,'s vibes with 1 CD, it would be this one. You have the upbeat, wafuu melodies with the twin guitars, beautiful wafuu lyrics, and in the middle of it you have this wonderfully haunting ballad that gives you the best of Isshi’s voice. It’s just perfect.
SID - 憐哀 (renai)
SID has been around for 20-odd years, but this is still THE album to go back to. They’ve had others, Including some i really like as well, but this is it for me. The classic.
My other picks have already been mentioned in this thread, so i won’t elaborate:
Mucc - 朽木の灯
deadman - in the direction of sunrise and nightlight
i love when the saints go marching in sooo much. This is the song i want them to play at my funeral lol
I would count this as a modern classic. I honestly don’t really know what the general opinion is on this album but I love it! Songs like Lily and 儚き激情 (hakanaki gekijou) are so catchy and melodic and I feel like this is a perfect blend of the punk/hard rock/metal style and the pop music side of VK.
From the 2000s to today, here is my list (without order of preference): - DIR EN GREY : Macabre, Kisou, Vulgar, Uroboros and Dum Spiro Spero. - RENTRER EN SOI : Sphire Croid, RENTRER EN SOI and THE BOTTOM OF THE CHAOS. - Sukekiyo : IMMORTALIS. - BUCK-TICK : ONE LIFE, ONE DEATH. - PIERROT : PRIVATE ENEMY. - MUCC : Kuchiki no Tou. - D’espairsRay : [Coll:set]. - GACKT: MARS and Crescent. - Baroque : sug life. - L’Arc~en~Ciel : SMILE and KISS. - Moi dix Mois : Nocturnal Opera. - The Gazette : STACKED RUBBISH and DIM. - Kagerou : Rakushu. - Kaggra : Miyako and San. - MERRY : nu Chemical Rethoric. - 9GOATS BLACK OUT : devils in bedside (EP). - D : The name of the ROSE. - D.I.D : Providentia. - DIMLIM : Chedoara. - THE GALLO : DIAVOLO. And I may have forgotten some more…
D.I.D. — Paranoid personality. Without it we would not get both Dimlim and Nazare. And they introduced the gimmick with insanely high clear vocals that other bands started to emulate.
Nocturnal Bloodlust — Grimoire. Because it’s the first successful metalcore injection within visual kei. Keyword — metalcore, not nu metal that all 00s bands were inspired by.
Dadaroma and their first PV. I feel that this was the biggest thing from the middle of 10s that reached the west and made waves there. Plus, they took from Lycaon all they could and injected it with metalcore as well.
I also disagree with most of the replies here, because to me “modern classic” is something that made waves and influenced the bands to come. Kagrra and SID, for example — come on… it’s good bands but given the non-existence of wafuu in the last 10 years except for rururone and archemi, and Sid being as generic as possible so you can’t really find their traces in other visual kei bands…
I was only refering to the non existance of Wafuu… that’s just not true. Even if they were founded earlier. They existed in the the last 10 years.
Also there might not be many bands that are strictly wafuu only nowadays but most bands do wafuu looks combined with traditionel tunes once in a while. That is still influcence on the scene.
