Must-hear/Essential Visual Kei albums

It’s one of the few I forgot.

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Jingai was excellent for an album completely recorded and produced in a bedroom on the level of some of the top one man black metal bands.

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L’Arc~en~Ciel - Tierra (1994)
LUNA SEA - Mother (1994)
MUCC - Gokusai (2006)
The GazettE - DIM (2009)
alice nine. - Kasou Musou Shi (2005)

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Madeth gray’ll - Lucifer
Versailles - Noble
Vinett - Happy!!
Merry - Gendai Stoic
Moi dix Mois - Dix inferno
Moi dix Mois - DIXANADU
Phantasmagoria - Splendor of Sanctuary
Phantasmagoria - subjective or ideal
Megaromania - Prophetic Faction -the Universe-
Grieva - Oni to Kage
Plastic Tree - Strange fruits -奇妙な果実-

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Thought I’d go ahead and add a few I thought of. Potentially more to come.

And AWOI BEST unfortunately I couldn’t find it on any streaming platforms.

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malice mizer - merveilles and bara no seidou, also uruwashiki kamen no shoujato, beast of blood and gardenia singles
l’arc en ciel - dune
kuroyume - 迷える百合達~Romance Of Scarlet~
pierrot - パンドラの匣
vidoll - if mayura/if pisaroto
dir en grey - gauze and vulgar
gackt - mars and moon
d’espairsray - coll:set, garnet and born
kagrra, - gozen, miyako and kotodama single
nightmare - anima
the gazette - dim
deadman - no alternative and in the direction of sunrise & night light
lareine - never cage and saikai no hana, billet, fuyu tokyo, bara wa utsukushiku chiru
versailles - holy grail
d’air - mary gold and with singles
psycho le cemu - frontiers
moi dix mois - dix infernal, nocturnal opera and shadows temple single

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There’s so many great recommendations here already! I’ll just add a few of my personal favorites that haven’t been mentioned yet(with only 2 youtube because I’m a new member :disappointed_relieved: I wasted too much time putting this together only to realize at the end)~

Ayabie - VIRGIN SNOW COLOR
アヤビエ - バージンスノーカラー

Irokui - Genboshi FLARE Tawagoto
イロクイ。 - 銀星フレアの戯言

GHOST - Tsumi to Batsu Brand New Capsule ⅩⅣ
GHOST - 罪と罰 Brand New Capsule ⅩⅣ

An Cafe - Shikisai Moment
アンティック-珈琲店- - 色彩モーメント

Lolita23q - Brand New Ward
少女-ロリヰタ-23区 - Brand New Ward

Megamasso- Nishutari
メガマソ - ニシュタリ

I’ll come back to this thread when I remember more/can add more links.

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MUCC - Kuchiki no Tou

deadman - in the direction of sunrise and night light

9GOATS BLACK OUT - devils in bedside

lynch. - SHADOWS

D’espairsRay - BORN

DIR EN GREY - UROBOROS

L’Arc~en~Ciel - AWAKE

Kagrra, - Shizuku

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SUGIZO - Truth?
Matenrou Opera- Justice
Daisuke to Kuro no Injatachi- Shikkoku no Hikari
the GazettE- Madara
Laputa- Heaven
Suicide Ali- Daiyon no waltz
9GOATSBLACKOUT- Tanatos

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100% agree on [coll:set] and I BELIEVE IN ME. The best albums from both of those bands.

As someone who was introduced to Japanese music through Gackt, Crescent also holds a special place in my heart. The live performance of Lust for Blood from his DIABOLOS DVD will always remain in my memory as he emerges from a coffin lowered onto the stage. Say what you will about the man, but at his peak his artistry and stage production was unmatched.

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  1. X Japan - Vanishing Vision
  2. D’erlanger - Basilisk
  3. Dir en grey - Uroboros
  4. Kagerou - Shinjuka (best-of album, but the sheer volume of it makes it essential)
  5. √eight - Illational
  6. the GazettE - Nil
  7. MUCC - Kuchiki no Tou
  8. girugamesh - Music (not their best; but probably their most significant)
  9. Pierrot - Private Enemy
  10. Raphael - Mind Soap
  11. D’espairsRay - Coll:Set
  12. Alice Nine - Gemini
  13. Rentrer en soi - Megiddo
  14. Luna Sea - Mother
  15. An Cafe - Gokutama Rock Cafe
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X japan - Blue Blood
D’erlanger - La Vie En Rose
Luna Sea - Luna sea
Kuroyume - Ikiteita Chuzetsuji
Buck Tick - Aku no Hana
Malice Mizer - Memoire
Shazna - Raspberry Time
Pierrot - Finale
Dir en grey - Macabre
D’espairsray - Sexual Beast
Dué le quartz - Best album
Mucc - Zekū
Gazette - Madara
Alice nine - Kasou Musou Shi
Miyavi - Miyavizm
Kagerou - shinjuuka

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There’s a few more that I forgot that others in this topic are keeping me honest about. No big write-up this time, but these albums are just as good as the ones in my first post.

  • 9GOATS BLACK OUT - devils in bedside
  • cocklobin - dark design catalog

I said no write-up but I need to point out that these two albums in particular pivoted the international visual kei scene in 2008 in a way I haven’t seen many bands do since. And they were both debuts!

  • Kuroyume - Ikiteita Chuzetsuji
  • √eight - Illational
  • Rentrer en Soi - Megiddo or Sphire-Croid
  • Versailles - JUBILEE
  • deadman - no alternative and in the direction of sunrise & night light

I must say, y’all have some goated taste in here.

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Probably off-topic, but RENTRER EN SOI’s non-existent full album containing STIGMATA and UNENDING SANCTUARY would likely have been their best album ever composed according to the direction of their sound back then which IMO was at their peak.

Their sound had been settled perfectly at that time but they ended up disbanding instead, unfortunately. The 2 aforementioned singles, MEGIDDO which was their last mini album, and the 2 new songs in AIN SOPH AUR could represent most of this non-existent full album though.

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Here are some of my picks:

Mejibray - 420 Theatrical Roses
Dir En Grey - Vulgar and Dum Spiro Spero
Gazette - Dim and Dogma
Dimlim - Chedoara
Nega - Grave of The Sacrifice (alternatively I would put Negativism and Vanitas here because Grave of the Sacrifice overall isn’t their best album just because of how it was put together but it encompasses their past sound and sheds light on where will they go after that)
Deadman - In the Direction of Sunrise and Night Light and °C
Unsraw - Spiral Circle
D.I.D - Providentia
Plastic Tree - Puppet Show
Merry Go Round - Merry Go Round is Dead (maybe a little controversial pick but I think this best of improves the mixing of the original tracks significantly and also has all the biggest hits of the band while also showcasing different side of vk)
Dadaroma - Stanczyk
OZ - Complete Best Album (as it was mentioned before this best of practicaly contains majority of their discography)
MUCC - Kuchiki No Tou
I am not knowledgable enough about older vk bands to really put any of the old but gold albums here. I could put a lot of other albums here but it would just turn into my personal favorites list

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:thinking: I feel like a lot here are “my tastes” rather than “classics, must-listens” but agreed on

Nightmare - Anima (far from my favorite but it’s okay, also a classic)
Buck-Tick - Aku no Hana (far from my favorite but it’s okay, also a classic)
AnCafe - Magnya Carta (probably not just a me thing no)
Pierrot - Pandora no Hako (probably their most influential? also, love it)
Gackt - Mars (probably both a “me” and “everyone else” thing)
Miyavi - Miyavizm (just going with popular opinion as I am 100% a MYV Pops kid)
L’Arc en Ciel - Tierra (chefs kiss)
also idk if it they should make the list but agreed that Versailles - Jubilee and Psycho le Cemu - Frontiers are pretty good.

Would add too:
hide - Psyence (probably a me thing but lol shrug )
baroque - sug life

Lol this topic reminds me that I need to properly listen to MUCC’s discography (so I can share my controversial opinion too)

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I don’t believe they’ve been mentioned at all yet and I didn’t remember myself until now but I definitely got to mention my favorite album by Sadie.

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L’Arc en Ciel - Tierra (1994)
Malice Mizer - Merveilles (1998)
Pierrot - Private Enemy (2000)
Luna Sea - Lunacy (2000)
Dir en grey - Vulgar (2003)
Gackt - Crescent (2003)
Mucc - Kuchiki no tou (2004)
Merry - nu chemical rhetoric (2005)
RENTRER EN SOI - Sphire-Croid (2005)
D’espairsray - Coll:set (2005)
the Gazette - Gama (2005)
Kagrra, - San (2005)
girugamesh - Reason of crying (2007)
9GOATS BLACK OUT - Black rain (2009)
sukekiyo - Immortalis (2014)

I put the mains albums that left me the strongest impressions.

I’m really into the begin of the 2000~, after this period, I felt and still feel nothing, like a big hole of emptiness .

Edit: How could I forget to put at least one Merry album.

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DIR EN GREY - Vulgar (2003)

Yeh that’s all I can think of lol, I’m sorry I only listen to mostly metal shit and my tastes in music are really selective ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Srsly I need to read here more, a lot of good brutal bands I never really heard about that I end up loving.

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