Not so popular bands that have a special meaning to you

Japanese Music
21

me-al art, too bad they are disbanded

22

Man, there’s too many Angura and Kote hidden gem/Kuso Kei bands to count… But in regards to bands that aren’t in those categories, I was really into The Fool and OROCHI because they were one of the few bands that had their discography on Spotify when I was getting into VK. I really liked the punky vibes of The Fool, especially the banger that is GO MOTHERFUCKER. Also, OROCHI is a nice Wafuu Kei band in their own right, I can’t really compare them to Kiryu or whomever else because they vibed differently.

There was also this VK group called This is a PEN. (not to be confused with Ensoku’s musical masterpiece) that I used to really like, Pastel Pencil still fucking slaps :fire:

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24

Not a nostalgic feeling, but there are 3 bands coming to my mind that somehow became special for me
joppin:cal (they are not VK), Sacrifice and GAUZES
I think they all became special for me, because they encouraged me somehow a lot with going on with my drawings. Also Gauzes “Wing” was often able to help me calm down during mental breakdown.

25

my answer’s maybe a weird one but i really liked Visual Moon from Mongolia

before Lilith was around or really in full swing, it was VM that let me feel like what i like about vkei could be done outside Japan, without significant label backing
to me they caught the romanticism of the scene in a way i’ve never seen from sweden et al
so in that sense they’ve been especially aspirational for me personally

that plus i love autotune more than probably anyone else on this forum lol so hearing it on a language like Mongolian is so interesting

i wish we could’ve heard their musical journey over four albums instead of literally just four songs, but that’s vkei i guess

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26

CindyKate, E’m ~Grief~, Fuzylog, Gokusai Film, Planetarium, Suzaku, Tokami, VOICE

Basically they all return me somewhere to 2010 and make me feel old, but nostalgic. I listened to them a lot when I got into VK.

Also Capella takes a special place in my heart, because when I listen to them I have a vibe of carefree times and summer break.

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27

仮病 and 怪人二十面奏, they deserve to be popular as they are incredibly talented and their music sounds so different from other bands, so original

28

For me M/エム, maybe they werent very original, just an old school MUCC ripoff…but are really enjoyable with a bunch of very good songs. I would include here their next band THEtwomayMe gachi too, liked their 2 releases, their weekly rehearsal streams…but literally nobody was going to their shows… Sadly both are now over and doesnt seem neither of them will do music again.

29

For me that’s definitely FeaDior.
They’ve been the first indie band that wasn’t already around for a few years (and also didn’t last longer than 1.5 years altogether). I’ve been so heartbroken when they announced their last live especially because they evolved so much with their second singer (but it was his decision to leave, as far as I know because he doubted his skills which’s so WTF considering how great he did few years later in ANUBIS).

30

I don’t know if this counts as a ‘not so popular band’, but -Oz- will always be special to me. I really liked their album Rouge. In a time when a lot of smaller VKei bands would tour Europe I had the chance to see them live in Utrecht, the Netherlands. They announced on the website of the venue that they would sell tickets to win a guitar signed by the members and I told my parents: ‘I’m going to win that guitar’. And what do you know, I actually did!

Being a guitar player this was really something special.

(they also did a signing session, so I had Rouge signed too!)

6 Likes
31

Cuartet. They were really the band that got me into Kote Osa. Just something about them stood out to me and stuck with me to this day. They definitely weren’t the best but they were promising and deserved way better than what Yayoi gave them. They deserved a proper PSC deal and not Yayoi’s second shitty attempt lol

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32

EAT YOU ALIVE. I was pretty sad when they disbanded. In fact it was the first and only time a vkei band I listen to called it quits.

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33

Ehpion. They have four songs and they are the four best songs.

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34

There are so many… but right now what came to my mind was シュガーフォークフル, even with UCP releasing their stuff I think that they never got the deserved attention.

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35

I remember listening to Visual Moon back in 2013 around with their track Neo (maybe). and I also love their Last Christmas cover. I dug a lot of Mongolian metal bands at the time and just came across them by coincidence.

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36

I REALLY like their song ‘Clockwise’!

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37

Mannequin. Their first and only album was soooo goood. Too bad the singer retired after they disbanded, but this band holds a special place in my heart. I really like how the whole album was like a whole story told by someone (well the way I see it with the intro and outro). They were one of my favorite back in the days ^^

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38

Raindia, they made the most beautiful vk song I ever heard

Devize, they were a good shitkei band

Revlez

I love to find great disbanded bands because listening to their song gives a bittersweet ‘man this is so good why didn’t I heard about them sooner’ feeling

And there was Yusai where the vocalist just disappeared

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39

I always hope that the band released an album before disbanding. I hate when the band has like one song.

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40

It’s kind of a recent example, but something about LUCIFER really hit me the right way from the very first announcement post on MH. I thought they had some really catchy songs, and the singer’s voice is so cute, IMO. I liked some of their looks a lot too.

I wanted to see them at least get popular enough to put out a mini-album/album, but it seemed like they never really built up much momentum.

I was wondering why it was taking them so long to put out an actual MV, and when they came out with the one for “VII”, I was like “Oh wow, this must have been what they were saving up for!”. It was just so satisfying to see, and I haven’t felt that much with VK bands in recent years.

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41

@violetchain They actually did end up putting out an album called 約束(Yakusoku). I also wondered why they never got more popular I really enjoyed what I heard from them but I can never find their music anywhere… I hope to at least be able to hear their singles Rebellion and Shokudoku one day.

Edit: Actually shortly after posting this I looked around again and actually found both of them(yay) so I bought them and am now just waiting for them.