A female VK band from the under- under- underground

Hey people,

So today I thought I´m gonna pick up the female Visual Kei topic again. I´ve found a great all- female band called Revivre (ルヴィーブル), which started their activities in 2009 and unfortunately disbanded in 2013.
As you might have guessed from the title, this band was reeeally indie.

I honestly have no idea why they didn´t get any attention cause their style was absolutely fabulous.
It reminds me of Malice Mizer and Lareine who had this fairytale- like aura.
Personally, I´d love to see women making music in Malice Mizer- ish clothes who master their instruments well. Plus there are so few bands in this Neo Visual Kei era who still embrace the good old Visual Kei days.
But perhaps that was exactly the problem of Revivre- Their vocalist Regan´s voice is...quite terrible to be honest.
Their looks, their makeup and their ideas in general were sooo awesome, but I have to say that the thing that really matters unfortunatelly wasn´t.

Anyway, before I let you guys judge them for yourself, I´d like to list some facts about them:
Revivre was a band active from 2009, and has always been an all-female Visual Kei band despite their frequent line-up changes.
In 2010, they released two singles called "White Wing"(released on Christmas Day) and "Eternal Sleep/Promise" (released on 30th July). Both Singles were handed out for free at their lives.




White Wing

Eternal Sleep / Promise

Note how much these covers look like some Malice Mizer cover from the 90s!

 

In 2011, they changed their bass guitarist Jion for Jyuji and added two more members named Izumi (on guitar) and Shuri (on drums).
On May 3rd 2013, they released a mini album called "La Gemme", which included 4 tracks:

1) Dejavu
2) 呪う術は死の水晶 ("The crystal of death is my cursing technique")
3) 闇の幻影に見た夢 ("The dream seen in the illusion of darkness)
4) Promise～花の便り～

...Which are quite unique titles, in my opinion.This single was sold for 1500 Yen.



La Gemme



A sample you can find here: http://youtu.be/pgJZn05pGYc
Also, there is one gorgeous PV by Revivre called "Dejavu":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGT_DweE5pE

I´ve also found a short recording of one of their lives from July 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-XnZCfe5WA#t=34

Anyway, shortly before Revivre decided to disband, guitarist Izumi was replaced by Illumina.
That means that in the end, the only original members were Yukirose and Regan.
Here are short profiles from their web page http://revivre.secret.jp/
(I highly recommend you take a loot at it. It looks fantastic)

Yukirose
Part:Guitar
Birthday: Jannuar 21st
Blood Type:B



Yukirose



Please also visit the official Twitter site of Yukirose!:
https://twitter.com/Yukirose_revi/media

Regan
Part:Vocals (also plays piano)
Birthday: Jannuary 1st
Blood Type:O

Regan

Please also visit Regan´s official blog! :
http://ameblo.jp/revivre-regan/

Illumina
Part:Guitar
Birthday: August 11th
Blood Type: unknown

Illumina

Jyuji
Part:Bass
Birthday: March 35th
Blood Type:A

Jyuji

I truly think their style is beautiful, but I have to admit that Regan´s voice is more than in need for improvement. Not saying she couldn´t have improved. I think she´d porbably have a ver good voice if she had taken some vocal lessons. It´s a shame they disbanded, but what can we do.
I guess that´s just the Visual Kei world where band members get changed like underwear and bands disband within a wink...

Kurenai

A nice spot in Belgium...

Hey guys,

Recently, I´ve visited Belgium and discovered three very cute places. If you consider yourself to be goth or a fan of underground culture, I´m sure you´d be fond of it as well.
No, in fact, I believe you´d even like these places if you consider yourself to be a regular mainstream dude.
These three places are located in the Jan Breydelstraat and I highly recommend you going there!
I regret having visitted Gent for only one day so much (and on top of that it was a Sunday).
There was one shop I had been looking for and after a while I had found it.
It´s called "The fallen Angels", which is


a antique (?) shop with a very cute exterior. This much I can tell you. But since it was a Sunday, I didn´t get the chance to visit the shop. It was full of old toys and dolls and the dainty pale pink and ochre design of the shop was really an eyecatcher!



Jah Breydelstraat 29, Gent.

This is apparently the guardian angel the shop was named after

 

 

I also found this to be sort of amusing :p...



 

There also were two restaurants on the other side of the street I found really cool.
These two restaurants coexist side by side, even though the one called "Club Reserva" is waaay cheaper than the neighbouring restaurant "House Eliott".

 

There seem to be lives on every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, so that´s probably why they have all those awesome instruments hanging and standing around.

In fact, they even call their restaurant a "music venue and bistro", and I know I regret not having been there on that Sunday evening <_<.

 

This is how it looks inside:

(Picture not taken by me)

From there you have a perfect view on the Gent´s river Leie.

 

I also enjoyed the stylish atmosphere in the entrance area:



 

I couldn´t believe me and my friend found such delicious and cheap food in Belgium!
I recommend you going there not only because of the furnishing, but also because of the food. It can be quite hard to find healthy, delicious and cheap food in Belgium, but in this restaurant I had finally found what I was looking for so long in Belgium.

The vegetable pie (for 7 Euros) of my friend and my vegetable soup (for 4 Euros) with bread and butter was really delicious!



 

 

My third recommendation is a restaurant called "The House Eliott"

The House Eliott

 

God, looking at the pics on Google, the atmosphere in there must be so gorgeous...

Just look at this!:

 

 

The only thing that restrained me from consuming something at this restaurant were the prices.

There was no proper meal under 17 Euros!

I ended up eating at Club Reserva, which wasn´t a bad choice, either.

But the next time I go to Gent, I´ll visit The House Eliott and the cute shop for sure, though!
(I won´t die in peace if I don´t go to this restaurant!)

 

 

So...I guess that was it for today.

I hope you liked my post :)

 

 

Kurenai

 



Asmalia- The new gothic shop in Vienna!

Hey guys,


2 days ago, on May 8th, a new gothic shop opened in the seventh district of Vienna.
These are really big news, since many gothic shops in Vienna had to close, and up till now there was only one bigger gothic shop. Okay, there are some fetish and piercing shops with cool stuff, but this is the second shop which literally calls itself "Gothic Shop".
The first three days they had all their products reduced by 10%, so today was my last chance!
I had to check it out and I was glad I did.
It only take about 7 minutes from the subway station Neubaugasse and Zieglergasse (both U3)
I decided to go to Neubaugasse by subway, then I turned right to Neubaugasse, turned left to Lindengasse and went through a nameless passage (there is a sign above the passge that said Ahorngasse). The first street on the right side of Ahorngasse is Hermangasse. After a few meters I saw the shop:

Asmalia

 

It´s definitely not as noticeable as the Nexus store, which is also a bit bigger, but in fact, I liked how the little shop looked like inside. There were two ladies and one man standing in there. They were really friendly, even though I could notice they were still quite nervous, which is only natural in this situation, I think.

Anyway, the prices weren´t too high, but the stuff they had wasn´t exactly cheap, either.

Here is a little excerpt:

 

I totally liked the accessoires, which weren´t all that expensive. I had decided to buy something in the shop if I liked it, and in the end I bought a collar made of lace which had a black rose in the middle.
I have a number of collars, but none of them is as steampunk as this one.
The reduced price was 9.80 Euros, which is fine, in my opinion (It´s that thing on the upper right corner if you look at the picture with the purple background).

Steampunk necklace

 

After all, I not only got a beautiful, reduced collar, but also supported a new gothic shop.

It´s an important contribution to the gothic scene in Vienna, which seems to reflourish. Lately I see flamboyant people walking through the city way more often than for example three years ago and I´m really glad about it!

Edit: This is Asmalia´s official flyer!

 

 

If you have spare time after sight seeing in Vienna, please go to the shop. ;)

It´s worth a visit!

 

 

Kurenai





Zetsubou Billy and the Badass Girl on drums

Hello everybody,

Again, I decided to write a post related to the topic "women in Visual Kei". I´ll probably make a break after that for a while, though...
Anyway, when deciding on todays topic, I had one particular ladiy in mind. She appeared in a PV together with an indie VK band I´ll introduce to you as well. You might know them if you are a fan of Death Note.
The lady I´m talking about is the drummer of a quite popular band among Japanese (and also non Japanese) metal fans.
Her name is Nao Kawakita and she is the only female member of Maximum The Hormone!
What I find exceptional about this band is, that they don´t care about the visuals at all. I mean, if you look at Versailles, D or many other japanese metal bands, you will always see guys with lots of makeup, contact lenses and fantastic clothes, but these guys just literally don´t give a f*ck.

I always wonder why there aren´t more girls on drums, since it is said that women are more capable of multitasking. And saying that, Nao is not only a perfect drummer. She also sings while drumming!
Together with vocalist Daisuke Tsuda she was one of the founding members of Maximum The Hormone, which is a band existing since 1998. And seriously, the band is her elixir of life.

Just look at her being badass!

Nao Kawakita

In 2009, poor Nao had problems with her pregnancy and had to stop doing what she likes the most for a while, but it looks like she´s up to the mark by now!


Now, let´s change over to the "gothic" Visual Kei band in the Zetsubou Billy video, which was "Parfait".
Never heard of them? Well, I can´t hold it against you. The band was indie, like really, really underground indie, ya know. They were only active for two or three years (2005-2007).

In fact, I have no idea how they managed to get together with Maximum The Hormone and make such a great PV for Death Note. Or rather I wonder, why they didn´t get more popular after it was released. They even looked quite professional there!
Oh well, the truth is, they actually were an Oshare Kei band. I was wondering why they chose the name "Parfait" as a goth band, but now I understand they only decided to change their look for the PV...



Oshare Kei, Parfait

 

They titled their songs "Toy Box", "Little Baby" or "Nyan Nyan", you know...

I think this confrims that Zetsubou Billy and Parfait are two bands which are as different as chalk and cheese. And yet they managed to make an awesome PV!

I hope you found this interesting and/or helpful.
Thanks for reading, guys!

 

Kurenai

Nene/ Amadeus

Hey people,


So recently, I stumbled about a band called Amadeus. (Such things often happen when I klick on some video on the "related videos"-list on Youtube)

Anyway, it's not the reason for my post, but those of you who are fans of Moi Dix Mois should know that Moi Dix Mois' vocalist Seth was also on vocals for Amadeus. But in these days, he was called Seiji.
Back in the 90s, Amadeus were quite popular in the indie scene and I believe they influenced many artists who joined or started (gothic) symphonic metal bands like for example Versailles, Matenrou Opera and obviously Moi Dix Mois.


Now, here is what I actually wanted to write about:

Nene

It's a lady called Nene who was the only female member of Amadeus and another band called Art Marju Duchain.
I only found out that she was born in Kanagawa on April 8th and that her blood type is AB. She also claims to be able to talk with animals.
Anyway, what I actually find fascinating about her is her beautiful soprano singing and the fact that she played cross flute. I can't think of anybody in the japanese Rock/Underground/Visual Kei scene who does or did  that. I mean, there are some sopranists in the scene, but Nene´s voice is very unique.
Unfortunately, Nene hasn't been active since leaving Art Marju Duchain in 2002 and I would really like to know what she does now.


Here are some songs where you can hear Nene´s beautiful voice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DVXTF5zwWk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZZYl0MSiXU&feature=youtu.be
and here we have their official web site: http://www.fantasiaweb.com/~amadeus/index.htm
God, I love these simple cheesy 90s web sites...

Anyway, that´s all for today!~

 

Kurenai

Women in Visual Kei/ Inugami Circus Dan

Hello everyone,


Today I´m gonna introduce a japanese band to you that is called Inugami Saakasu Dan (犬神サーカス団), which means something like "The Dog God Circus Troup".
There are rumours that they chose to have the word "Inugami (God Dog)" in their band name because the main chracter of the manga series "Wolf Guy", which was written by Kazumasa Hirai in 1970, is named Akira Inugami .

Inugami Circus Dan have a very unique and original style and definitely get too little attention from oversea Visual Kei fans. After all, they've already started in 1994!
They mix Eroguro with Angura Kei (Especially the vocalist Inugami Kyouko is always wearing a Kimono) and their music ranges between Enka and Hard Rock/ metal.
I  really love how they successfully combine all these things and how Kyouko has that obvious "I don´t give a shit about being fat"- attitude.
Seriously, I think her attitude and also her voice is freakin´ awesome.

Inugami Circus Dan

Anyway, the reason why I actually chose to write about this band in the first place was that they have a female vocalist. The Visual Kei fans among you for sure know that there aren´t really any successful female Visual Kei bands. Okay, maybe Exist Trace or Yousei Teikoku, but that´s about it.
So that´s why I badly want to approach this topic and show you guys that there are really cool female or mixed Visual Kei bands out there. In fact, it makes me sick that there aren´t more.
Why? Probably because all the creepy fangirls don´t want women in Visual Kei and wouldn´t buy their CDs. Sad fact.

I also realized that there aren´t many lyrics translations of Inugami songs, so I decided to translate one of my favorites by Inugami. - Hakobune (箱舟, "Ark").
It´s quite a calm song and there´s not much eroguro in it, but maybe I´m gonna translate some of their eroguro stuff at some point, too.

It looks like Kyouko describes a scenario where our world goes down while all the people dream together for one last time and realize that they actually love each other.


Ark
Extinguish the light
of the sun and the moon at once
Are you burying the shadows in the dark
that have been pursuing you?

The two of us are riding this boat
And we´ll go to that faraway star
When I close my eyes and cling to you
I´m not afraid of anything

Above the bloodied raging sea
A shower of stones is pouring down
As people lose their senses
They obstruct the parade

The two of us are riding this boat
And we´ll go to that faraway star
When I close my eyes and cling to you
I´m not afraid of anything

These suffering, drowning people
They cling to each other
While they declaim what god tought them
They get swallowed up by waves and sink

The two of us are riding this boat
And we´ll go to that faraway star
When I close my eyes and cling to you
I´m not afraid of anything

The two of us are riding this boat
And we´ll go to that faraway star
In a world that is starting to break apart
There is nothing to think regretfully of

I will also uploaded a subbed version of the song on Youtube soon. Enjoy~


 

Kurenai

  

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog everyone!


Before I post my first little article, I´d like to explain to what purpose I plan using this blog.

Firstly, I want to show you guys that there can be so much beauty off the beaten track and beyond mainstream culture in general.
I´ll be writing about music, interesting places and probably also about fashion, but I´m not sure what I´m going to write about the most. The only thing I do know is that I´ll deliberately avoid writing about popular stuff. Cause this is something you can read everywhere else on the internet, right? :p
You also might wonder who I am.
Well, I consider myself to be goth and I´m sure you´ll notice that once I start posting . I currently live in Vienna, but I love travelling and thus I´ll be trying to present you interesting stuff from other places, too. And since I´m a total Japanophile, Japan is going to be another place I´ll be writing about a lot.
And no, I´m not an Otaku. I just really love the japanese traditions, the music and the original, flamboyant fashion, as well as the gorgeous nature. There are plenty of other awesome things in Japan, but I will only write about the ones I mentioned.
Please understand that my mother language is not English and hence I might make spelling errors now and again.

I hope you will find my blog helpful and enriching!~

Kurenai