Himeaimichu

Kenzi with a sickly looking Yuuga and a very different Yayoi from a Deadly Sanctuary revival in 2007. Cursed photo of Orochi when it originally formed when Ryu was studying in Australia.

EDIT: I realized the look I was criticising was Xaa Xaa... god I am an idiot lol

With me, I can only have coffee with a lot of creamer or milk (either eevaporated or condensed). Basically, contrasting the bitterness with some creaminess and sweetness. That's why Thai and Viet coffee use condensed milk. You need something super creamy and sweet to contrast the really rich coffee. I will never understand plain black coffee. I've tried it and it ain't my thing personally. Just plain bitterness is sensory hell for me lol

My favourite coffee is Vietnamese/Thai style. Rich, dark roast, with condensed milk. It is simultaneously strong and creamy. As for tea, I can only do sweetened teas because I'm an uncultured plebian. That being said, I love black, oolong, milk/chai/boba, and chrysanthemum. I can't choose tea or coffee over eachother though, because I like them for different reasons. Coffee during the mornings, tea and water the rest of the day for me lol

To add on, they even have full music videos for some Hat Van songs, although these are condensed to a regular song-length. So if the other two videos have too much microphone feedback, retreat to this one lol

It's the "Lên đồng" Shamanism tradition. Essentially, it's pretty much indigenous spirit mediumship influenced by Taoism and Hinduism. The Shamans can be male or female, and they can envoke spirits of either gender, so it's not uncommon to see a man dressed in women's clothing with makeup. Even then, shamans will pretty much wear feminine makeup no matter the gender of who is being envoked. As well, the outfits worn by the Shamans include dresses that pre-date the modern Áo dài, and is more similar to the clothing of the ethnic minorities. The music it's set to, "Hát chầu văn", is pretty much the most authentic Northern style of traditional Vietnamese music. It takes on elements from all genres of traditional Vietnamese music, and is very improvisational, and can go from sounding very Chinese, to sounding more Indian (Traditional Vietnamese Music historically had a lot of Indian influence composition-wise. Especially in the South.) There is also a whole community dedicated to filming these events, since, I'm not kidding, many of these musicians are famous within the Hat Chau Van "community". I don't know if this is the case for this, but I know that in Burma, they have a similar Shamanism tradition, with even crazier music, that has actually become a way for Burmese LGBT people to express themselves lol. I don't know if this is the case for Vietnam though.

Being an otaku since age 7, I always had a small idea of what Visual Kei was. I was aware of Dir en Grey, Gazetto, L'arc en Ciel, etc., but I always regarded them as just "Japanese Rock". From age 14, I got a huge interest in traditional Japanese music. I then found this group called CrowXClass, that called themselves Visual Kei, and used traditional Japanese instruments. From there, I found Memento Mori, Kagerou, ACE, Kiryu, and other bands. I think what mostly draws me to Visual Kei is the mishmashing of genres, kinda like prog (in fact, a friend of mine who is a huge prog head, thinks Visual Kei has a lot of its origins in prog) but done without thinking. By the late 90's, bandmen probably weren't thinking "Oh, I'm going to intricately mix Post Punk and Thrash Metal", they probably were like "I wanna sound like Luna Sea and Kuroyume". Most of these indie musicians were unknowingly making some really cool sounding stuff. Also, I just really like the Thrash metal sound, but I hate the majority of western Thrash bands, so 90's Vkei has got me covered. That's another thing I like about Vkei over western metal. In western metal, it's like a competition to see who can be the biggest, manliest, and most brutal. But in Visual Kei, there is none of that. You don't have those really rough vocals you find all the time in western rock, and bands aren't afraid to mix genres.

Rock music is kinda limited in Vietnam. It's weird, Viets almost have no idea Rock music beyond the 60's stuff their parents listened to after Doi Moi reforms in the 1980's. Electric guitar music can be found, but it's usually shoehorned into traditional music performances (sometimes to a really good effect, as in Southern Vietnamese folk music, but a complete mess in Northern Viet folk music). They are well aware of the electric guitar, but they only use it to play traditional music, or really dated sounding pop music, often laden with cheap yamaha synths. The closest thing we have to Visual Kei here is, and I'm not kidding, musical Shamanism rituals where the Shaman crossdresses. It's a really cool thing though, but I'm guessing that's not why you posted here lol. This is the only Vietnamese Metal band I know about (there are more, but this is the only one I'm familiar with) and they're ok. Nothing too phenomenal. This song though isn't their strong point, since they attempt to mix in traditional Vietnamese instruments... with really bad keyboard samples. Like, you're in Vietnam. You could just get a Dan Tranh (zither) or Sao Truc (flute) player of the street, and even then, I've heard somewhat good samples of these instruments used by other music groups. The way electric guitars are used in traditional Vietnamese music seem to be influenced by Rock music (or maybe it influenced 60's rock music, knowing how many musicians served in the war. CCR for example), but the style dates back to French colonial times. Other than the 5 popular rock and metal bands that exist, this is the closest to any kind of rock that most people listen to. ESPECIALLY if you're in the areas near Cambodia like Chau Doc. It's safe to say that there are probably no Vietnamese Visual Kei bands. Maybe one or two, but I have no idea about them. There are some Thai Visual Kei bands though, but I don't think they'll inspire their neighbors anytime soon.

The "Loudness War" is a phenomenon in popular music where producers keep trying to make music louder and louder, at the cost of sound quality. Louder music is more likely to be heard, and therefore more likely to sell

Please do ask them!

They released PV spots for Another Side and Shigoumizakura, but never full versions. They remain on Niconico if I am correct, and watermarked versions can be seen on YT. These were made very early in their career, way before they got the record deal with BP, however I don't think full versions were ever made. If they do, then hopefully someone uploads them lol

I will say, I enjoy his vocals more than Kikyo's. They're still not the best, but his voice has a better tone to it lol

It depends on the circumstances. Some lo-fi recordings hold up because the guitars still have mids, the bass still has low end, etc. Basically, it has what I call the "minimal EQ required" to sound good to the ear. Songs like "Machibouke no Kouen De" by The GazettE, or pretty much anything from Vice Risk. Others hold up because the low fidelity works with the aesthetic. For example, DEViL KiTTY's "Hello Katty" is probably meant to sound like a bad MP3 download. Or how Guruguru Eigakan songs are based on Japanese popular music from the 1900's to 1945, so some of the older songs kinda have the lo-fi feel of older music. However, some low-fidelity recordings do not hold up. A good example is, weirdly, of Devil Kitty again. After Sasaki switched to guitar and Shita joined on bass, Yuuga had the wonderful idea of scooping all the mids and low end from the guitars, making it sound like it has a phaser effect, but "stuck" somehow. This is seriously ear grating and a serious step down from "Ese Ikare Rockstar", which imo had really great production, not just by DK standards but also by early 2000's vkei standards. Basically, I would say there are different tiers of Lo-Fi. You got S-tier, which sounds good to the ear, fits with the aesthetic, and holds up. And then you have F-tier which is the worst of the worst, garbage, would make Black Metal jealous lo-fi. Most Vkei falls somewhere in between

Same samples were used on that too. Whatever drum machine they're using, that's gotta be vintage equipment lmao

Holy fuck some of these drum samples are the same ones DEViL KiTTY used. Literally the exact same. I'm sure a lot of other bandmen probably also use the same drum machine. I know a few Metis Gretel songs do.

Here is an old Kurara Zeroshiki PV filmed at some random Shinto shrine and train station. There are also numerous PVs filmed at Buddhist Temples. I for the life of me can't remember the name of the temple these sets are trying to imitate, but it's a pretty famous temple in Kyoto (I think?) I'm sure I'll find the name soon (The last one isn't Vkei but it still slaps. Also they definitely are at least partially inspired by CrowxClass lmao)

I know some bands also film at Shinto Shrines. Shrines that are small will generally let you film if you ask

I guess I kinda count? I mostly dabble in mixes of different kinds of paganism, but mostly focus on Taoism and Hinduism, so I guess you could say I'm the Southeast Asian equivalent of a Witch lol.

Sounds Kote enough for me behind all the reversing. No need to be worried about them overly changing their sound lol