Pleasure Principled

Revealingly Articulate Idol Worship

In the music world there isn’t a release that has greater importance than an album. An album is considered the showcase of an artist or group, often a milestone not just in one’s career but also in music, the means by which bands rise or fall.

Further, albums don’t just mark one’s career but also the year in which they were released, becoming a unique memento of that period’s mood and spirit. Here is a retrospective on albums that marked the year for the Japanese Visual kei movement.

2008 started with the fifth album CORE by the quintet Kagrra,. Unlike their often western- oriented colleagues, Kagrra,’s sound can literally be described as Japanese rock, combining Japanese music and cultural elements with strong guitar riffs and Haiku-like lyrics, nor using foreign words in songs, which is a common practice in Visual kei. No wonder the English titled CORE was surprising, but even as such managed to deliver a recognizable Neo Japanesque sound as well as new not-so-Japanese-conservative songs.

Whether more East or West, listening to their music has always been an unique experience, songs radiating with spirit, having an expressive atmosphere that crosses the borders of today’s world of apathy into a reign of almost mantric experiences and nirvana-like catharsis. From the cherry-blossom shower ofShigatsu Tsuitachi, the heartbeat of a vivid Japanese festival on Sai, or the lyrically melancholic awareness of passage on Boukyaku no hate no kogoeta kodoku, Kagrra, skillfully combines the traditional with the modern. On CORE Kagrra, opened it’s door to the west while still preserving their essence, a progression in this band’s range.
 
March brought interesting new albums, including the first from Nagoya kei rockers the studs. The 2007-formed quartet caused a sensation because it’s core consisted of guitarist Aie, who was the song-mastermind of the most famous Nagoya kei band deadman, as well as singer Daisuke, from the hard-rock Visual kei band Kagerou. The combination of two bands living on opposite poles of Visual kei was doubted, but the studs successfully got rid of labels of the past and emerged as a unique band on and hate, fittingly titled to represent their anger towards the dehumanized world they live in.

Sometimes fierce or ironic, always moody, with a thick atmosphere which results from the overall strong presence of each member, and hate delivers complex feelings often hinted with melancholy in each of their songs from the after-the-rain Niji no iro, the frustration fest unsightly stupid, to the transient missing vain. And hate is an excellent blend of moody alternative rock covered in shades of gray, and it was just the start of this band’s successful and productive year.

Another Nagoya kei band released it’s first album in March, Sugar. Sugar may have a sweet name, but their music is actually bittersweet, a delicate cohesion of a sweet worldview and a rougher edge. Sugar’s music is in a different league than that of some Visual kei bands which tend to have a trashy sound of often questionable quality. Their first album SWEETEST is an unbelievably refined and elegant mix of classic and progressive rock spiced up with jazz, marking its appeal as not exclusively for Visual kei fans, but accessible to a wider, “sophisticated spoiled elite”. Sugar are exceptionally talented musicians and SWEETEST is a Visual rock masterpiece from the very intense jazz-rock start swim like a butterfly, rock’n’roll showoff JAM, mystic tracks Kogoeyureru honnou and Toganin no sora, up to the majestic, soothing ending Tsuki ni naki, asa wo warau hana to.

Also at March’s end came the most versatile album of the year. MUCC decided to take over the world this year not just by touring The United States and Europe, but also by releasing their album Shion. MUCC didn’t hold back from any limits, just as always, and delivered a full scale of various songs from the metal anthems Nuritsubusu nara enji and Shion, striking ballads such as Game and Chiisana Mado, even dance floor hits like FUZZ and Anjelier, having more diversity on one album than some bands have in their entire career. Gaining affirmation on a global scale was not something only MUCC did in 2008, as many other Visual kei bands got out and reached for their overseas fans as well as those unfamiliar with the movement.

The release which initiated November was Girugämesh’s third album MUSIC. Though there was almost a year gap between their last release and MUSIC, the band was busy touring Europe and Japan. The nu-metal rockers from Girugämesh made things direct and simple, launching a rhythmic distortion assault with experimental electro-licks and recognizable intensity. Though less serious than previous albums, MUSIC is a powerful and loud album which calls out for an adrenaline driven 35 minute rock party thanks to power tracks such as BREAK DOWN, ULTIMATE 4 and enishi.

The album that was most highly anticipated and left an undoubted mark on the whole year was the November-released seventh album of J-rock gods Dir en grey. Although they aren’t Visual anymore, their name is still associated with Visual kei being almost inseparable from it. No two Dir en grey albums are the same, each one is unique and a turning point in Visual kei whose greatest innovators and carriers were and are Dir en grey. Uroboros is by far the most ambitious and innovative Dir en grey release to date, fusing the heavy, dark metal sound with vast spaces of instrumental interludes in a hide-and-seek game of loudness and silence, fury and peace, faint hope and abyssal despair.

Whether diving into mysticism with Vinushka or Red Soil, bursting in bestial rage and madness on Reiketsu nariseba or Stuck man or striving into epic heights on Gaika, Chinmoku ga nemuru koro and Inconvenient Ideal Dir en grey have doubtless realized another masterpiece, something no one has heard before, full of patterns, layers of meanings and sensations even at the cost of distancing themselves from the listeners. Simultaneously rising and dying, just like the Ouroboros which devours it’s own tail, this period may start and end on this album for Dir en grey, but it’s impact won’t vanish from the Visual kei world and will be seen in the time that will follow.

The last firework on the December sky was the first album by the band Dio ~Distraught Overlord~. Dio’s DICTATOR could be considered a best-of album by this 2006-formed metal oriented Visual kei band since half of it are rearrangements of older songs such as Garasu no umi, God forsaken or day after day, as well as new songs such as the industrial metal excellence on HAUNTING, wild SPLENDID WORLD or brutal death metal grinder Dokusai. This band came the closest to the extreme metal border with this album, displaying the increasingly present pure metal sound that is experiencing its comeback in the recent sounds of numerous Visual kei bands. Doubtless, Visual kei is covering more fields of rock and metal variations, becoming even more unsortable than before.

Overall this year brought many significant, excellent albums with different sounds, worldviews, and philosophies. Every band is searching for its unique sound, reaching out into the regions they haven’t explored yet while taking their past, future and present in consideration. I can’t complain about this year’s albums other than: I wish there were more. I hope the 2009 will bring, if not better, than at least albums on the same level as this year.