01. 黒夢 - MISSING GLORY

02. Red Tail Cat - Lady

03. FAST DRAW - Don't Worry My Son

04. ＵＮＣＨＡＩＮ - Power Games

05. Zirety - Shade of Blue

06. ＡＬＬＩＧＡＴＯＲ - Nasty

07. Banana Fish - Swing Out

08. DIZZY RUCK - Wander Desire

09. Ber:Sati - Under the Moon Light

10. ジョリーピックルス - My Father Die

11. 妖花 - Manipulate

This was recently upped onto an old-school vkei blog and I decided to try it out. I only knew of 2 bands on here, but that didn't really make a difference to me. It ended up being 90% early Free Will speed / thrash metal or punk rock, so if you're not into that kind of music, than this isn't the omnibus for you.

The following picture is credit to Herpes for finding. Please credit him and Auto-mod if you are going to repost okay.

Kuroyume are a very famous visual-kei band, responsible for most of the late 90's melodic rock visual group's musical direction in one way or another. Like many bands who make it big, their style changed dramatically from their start to end, with their later stuff being more garage punk than melodic rock. They revived in 2011 and a lot of fans seem to think that they sound like their vocalist's solo project part 2. I've never really listened to them because I place my early vk prayers into Penicillin (whom I've heard is kind of similar) and haven't really gotten around to trying out landmark albums like Feminism yet. This is also the band that early Dir en Grey ripped off, so that's why the rest of visual-kei ripped them off [/drama educing]. 

"MISSING GLORY" seems like a typical 90's melodic rock rush song to me, similar to stuff D≒SIRE has done, among many others, but this might be the actual source of that. I found it to be a nice song, but it's rather nondescript to me. Aggressive drumming, outburst of emotions vocals a la Madeth Gray'll, and a pretty nice guitar solo. Probably not the pinnacle of their career, so I'm not a convert to the church of Kiyoharu.

This was when fashion was dead, mind you. Red Tail Cat were signed to Free Will and were a proto-visual-kei band. I don't know what they normally sound like since this is their only song I could find, but I assume that they are some sort of melodic rock / thrash metal hybrid. Interestingly enough, they're still around and performing today. I doubt they've released anything in 15 years, though.

"Lady" gives me a kind of 70's folk vibe to. The instrumentals consist of light guitar work, with a predominately bass driven melodic structure. The vocals are a lot more aggressive than the music itself, often sounding like he's trying to yell, and he more sing talks / blurts out phrases than serenades. "WOAH. IT'S RAADAAAYY." Definitely music of this time period...although, 15 years too late in terms of Western music.

Fast Draw sounded exactly how they look like they would sound. They were formed in 1984 and utilize many heavy metal / hair metal techniques in their music, like vocals that sound like the singer is pinching their nose while singing. The song itself is not something I really find enjoyable since 80's metal is not my cup of tea, but "Don't Worry My Son" does have some interesting melodic lines that switch into cool minor keys. If this is the kind of music you're into, you'll like it. Also, apparently only Russian people care about them.

ＵＮＣＨＡＩＮ do not have a picture. They too were a heavy metal band, although I did like this song a lot more than Fast Draw's. I think this change of heart is derived from it sounding a bit more progressive and the vocals were a bit more to my liking. Still not something I really care about looking into any further, but you get what I'm saying. "Power Games" is pretty listenable, but again, not really what I normally look for on my iPod.

 Zirety also do not have a picture, but I am pretty sure they did not look like He Man + Thunder Cats. "Shades of Blue" starts off with a beautiful organ melody that then cuts to their "normal" melodic rock sound with a pretty crappy transition. This sounds like a lot of melodic rocks visual-kei bands, like early Penicillin and the like, but with over-the-top and trying really hard vocals (I guess that's like most visual-kei bands?). Their vocalist's singing isn't that bad, he just uses a TON of forced vibrato and throws his voice around like dog playing with a new chew toy. Thus far, this song is one of my favorite songs from this CD. Great guitar atmosphere, strong bass, and a great bass drum pattern that makes the end of a music phrase.

Again, no pictures. This is so good for a visual-kei blog, is it? Anyway, ＡＬＬＩＧＡＴＯＲ is early Free Will punk. Fast paced, kind of really bland vocals singing the same note more or less the same time, and a short song. Pretty much, everything you could ask for in a punk rock song! If this is your thing, you'd dig this. Oh, and the obligatory wailing on your instrument guitar solo is there too.

Yaaay, a picture! ...although, it might be better to not see what most of these bands looked like. Banana fish were also kind of punkish on this CD, although much more mellow and sounded a lot like The Piass with their first vocalist. I'm trying to think of an Arandom Banana piloting the Unicorn Gundam joke to throw in here, but it's not working.  Aside from sounding like The Piass' "Never say die," I'm not really sure what else to say about "Swing Out." Oh, there's also a lot of poor English laced throughout the lyrics.

Dizzy Ruck is a stupid name. Sorry. They are also picture less and were some sort of 80's metal conglomerate with a vocalist who sounds highly familiar. Definitely the most tacky song on here since it's a mix of Peter Gabriel's "Big Time" and everything you've ever heard your uncle who loves stale rock listen to. Not impressed.

In case you haven't gotten this ~feeling~ yet, everything on this omnibus is more or less unheard of by anyone who wasn't old enough to be into Japan's metal scene 1993, so all of their last.fm pages are legitimately 10 listeners or less. Ber:sati included. However, unheard of doesn't mean bad. This song kind of sounds like a more 80's early L'arc~en~Ciel to me. Pretty nice melodic progression in the chorus with a soppy / romantic La'Cryma Christi chorus. Decent.

ジョリーピックルス(Jolly Pickles) really took me by surprise. They, too, are early Free Will punk rock, but they're more ska-ish than the Piass. This song is really misleading in comparison to the rest of their discography: it's a rather fast paced song with an ending that puts the Candy Spooky Theater to shame. I'm not sure who said "My Father Die" was correct grammar, but whatever. They're a nice mix between The Piass and Less Than Jake...if that's even conceivable.  More surprising, they're still active today. They haven't put out anything since 2000, though, and they don't look like the above picture at all. Their 12 year old music video showed them wearing more normal clothes, but still had their hair died crazy colors...and were fat. So, since it's 12 years later, I'm assuming they're about 46, still playing punk rock, and are even fatter. A lot of their songs are on youtube and I highly recommend them.

I have actually heard of  妖花 before. Or, rather, I've seen them on Evil en Lucifer. I'm not really sure what genre to consider them since they're kind of melodic, but kind of metallic at the same time. "Manipulate" is a pretty good song, and it's selling point is the vocal harmonization in the chorus. Cool outfits, but this song really doesn't drive me to look up more about them. 

Variety: 8.8/10

Band Choice: 7/10

Song Choice: 7/10

Bands to look into bonus: +0.5

Average: 81%