Dead End's dead end
I forget if it was hellbites or me who said it first, since lately we've been creeping each other out by saying the same shit at the same time. But whoever said it first:
Dead End is the next Buck-Tick.
You know, I remember when the overseas veekay fanbase had no clue who Buck-Tick is, and the ones who did were basically of the opinion that it was an uninteresting old band of "eww old guys". They had a very small fan-cult but were about as far from the mainline "Jrock fan" pantheon as you could get.
Imagine my shock when I ignored the online overseas Japanese music fanbase for a couple years, and upon my return, I find that Buck-Tick is now an immensely popular band across the entire "Jrock" fanbase and all the chicks dig 'em. Major Twilight Zone moment there, but alright, could be a lot worse. While I'm not a major fan-fan and am not moved to go discussing them anywhere, that's a quality, respectable band, so I can at least cheerfully tolerate seeing them plastered all over everything.
Now it's Dead End.
Let me make it clear that I don't mean Buck-Tick fans who start legitimately exploring HR/HM and get into Dead End. That part actually makes sense-- if you like Buck-Tick and you're trying out HR/HM, which classic HR/HM band are you most likely to go for? The only one that has anything in common with Buck-Tick (the whole "dark romance" thing) at all, right? No mystery there, and that's not the problem.
I mean Dead End's sudden popularity explosion among veekay fans in general. It's quite annoying. I saw the seeds of it earlier this year, and I'm guessing Dead End themselves did too, given their sudden out-of-the-blue decision to reunite and their extremely annoying decision to market themselves to veekay fans. Hey, it's not like I don't know what a massive influence they were on every "dark" veekay band that has ever existed. In fact, I distinctly remember years ago recommending Dead End to some Luna Sea/Laputa/Rouage/whatever fan, who continued to cop an "eww, a metal band!" attitude and insisted visual didn't come from metal at all even after I pointed out Dead End's obvious influences on those bands. Ironic, eh?
Of course, nowadays it's veekay fans taking Dead End for a visual band-- and I started seeing this even before the "Princess" shit-- and pretending they're not a metal band at all and never were. Haha. Sucks that Dead End themselves might soon prove the veekay fantards "right" in the present day, even if the veekay fantards would still be retrospectively dead wrong.
I remember when I bought my first Dead End CD ("All In One") back in... 1999? Somewhere around there? I got it from either CDJapan or DeoDeo, forget which. And no, I hadn't ever heard any Dead End before I bought it, but I knew who they were and was pretty sure I'd like them (I did) due to liking all the other "golden age of Japameta" stuff I'd heard. Anyway, I remember that at the time, it was only HR/HM people who were into them or even knew who they were. Over the next few years I ended up with three Dead End CDs and two LPs; that's not a ton, but it's a fucking lot more than the audience they're now trying to market to will probably ever buy.
So I've liked them for ten years or so, but thankfully I've never been a hardcore fan. I say "thankfully" because I already like them enough that this shit pisses me off, and if I liked them more it would be even worse.
But of course, a lot of people don't see what the problem is with naming a song "Princess", probably because they already listen to sissy frou-frou bands with song titles like "Princess". "Oh, don't judge yet! Wait and see!" Uh, yeah, I don't have to know how the song sounds to know it has a shitty title-- and which audience do you think they're targeting with a song title like "Princess"? It's not even some random track buried on the album; if they're using this for their post-reunion radio debut then clearly they mean "Princess" to be some kind of fucking flagship song.
And I can't wait until someone thinks I'm "prejudiced" or whatever for complaining about "Princess" and thinking sissy frou-frou bands like Versailles and Malice Mizer look and sound like total morons. Look, I'm not playing favorites here with who's wearing what. If you're a girl and dress like Versailles or Malice Mizer, you look like a total moron too. I bet you know where I think you should stick your frilly umbrella.
I'm thinking I may "forget" to post Dead End news on princessbanzai for a while. I also might forget the name of the band, accidentally calling them The Princesses and their veekay fans princessettes. Especially because anyone offended by my unfortunate short-term memory loss would be instantly identifiable as a certified Grade-A clueless HR/HM wannabe. You know the kind who talk like they know shit about HR/HM and non-visual Jorck, and then you realize their idea of HR/HM is Versailles and their idea of non-visual is L'Arc~en~Ciel? Yeahhhh, baby.
Dead End is the next Buck-Tick.
You know, I remember when the overseas veekay fanbase had no clue who Buck-Tick is, and the ones who did were basically of the opinion that it was an uninteresting old band of "eww old guys". They had a very small fan-cult but were about as far from the mainline "Jrock fan" pantheon as you could get.
Imagine my shock when I ignored the online overseas Japanese music fanbase for a couple years, and upon my return, I find that Buck-Tick is now an immensely popular band across the entire "Jrock" fanbase and all the chicks dig 'em. Major Twilight Zone moment there, but alright, could be a lot worse. While I'm not a major fan-fan and am not moved to go discussing them anywhere, that's a quality, respectable band, so I can at least cheerfully tolerate seeing them plastered all over everything.
Now it's Dead End.
Let me make it clear that I don't mean Buck-Tick fans who start legitimately exploring HR/HM and get into Dead End. That part actually makes sense-- if you like Buck-Tick and you're trying out HR/HM, which classic HR/HM band are you most likely to go for? The only one that has anything in common with Buck-Tick (the whole "dark romance" thing) at all, right? No mystery there, and that's not the problem.
I mean Dead End's sudden popularity explosion among veekay fans in general. It's quite annoying. I saw the seeds of it earlier this year, and I'm guessing Dead End themselves did too, given their sudden out-of-the-blue decision to reunite and their extremely annoying decision to market themselves to veekay fans. Hey, it's not like I don't know what a massive influence they were on every "dark" veekay band that has ever existed. In fact, I distinctly remember years ago recommending Dead End to some Luna Sea/Laputa/Rouage/whatever fan, who continued to cop an "eww, a metal band!" attitude and insisted visual didn't come from metal at all even after I pointed out Dead End's obvious influences on those bands. Ironic, eh?
Of course, nowadays it's veekay fans taking Dead End for a visual band-- and I started seeing this even before the "Princess" shit-- and pretending they're not a metal band at all and never were. Haha. Sucks that Dead End themselves might soon prove the veekay fantards "right" in the present day, even if the veekay fantards would still be retrospectively dead wrong.
I remember when I bought my first Dead End CD ("All In One") back in... 1999? Somewhere around there? I got it from either CDJapan or DeoDeo, forget which. And no, I hadn't ever heard any Dead End before I bought it, but I knew who they were and was pretty sure I'd like them (I did) due to liking all the other "golden age of Japameta" stuff I'd heard. Anyway, I remember that at the time, it was only HR/HM people who were into them or even knew who they were. Over the next few years I ended up with three Dead End CDs and two LPs; that's not a ton, but it's a fucking lot more than the audience they're now trying to market to will probably ever buy.
So I've liked them for ten years or so, but thankfully I've never been a hardcore fan. I say "thankfully" because I already like them enough that this shit pisses me off, and if I liked them more it would be even worse.
But of course, a lot of people don't see what the problem is with naming a song "Princess", probably because they already listen to sissy frou-frou bands with song titles like "Princess". "Oh, don't judge yet! Wait and see!" Uh, yeah, I don't have to know how the song sounds to know it has a shitty title-- and which audience do you think they're targeting with a song title like "Princess"? It's not even some random track buried on the album; if they're using this for their post-reunion radio debut then clearly they mean "Princess" to be some kind of fucking flagship song.
And I can't wait until someone thinks I'm "prejudiced" or whatever for complaining about "Princess" and thinking sissy frou-frou bands like Versailles and Malice Mizer look and sound like total morons. Look, I'm not playing favorites here with who's wearing what. If you're a girl and dress like Versailles or Malice Mizer, you look like a total moron too. I bet you know where I think you should stick your frilly umbrella.
I'm thinking I may "forget" to post Dead End news on princessbanzai for a while. I also might forget the name of the band, accidentally calling them The Princesses and their veekay fans princessettes. Especially because anyone offended by my unfortunate short-term memory loss would be instantly identifiable as a certified Grade-A clueless HR/HM wannabe. You know the kind who talk like they know shit about HR/HM and non-visual Jorck, and then you realize their idea of HR/HM is Versailles and their idea of non-visual is L'Arc~en~Ciel? Yeahhhh, baby.