What is Kote kei? (Part 2)

And here we are at the long-awaited second part of "what is Kote kei?"

This part deals with the kind of bands that one typically refers to when talking about "Kote kei". Though visual kei in the second half of the 90s wasn't as popular, especially not at the dawn of the new millennium, the style, sound and aesthetics of the late 90s visual kei bands shaped our image about old school visual kei. A fan of old visual kei will normally think of bands such as Madeth gray'll or early Dir en grey and maybe not as often of the late 80s or early 90s bands like Color, D'erlanger or Kamaitachi.

But before the infamous indie bands of the late 90s we will take a look at Nagoya's visual scene of the early and mid 90s, since a lot of the bands coming from that region have been a huge influence on later vk groups.

So this part deals with the following:
The Nagoya visual scene (Nagoya kei)
The indie vk bands (from the labels Soleil, Matina, Key Party, etc)
The decline of classic visual kei

Nagoya kei

Nagoya kei is a term that describes bands coming from the city Nagoya and also means literally "Style from Nagoya". Today the term is generally used for "dark visual kei" bands and not limited to the band's place of formation or their member's origins, but originally it has been used for bands of the old Nagoya scene only.
What most 90s Nagoya kei differs so much, that I decided to write about them separated from the general old bands of the 80s/ early 90s, is their musical style and influence. While visual kei bands from other regions, mainly Osaka, had their origin in the Hardrock, Metal or Punk scene those from Nagoya had a new wave and post-punk background or have been strongly influenced by the japanese post-punk and goth scene (often called "positive punk", a term that has been taken from various british magazines about the young post-punk and goth scene).
Modern Nagoya kei is often associated with just "dark" music, this includes melancholic rock groups such as 9Goats Black Out and metal bands like Deathgaze.

The first band to receive the Nagoya kei tag was the group Silver~Rose. Their music was typical late 80s visual rock like D'erlanger, but the following bands of the region became gloomier and darker in just a few years and Silver~Rose's have been one of the roots of this development with their british rock and new wave influence, their flanging guitars derived from goth, the melodies, the athmosphere of their music and the deep and heavy bass. Their self-titled "Silver Rose" from 1991 gives a really good example of standard Nagoya visual rock from that decade.

Silver~Rose

The bands that followed Silver~Rose have become even greater in influence and probably popularity too. One of them has been Kuroyume. Their singer, Kiyoharu inspired many people to form their own bands and influenced their style and music heavily. Kiyoharu has been cited to have been a major influence on Kyo, vocalist of Dir en grey, and his signature look of the visual kei phase of Kuroyume (big blond hair and dark make-up) was imitated numerous times throughout old visual kei history. (Kyo was one of them, see his signature look from the Gauze era and compare it to Kiyoharu's).

Other big and influential Nagoya kei groups have been ROUAGE, FANATIC◇CRISIS, Laputa and Sleep My Dear. All of them started somehow post-punk influenced and as rather dark, melancholic bands, but until 1995 and further most of them dropped the visual kei style and music and became either pop or alternative rock. You could say that this was the end of the first wave of visual rock.

FANATIC◇CRISIS

Kuroyume

Kuroyume

But it didn't really end after that. Nagoya was still an important place for new visual bands to flourish, but the "scene" has mostly moved back to the underground after the decline of visual rock in the popular mainstream. Bands now were signed to indie labels and commenced playing at small live venues or live houses, how it was primary done in the late 80s. Indie Nagoya groups that became somewhat of icons in the current "kote kei nostalgia" are mostly groups connected to post-'94 Nagoya bands like Merry go Round, Phobia, Lamiel and kein.
Other contemporary groups integrated the sound of Nagoya music and continued making classic visual rock but also introduced gothic and post-punk tunes to the music.

It actually already started between 1992 and 1994 that gothic rock music and style would take over the originally classic punk, glam and metal elements. Bands like Malice Mizer emerged with their rather theatralic looks and performances. Kuryoume's influenced also the wide range of really depressing, gloomy bands of the era, such as Deshabillz. This influence was preserved until the very end of traditional visual rock and can be heard in any dark, desperate or aggressive song of the mid and late 90s.

Phobia

Lamiel

Deshabillz

Early Malice Mizer with Vocalist Tetsu

Indie labels and the second wave of visual kei

And now we are finally speaking of the "real deal"! The bands of the second wave of visual kei (some would even call it the third wave and consider the time of 1992-ca.1995 as the second) is for sure the most well known for a few reasons:

• it was the era where legendary labels have been founded, such as Soleil, Matina, Key Party, S'cube, marder suitcase and LOOP ASH
• it was the time a lot of popular bands have formed or finally gained fame, such as Dir en grey, Pierrot, Shazna and Malice Mizer
• the underground was exploding at that time, with hundreds of bands forming and releasing demos 
• the look of this era is comsidered to be the typical kote kei style today: the outfits are extreme, provoking and a mix between goth, punk, new romantic and glam. On the other side this era also provided very soft, lightly dressed bands and is also the origin of rather colorful visual fashions, such as Oshare kei

La:Sadie's

I think most people who are interested into Visual kei will know Dir en grey and the band's history. But it is notable that their bassist Kisaki went on to a band called Mirage, which was signed to Soleil, after he left the group preceding Dir en grey, La:Sadie's. Soleil, originally a sublabel of the bigger label Free-Will, was one of the famous indie labels which set the trend for the following years in visual kei. Groups signed to the label were Vasalla, S, D'elsquel and La'Mule, which are surely the most popular.

Kisaki founded Matina 1997 as Matina Soleil, a subbranch of the main label in Osaka. He managed his own group, Mirage through this label aswell. The label managed mainly short lived bands who put out demo tapes and singles. Despite this a few bands of the label managed to gain cult status and had a big influence on other groups both within the label and outside. These include Madeth gray'll, which also personify and combine the typical 90s visual rock sound and look and are often referred to be the old school band, AZALEA, DAS:VASSER (have maybe the same status as Madeth gray'll for most old school lovers), Lubis Cadir (former band of Wataru, who is now the singer in 12012) and Syndrome (Kisaki's band after MIRAGE and before Phantasmagoria, their second singer, Asagi and guitarist Ruiza are now in D).
Matina existed until the label's 5th anniversary in winter 2002. After the closure Kisaki opened his new label UNDER CODE PRODUCTION, which was also a sublabel of Free-Will. Some of the bands who were signed to Matina continued under Kisaki's new label, including Mist of Rouge, VIDOLL, Mar'derayla and HISKAREA. In its early years the label's bands were still reminiscent of the Matina era. Therefore many would see groups such as Phantasmagoria or early 12012 and VIDOLL as Kote kei, even though their look and sound already started to head towards neo visual kei.

Dir en grey 

La'Mule

S

MIRAGE

Mist of Rouge

DAS:VASSER

Syndrome

Madeth gray'll

Madeth gray'll

Another very well-known label at that time was Key Party. Founded 1997 by the vocalist of the gothic rock band Speed-id it mostly hosted gothic and post-punk influenced bands. Prominent bands have been Aliene Ma'riage, NéiL, Missalina Rei, Noir Fleurir and Eliphas Levi. Their trademarks were the elegant and elaborate dresses and gloomy and energetic music. Aliene Ma'riage is the poster band of the label, espeicially because of their unique music which is a mix of Madeth gray'll's aggressiveness, Deshabillz and Kuryoumes gloomy and depressing mourning sound. Singer Kyouka's high pitched screams also stand out.

Aliene Ma'riage

Eliphas Levi

Noir Fleurir

In general, the second wave music was fast, punky and at times even metal-oriented, but always kept a good portion of athmospheric guitar-playing. Common effects used were screeching guitars, flanging and overdrive, hall effects and a deep, prominent bass. Classical elements and can be found too, most of these melodies were taken from famous classical compositions. Groups like Malice Mizer also used chanson and baroque music elements.
Most vocalists were mediocre, especially when compared to the bands of the earlier eras. But most of them dealt with this their own way. Hisui from Madeth gray'll used his inability to hit the right tones to his own advantage, creating his mournful and manic singing style we know. Kote kei singing is therefore quite often off-tune, manic or hysteric. Screaming, crying and groaning are common. Growling may occur in aggressive songs as well, but isn't as wide-spread as it is nowadays in metal core influenced neo visual kei. Spoken words or speech parts and monologues are mixed into the singing or are used as intros at the beginning of a song. Old visual bands tended to have a favour for exotic sounding words, mainly in German or French language, that may be repeated throughout a song numerous times. The most well known phrase was "Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier." (German, means One, Two, Free, Four). Lyrics are written in japanese, but some parts, words or sentences are English. The English spelling however is often terrible.

Lyrics often deal with serious topics such as death, murder, cruelty, suicide, mental illness, depression and emotions like anger, sadness and aggression.
Light/soft visual rock is more pop oriented and covers more mainstream friendly topics in the songs, such as love, happiness and mundane things. Synths are often used, but the structure of guitar based songs are the same as other visual bands melodic songs or ballads.
At the end of the 90s Oshare kei started to develop under the influence of light and soft visual kei. Oshare bands are upbeat and both their look and music are vivid, colorful and appealing to a broader audience.

The typical kote kei look is based off the bands of this era. Darker bands used a lot leather, PVC and latex, most clothes had a bondage appeal or were directly taken from the BDSM culture. Dark colors and black were prevalent. Studs, spikes, fishnet and lace were adopted from punk and goth. Shoes were either Winklepickers (also typical shoewear of trad-goths), knee high boots or platform shoes/boots. Shorts were often combined with boots, which are attached to the trousers with suspenders. Corsets and    belts were favorites too.
The most outstanding visual characteristic was the hair. Kote kei band members used to have all kinds of freaky hairstyling, most hairstyles seem to defy gravity. Hair was backcombed, glued and sprayed into either big and messy hair masses, spiked or curled. The palette of colors you can find in this era is way bigger than during the early times of visual rock. Blue, green, pink or neon red hair appear as often as any other natural or unnatural hair color.
What sets Kote kei definitely apart from modern neo visual kei is the make-up. Todays visual kei bands use a rather light and natural looking make-up. Ofte only the eyes are really defined with make-up. Kote kei groups wore heavy make-up, to a point where the make-up would look like a mask. Eyes were defined with thick and strong black lines (a so called fake crease was often drawn on to emphasize the mask-like effect). Faces were painted pale or white and lips accentuated with red, black or other colourful lipsticks. In the late 90s the usage of colored lenses and circle lenses became popular and gave a demonic or inhuman look.
Another speciality of kote kei was shock value. Bands tried to gain attention by wearing not only outstanding clothes, but also delicate and provocative outfits, such as Nazi uniforms.

Soft visual bands looked much less provoking. Their clothes were rather simple and ordinary. Only their make-up, which was less mask-like and rather natural and minimal, marked them as visual. The same applies to the hair which could be still dyed in all kinds of colours and shades, but the hair cuts and styling is more mundane.


Decline of classic Visual kei

After the disbandments or musical new orientation of important groups, the closure of important labels and loss of interest into visual rock classic visual kei started to vanish. Leftovers of the "scene's" musical and visual legacy still influenced bands in the early 2ks and there were still note kei groups appearing from time to time, but it never regained its popularity.
Retrospectively people refer to the time between 1999 and 2003 as the "death of visual kei". Others would disagree, especially fans of modern, so called neo visual kei. But I think it is not deniable that modern visual kei bands have totally different influences and looks and that the music scene from today, which plays a rather insignificant role in Japan's music scene and industry, are something entirely different. There are for sure traces left from old school bands in modern visual kei, but the two are two far away from each other.

The time classic visual kei declined and vanished the remaining visual kei groups continued but started to make very different music in hope to find enough fans. Considering that the audience has changed and the music business wasn't interested into glam-punk-goth bands these groups had to find new ways. From 2003 on visual kei started replace the punk and glam elements with Hardcore, Metaclore, Nu Metal and electronic music. Today, a mix of pop, Metalcore, electro and Techno among others.

I personally can't and don't want to say neo visual kei is rubbish or bland compared to old visual kei. But old school visual kei is a type of music and style that has ceased to exist, a great era that won't repeat. This type of visual kei, the original visual kei movement, doesn't exist anymore and the modern scene has cut off its connections to the roots. Neo visual kei, the way it is now, may stop to exist in the future too. It may be replaced by something else or develop into something else. I guess we have to realize that old school visual rock is pretty much dead and move on- and appreciate every new group who play homage to the old sound.

I leave it up to you if you want to define them as "Kote kei". Considering that it is a purely made up term created by the internet community who started to share and trade old school visual music its real significance as a true "label" is hard to determine. But to make things easier people like to use it and tag bands with it when they are undoubtly old school visual kei inspired.
Currently active (as of summer 2013) bands that can be considered Kote kei or old school influenced are GAUZES, La'veil MizeriA, Ru:natic, Grieva and CelL.

GAUZES

Grieva

CelL

Pics of the typical second wave old school visual kei look:

Jakura

Sadis'ia

Allure idea

Kress Devia

Shiver

Cynthia

Laissez Faire

Earl Grey

Vice†Risk

Between 2004 and today there have been bands playing or paying homage to the old school sound and fashion of the 90s. Those Kote kei groups included 弥叉 (Missa), Mar'derayla, Metis Gretel, Sadiesmarry, Madieduor, Mercurius and Metis Gretel.

Other modern visual kei bands that have been associated to be Kote kei (but it is still arguable) are EREMIA, Panic Channel, Phantasmagoria, Lamina and 己龍 (Kiryu).

Missa

Metis Gretel

Phanatsmagoria

EREMIA

Well, thanks for reading. I know it took a long time to finish this part and it may contain spelling errors (English's not my mother language), but I still hope this was somewhat informative and helped you. I also hope it will clear some misunderstandings what "Kote kei" refers to and what bands are really old school visual kei.

I didn't cover light and soft visual kei, because I am not an expert with the bands' histories that are commonly considered to be soft visual. But maybe someone else will do.

~End~