#aikaryu

Part IV of my 20th anniversary series !

Part I Part II Part III

This post was brought to you by Node of Scherzo before Versailles even was a thing :D I was really, really excited when Versailles happened, and even more when they teamed up with Kaya and Juka to make Node of Scherzo. Here's why lol (ok there are no Juka songs here but eeeeeh)

As usual : Song titles link to individual mp3 file download

All 5 songs can also be downloaded together, in a zip file, from the link at the bottom

藍華柳~aikaryu - すすめ!パイレーツ (susume! pirates)

Aikaryu being Teru's band before Versailles :)

Another iconic piece from Aikaryu, probably their best, imo, that still makes me wish their van never crashed (but then again, if that didn't happen, maybe Teru and Hizaki wouldn't have started working together, and they do riff well together aaah...)

Susume! Pirates was on the mini-album 海賊盤~Aye.藍.sir~ (kaizokuban~aye. ai. sir~ more puns from our buddy aikaryu uhuhuh), released in 2004.

aaah, indie goodness ♥

HIZAKI - Ritual (featuring fu-ki from BLOOD)

... Well Hizaki was also Hizaki before versailles, I suppose. His solo career is pretty solid, though ! I was already vaguely aware of BLOOD at the time, and this song convinced me to look further into it :)

This version of Ritual was on Maiden†Ritual, released in 2004 (it was somewhat self-covered under HIZAKI grace project and sung by Juka a few years later, but Juka's falsetto is so bad you might as well stick to the fuki version ahahhaah)

LAREINE - Scarlet Majesty

Lareine being one of Kamijo's bands before versailles, if I even needed to introduce him...

Now this was one of the first Lareine song I heard, I don't remember what was the very first, but this one was the one that made me love Lareine :3 And it's another one of these songs I didn't realized was so new, at the time... (but also, in my head, somehow, lareine disbanded in 2001 LOL)

Scarlet Majesty was a single released in 2003.

Malice Mizer - au revoir

The thing is, I thought that malice would suit the mood better than m10m (but then again here's Schwarz Stein at the end lmao), especially right after Lareine, AND once you've heard one m10m song, you've pretty much heard it all (there's one in the 1st post of the series ;) ), BUT that statement isn't true about Malice. I've done Klaha era, now here's Gackt lolz. (also Juka wouldn't be Juka without a good Gackt base, so eh...) (also, also : i'm pretty sure that at least Közi showed up to a node of scherzo event, back then, iirc)

Also, ngl, I chose between this, Le Ciel, and Bel Air, and I'm not sure how I elected au revoir... It might just be that Mana's flower costume is my fave of all time ♥

Au revoir was a single released in 1997.

(enjoy this non-crunchy clip omfgoth im always emotional when I actually see it and I dont have to guess what the pixels mean T^T)

Schwarz Stein - Rise to Heaven

Schwarz Stein being Kaya's band bef... WELL. They were active from 2001 to 2004, and have been semi active since 2011. Kaya started his solo career in the meantime, partaking in several side projects, including Node of Scherzo. (And Hora spent his time buying shoes and living (?) in Hawaii, I guess...)

IT'S THE FIRST SCHWARZ STEIN SONG I EVER HEARD !!! At the time, this, queen of decadence and fester love was all I could find on lime wire lol. And it stayed like that until a parental unit gifted me a legit copy of New Vogue Children (there were a lot of "miya records" copies circling on ebay, back then). So anyway, I heard that and I fell in love and it's been 20 years and counting :D

Rise to Heaven was on the album New Vogue Children, released in 2003

Bonus because it was already uploaded in mega :

Node of Scherzo, featuring Teru, Hizaki, Juka, Kamijo, and Kaya here, and among others

Node of Scherzo was a series of concert put up together by versailles, Kaya, and Juka, in 2007. They basically created a musical based on beauty (lol) involving a love triangle and songs from Versailles, Hizaki grace project, and Kaya's solo career. After the released of Carmilla, it became a vampire story as well.

NoS also paved the way for the monstrosity that is JVM Roses Blood Symphony lol

I run @mouldymp3rotations where i hand out at least 5 free mp3s per month :3

For pretty much the rest of the year, I will be focusing on visual kei bands that built the foundations for my love for vkei, which is turning 20 this June !

I already posted the first one here (I thought I would get the obvious ones out of the way lol)

Now, I have several packs ready to be turned into post, but i don't know where to start, so I thought I would ask :)

I had prepared a whole other thing for my first rotation, and then I realized it was october, so I changed the whole theme to go for a vampire theme lmao

Song titles have the links to individual songs, link for all 5 of them at the end

So in this pack, there is :

藍華柳~aikaryu - ヴァンパイアで満杯や! (VAMPIRE de manpai ya!)

This song is the first song that came to mind, when I decided to go for a vampire theme lol VANPAIA de manpai ya! was a live-distributed single released in 2005 (i had to write it in romaji at least once because it's a pun huhuhuhuh)

Aural Vampire - Hot Blood Workout

I could honestly have put any Aural Vampire song tbh, but I decided to go for one of the first song I heard from them :) Hot Blood Workout appeared on a self-titled, self-released EP released in 2008 (although my brain wants to say it might have been released on like myspace first or something ? i remember that song being older than 2008, but oh well)

Gackt - Lust for Blood

This is the culprit for the theme change :D Now I dont particularly listen to a lot of Gackt's music, but Lust for Blood had followed me ever since I first heard it, about 20 years ago :) Lust for Blood appears on Crescent, released in 2003 (if you have just one gackt album to look up, maybe look this one up ?)

Kaya - Carmilla (my rip)

I couldn't make a vampire theme and not include that one lolz :D It was the first time that Hizaki was composing for Kaya, at the time, and I just immediately fell in love with it, as it was pretty much tailored for me (it wasnt but you know....) Carmilla was a single released in 2007 and this is the version you're getting here ! (not that the album version is that much different, it mostly is longer iirc... i have not listened to the album version in forever oops)

Luci'fer Luscious Violenoue - 翼を折られたヴァンパイア (tsubasa wo orareta VAMPIRE)

That's the second song that popped in my mind to go with the vampire theme lol. That too is a song that I have been listening to for 20 years lol Tsubasa wo orareta VAMPIRE was found on a matina omnibus/box set released in 2001, and then on an album in 2002