Velvet Eden - Requiem

Yesterday I finally received my copy of Velvet Eden's last album Requiem! (+chekis from their last gig). *I bought my copy from the label and this time the CD wasn't signed*
To be honest, I've gotten quite used to the idea of Velvet Eden breaking up for good and I didn't feel that sad either. Listening to this minialbum and watching the DVD that came with it changed that.
Requiem consists of 5 new songs (sort of, Sea of Blood was released as a demo in 2012), and all of them are rather gloomy and slow songs. I would say it's quite a good farewell album.
Dada shared demo versions of the songs during the year on their youtube channel but since I like the feeling of listening to a cd for the first time I only listened once.
My overall thought is that Requiem really captured the essence of Velvet Eden. It's dark, sad and some songs aren't really catchy like some of the newer songs has been. After hearing the album just once my favorite song was (and still is acctually) the titletrack, Requiem. It has something very special about it, and eventhough the tune is rather fast (for this album) it still made me slightly sad, just like I want my Velvet Eden :3
But the more I listened to the album, the more the songs grew on me. Eraser didn't get stuck in my head at all but now it's another favorite from Requiem! I love how the synth mixes well with the electronic guitar.
One thing that bothered me a bit with Requiem is the fact that it sounds like the music is louder than Dada's voice. (did anyone else experience that??)
The DVD included contains PV's for Toxic Queen and No.15, and also the collaboration video Velvet Eden did with the manga artist Senno Knife last year.
So about the PV's. Toxic Queen was just Chro and Dada in a black and white room, in their black and white outfits. No.15 was made as a performance, the PV takes place on a stage from some livehouse and in the background you can see the painting which is also the cover for Requiem. I really liked this PV acctually. It might sound boring that it's like a performance but it made me remember how it was standing on the frontrow watching Velvet Eden perform No.15. The song is also one of my favorites, as well as Toxic Queen so I think they made a great decision when it comes to the PV's this time! Don't know if others noticed but bits of this PV was used in a trailer/teaser for a Velvet Eden livegig last year!

Last but not least, the Senno Knife collaboration!
It's images as from a manga shown to a new version of Street of ALICE. I really liked the storyline although it was a bit hard to follow for me. In the end you get to see Dada and Chro as characters in the story.

Overall, I demand all Velvet Eden fans to buy this! Show your last support if you enjoy their music and art.
After listening to the CD and watching the DVD it really hit me that it's over. There won't be anymore Velvet Eden, and it really made me sad.
I also came to the conclusion it should be illegal for Dada to stop singing, having that voice and not perform is a crime! I really hope he'll show up here and there, perhaps even do something as solo for fun. Because I NEED more~

Velvet Eden - Behind the Tales

This is a bit late to write, but for me Behind the Tales feels kind of new since I didn't get a chance to see it until february.
The DVD was pre-released at Velvet Eden's live gig on the 31 October and officially released on the 26 November.
This DVD is the bands second since the revival (I don't count the Sad Mask DVD) and contains 6 live videos and a PV for the song Marionette Waltz.

Me and a friend talked about the livevideos for some time, we both got a bit annoyed and confused by the way they've edited them...

Most of the time it looks like the above, several images a top of eachother, making it rather hard to focus on one thing.

I thought that was rather sad, it felt like the images got blurry after a while.

The setlist was good though, we finally got to see Street of Alice, old style.

Dada and Kalm used to fence during this song and so did Dada and Chro.
The DVD also included a PV for Marionette Waltz, which I have to say is my favorite of their new PV's. It's not recorded as a selfie, and it's in black and white.

I've noticed Behind the Tales haven't made it up on Starwave records topchart over sold items, and it doesn't seem like that many international fans have ordered it, how come?

Setlist:
1. Street of Alice
2. Freakshow
3. La fin
4. Luzifer
5. Masquarade Alone
6. Confession of Mask
7. Marionette Waltz PV

Velvet Eden - blanc et noir

I woke up by the doorbell this morning and since I understood what it was I rushed up, received my package and ripped it open.
Today is the release of Velvet Eden's new minialbum blanc et noir in case anyone missed that!

So I did what any other sane person would do, I just said fuck it to sleep and ripped open my package and then put the cd in my computer.

Anyhow, this release includes 6 songs, but only Misery and Goodbye Alice have not been shared on youtube so blanc et noir doesn't really include that many suprises, you know what you're paying for.

Overall, I think the sound is very varied, but I think we can sense a new sound for Velvet Eden in general. Since Chro joined the music is electrnic (of course) but with bits of electric guitar. Luzifer has grown on me, to be honest I wasn't that into it but I'm guessing hearing it live 3 times left some sort of impression on me because now I really enjoy its darker sound combined with Chro's guitar melody.
I have to admit though that the first song I put on was Toxic Queen, I just love it. It reminds me of Black Butterfly, but much better. I don't have many comments about it rather than it's pure awesome.

Those who read my livereports know that I was a bit confused regarding a song they played live, which later ended up being Jailed Prince. It's very rock for Velvet Eden, and the lyrics is all in English! Anyhow, the songs everyone know about isn't that interesting to discuss, so what about Misery and Goodbye Alice?

Misery is a bit slower, but in the middle, my personal favorite part, yet again it gets a bit more "rock" than Velvet Eden normally is, (or maybe I should say was now?), the melody gets a bit darker and the electric guitar more noticable.
As for Goodbye Alice, the beginning reminded me of Paraph, kind of slow and dark, but later the melody gets pretty catchy with the sound of an accordion and the chorus feels almost a bit pop.

The song which has left a big impression on me is No.15. At first I didn't really pay that much attention to it, when it was shared as a demo on youtube, but as always, I downloaded it and listened to it at random and found that I acctually really like this.
Dada said it would sound like old Velvet Eden, I don't know if I agree with that but it's truly great in its own way.
The melody is catchy in the beginning but around the chorus is the interesting part. First before the actual chorus starts, but the chorus itself is my favorite part as that's the part when Dada's vocals makes the song most interesting. The rythm of No.15 is kind of fast and constant and Dada sings sort of fast through out the song but in the chorus it changes and Dada takes longer tones as the melody continues fast in the background which I think sounds pretty cool. I think Dada's voice is at it's best when he doesn't sing that fast to be honest. (my explanation is probably very confusing but I guess you'll get what I mean when listening to No.15)

Tracklist
Luzifer
Toxic Queen
Jailed prince
Misery
No.15
Goodbye Alice

Darkest Labyrinth was kind enough to send the postcard which was announced after I put my order

So, I acctually got 2 free bonuses with my order, first the postcard which was announced some time ago, but also a DVD with the Starwave's bands new year greetings, and Velvet Eden was among them! At first I thought it was the same as the video shared on youtube, but it's not. Nothing that special was announced. The above pictures are screencaps. Also, as always Velvet Eden did sign the copies bought through Darkest Labyrinth, so if you care about that maybe it's worth getting your copy from Darkest Labyrinth instead of CdJapan, or Amazon! The booklet was full of pretty photos, most has been shared already on Chro's and Dada's facebook accounts though.

Velvet Eden at Ikebukuro CHOP

Last night was my final Velvet Eden gig!
I was cursing over how hard it was to find Chop last time, and was sort of happy when I got home thinking now I don't have to worry about that again... so of course I had to go back once more.

It went a bit faster this time, BUT I did get lost, again.

There were 5 bands playing, Rapunzel (female vocalist and male bassist with fairytale inspired lyrics to the regular kind of visual kei rock), Howling (regular rock band with members looking slightly visual kei, seemed to be older than average and their fans were too, I've never heard of them though), Benisemi (angura kei band, some songs were kind of interesting so I'm gonna check them out later), Kalavinka (barely saw anything of them since I left Chop) and of course Velvet Eden!

I was looking forward to seeing the new costumes and I've also heard that they played Sad Mask at their last gig in Osaka, so I assumed they'd play it here aswell. But no, the setlist was almost identical to the previous gigs I've been to, except that they played No15 this evening.

I stood on Dada's part of the stage, and since it was my last night I tried to focus and remember as much as possible (Velvet Eden and Dada plays a big part of my life, so this live was very important for me).
As soon as the live started I noticed Dada's fingers weren't doing that well, to be honest they were kind of broken. The middle finger on his left hand was almost completly off. Don't worry, I'm not talking about his actual fingers, but his claws. He mentioned it in his MC, and I think it happened during their last gig in Osaka in December.

One big thing was that Dada announced that their working on a new cd! I don't remember where, but I think I saw that the one man they'll have in May will be the release for their 3rd DVD, and now we have a cd to look forward to aswell. I'm really glad things are going so well for them.

The song which has impressed me the most is Toxic Queen, and I've been able to hear it all 3 times I've seen Velvet Eden live which has been completly awesome. But all good things come to an end.

Setlist
Intro

One Caress
Luzifer
Toxic Queen
MC
No15
Confession of mask

The bathroom at CHOP (just because I didn't have nything else to share this time...

Velvet Eden at Chop

Last night Velvet Eden had their somewhat "secret" livegig at club Chop in Ikebukuro.
I don't mean secret as in no one can find out, but it was a bit weird they didn't promote it until really late (I found out last week).

I'm not that good at finding directions, acctually I'm worthless at it. I'm still getting lost in my hometown, that's how bad it is. So when I'm supposed to find my way around Ikebukuro, where I haven't spent that much time, well to put it simple, I'm fucked.

Me and my friend had a hard time finding the club, and an even harder time finding the station on our way back (yeah, not kidding).

But we got there first! *yay* Not that lines matters in Japan :P

Chop was small, but not as tiny as Ikebukuro Cyber (thank god), and they even had soap in the bathroom! *yay* (Cyber doesn't...)

There were 4 bands playing, カルぺディエム (Carpe Diem), ジグラット (jiguretto), ロクダマカルタ (Rokudamakaruta) and Velvet Eden.

This time Velvet Eden wasn't last out....just 3rd :P The first band to play was Carpe Diem. Never heard of them before, but the vocalist (who also calls himself Chro) made me think of Tetsu from first era Malice Mizer. He had that kind of hysterical voice going on, and their music was kind of okey. The second band was  one of those amazingly random bands...which makes me laugh on the inside because bands like that would seriously not work on any other place than Japan. The singer looked like some sort of Marilyn Manson copy, while the basist and guitarist looked very visual kei. The guitarist was really pretty, with pink pigtails (at first I thought he had a wig because that might have been the most perfect pigtails I've seen, plus he had pink hair, but then I noticed it was his real hair which really impressed me XD) Their music varied quite a lot, some songs were kind of hard, and some more regular rock. They were kind of fun watching from the back because they had a lot of set movements for the fans (love seeing how synchronized everyone's moving at gigsXD).
I kind of liked one song they played, so I'm just gonna post a link to a preview from their Youtube channel;

Then it was time for Velvet Eden, well before that they sat by their merchtable as usual (from what I saw they didn't sell anything though...). I was sitting in the back amazingly bored when I just randomly looks up and see Dada and Chro passing me.

This stage didn't have a real curtain so while we were waiting by the front of the stage we could see Chro walking around, setting up his keyboard and guitar (fun leg-entertainment).

Their opening song is not something I recognise, I wonder why they haven't released that as a demo on youtube... anyway, the setlist was just like last week, exactly the same, so was their outfits. 

I've also finally figuered out the mysterious song XD That was my head being retarded and mixing up Luzifer for Jailed Prince... so no new song, the song I meant was Jailed Prince.

This MC was a bit fun (I also acctually understood more of this than at the gig last week). Dada mentioned he had a hard time grasping things when he has his gloves, so he had his stage pass stuck to his ass, and a girl seriously got to remove it for him and then it was given to Chro, who put it on his mic XD They also mentioned they'll play in Osaka in December, and that they haven't decided on Tokyo yet, so it will come later.

One funny thing was that one of the women in the audience shouted kawaii at Dada at some point during the MC and he began to laugh, saying he's 44, but thanks XD

When Velvet Eden's session was over Dada got back to their merchtable, and since it was empty I decided to go over there. I wanted to thank him for this evening and for Velvet Eden, because it's been a HUGE part of my life since I was 16. He didn't really seem to care that much though. This made me feel extremly embarrassed to be honest, and I regret saying anything at all....

Dada then began to shake hands with those who came to see Velvet Eden, (even me:P), and then Chro showed up out of nowhere, he was really kind.

Then I decided to go, partly because I had early class and partly because I felt really weird after that to be honest.

I might not see Velvet Eden again since they don't have a date for the coming Tokyo live and I'm leaving in February, would've been fun to hear some other songs though :P

Tomorrow I'm going to Khaos Rave Decadence to see Schwarz Stein for the last time ;_; and on saturday I have a ticket to see Közi (I just randomly got the ticket when he announced the new cd, have to get that *_*) so a fun weekend ahead of me.

Velvet Eden at Ikebukuro Cyber

So last night was the Black Lips event, on which Velvet Eden would officially release their new DVD Behind the Tales.

Sign outside of Ikebukuro Cyber

So, Ikebukuro Cyber is one of the smallest livehouses I ever seen! The floor (excluding the stage) feels like my kitchen, so I'm happy not that many people were there at the same time. At these kinds of events most people don't stay the whole evening (it can go on for 5 hours), some knows when their favorite band's playing...(it's not announced so I'm guessing some bands tell).
Anyway, I felt like I was late, I didn't have time to buy something I really wanted to bring..., but I did have time to run and buy a silver pen :3
Me and my friend arrived about 10 minutes before they picked us up (The street Cyber's on is so small they don't want people to line outside of their dorr, you do the lining a place further away and then a staffmember picks you up). Something kind of important in case someone's going to Cyber to a similar event and haven't been before is that sometimes there will be a person making a list for the front row of each band! So if you see a person at the front of the stage by the time they let you in with paper and pen, make sure to go up at tell which band, your name and where you want to stand!

I made sure to get a place on the left of the middle, so I had a good view of Dada. I never know in which order bands appear so I was, to be honest a bit bored waiting for 4h.
There was however some more interesting bands, a lolita trio called Die Milch who had a somewhat electric sound with violin, Rose Noire, I'm not a big fan of their music recorded but they were pretty good live, especially when both Jill and Louie played violin (and I think he's one of the most gorgeous people in the VK scene at the moment, so my eyes were happy).

After about 4h of waiting I see Dada coming out from the backstage area and in behind the Velvet Eden merchtable! This might sound crazy, and slightly fanatic fangirl:ish, but I felt so nervous and hysterical on the inside XD Felt like I almost had to pinch my arm, it was slightly unreal.

So, we went over to the merch table to pick up a copy, some people were infront of us so Dada went backstage again, but Chro was really nice explaining in english what I had to fill out on the ticket to attend the photoevent afterwards.
Then after 2 more bands or so Velvet Eden was finally on!
I felt like my heart jumped out of my chest when the curtain was pulled away and I saw Dada stand infront of me. So what were they wearing? Both Chro and Dada had the same outfit (Chro didn't have Dada's gloves though), which looked like a full body suit in pleather, with tiny holes in it, corset, thong, the ruffles they Dada wears on the DVD cover and those wide legs (the kind Dada has had a million times, like in the Ningyou Shoukan PV). Ow yeah, Chro hadblack feathers on his behind, looked really cute.
They opened with Street of Alice, this has to be like the 3rd version, or 4th probably. It sounded like the original but at the end, it had bits of the 2.0 version. Of course they also played Toxic Queen and Jailed prince (Toxic Queen was so awesome *_*), but I got a bit confused, the second last song, I really didn't recognise... so either I'm a bad fan or it's a new song! It was very rock for Velvet Eden I think, so it stood out a bit (hence me not recognising it).

They had some pretty long MC's this evening (talked about T-backs of course and some other things).
After their session Dada and Chro was back behind their merch table (Dada crawled under the table, looked so cute). This was the reason I brought my silver marker, hehe, so when no one was there I got up there and asked if they could sign the DVD, and they did <3 I was so happy, finally I have their signatures for real XD (I have other signed items but I've never seen them being signed, doesn't feel real then), and finally we got called in by Chro for the photos!
So, Dada posted some night's ago that those who buy the Behind the Tales DVD this evening will get a photo taken and then he will make a gothic VE retouch! Unfortunately since Dada was taking the pictures he could not be in them =( But I got to stand with Chro, so I was happy anyway^^ (I hope Dada's ready for some heavy retouching, I'll need it).

My outfit for this evening had alot of planning, well at least my legs^^
I've always loved the wide legs Dada has most of the time. For people who haven't been paying attention, it might look like ordinary socks/stockings, but it's not. They're open at the foot and wide, so I thought I need a pair of those for the first time of seeing Velvet Eden! So off I went to buy some fabric, and stiched them togheter right before I left for Japan. This is the result:

I looked at a lot of pictures and noticed...other members... having overknee socks under so that they're not as seethrough as they would've been, so I did that as you can see. (I wore a meshtop to this, and a collar-like necklace)
I'm quite satisfied with how these ended up, so when I get home I'm really going to try and make a full cosplay of one of Dada's looks when he has these.

Setlist:

Street of Alice
Toxic Queen
MC with Rouge d'noir
One caress
Luzifer
MC with Girl's End
Jailed Prince
Confession of Mask