Your Top 10 Visual Kei Albums of All Time

[disposable]

As it says in the title, what are your top 10 visual kei albums.

You can choose to implement stuff like one album per artist if you feel like it.

These are mine with a semblance of an order in that my favorites came to mind first. There's been some change in the past decade+ but most have remained in place. I have arbitrarily limited myself to one album per artist. I might add short descriptions later so feel free to do so as well

1. Kuroyume - 迷える百合達 〜Romance of Scarlet〜
2. Buck-Tick - 狂った太陽
3. Luna Sea - Image
4. Dir en grey - Macabre
5. Aliene Ma'riage - Les Soirée 夜の舞踏会/断罪の章~神罰篇
6. Dead End - Ghost of Romance
7. D'erlanger - Basilisk
8. Malice Mizer - Merveilles
9. L'arc en ciel - Dune
10. La'Cryma Christi - Sculpture of Time

Stuff that was bubbling under just about but didn't cut it:
The GazettE's 大日本異端芸者的脳味噌逆回転絶叫音源集, Madeth Gray'll's compilation album, all the other Luna Sea, Kuroyume, Buck-Tick and Dir en grey albums. Caligari 5, 6 and 7, second L'arc en ciel album, Die in Cries first album, Merry Gendai Stoic, Oldies, and Modern Garde,

[polarwizer]

1. La'cryma Christi - Magic Theatre
2. ALL I NEED - sigh
3. epidemic - eocytes
4. D=SIRE - Shuumatsu no Joukei
5. Metronome - Unknown
6. MISSILE - Earth
7. FANATIC CRISIS - the.lost.innocent
8. Ronde - Palette
9. Sheen - Come on Everybody
10. DEVELOP=FRAME - Terminus

Honourable mention to "Great Splash" by Cune, I would have added it to the list but well around that album's release they were long gone from vkei lol, other than the top 3 there isn't really much order but these are some of the albums that mean a lot to me

[disposable]

@polarwizer Cool taste by the way.

My list is basically all the usual suspects with a heavy bias to pioneers so it's kind of boring. If I would cut stuff released prior to 1998 or 2003 it would be far more interesting.

[sunnyschoenheit]

@disposable oh my god this was a hard choice. so many good albums.

but here's mine:

1. glay - pure soul
2. justy nasty - pleasure of the sluts
3. color - gekitotsu !!
4. buck tick - no.0
5. strawberry fields - dancerama (it's a mini album but it counts)
6. luna sea - image
7. x japan - vanishing vision
8. by-sexual - sexuality
9. ladies room - made in sex
10. decameron - meikyoku album

honorable mentions: shuumatsu no joukei by d=sire, death 13 by kill=slayd, and deep space syndicate by la'cryma christi. i was indecisive when it came to these lmao

[Jigsaw]

A hard task, but someone's gotta do it... [cracks knuckles]

Since this was difficult enough, I won't rank these albums against each other (with such strong records I really can't decide), so I'll stick to the good ol' alphabetical order. Also, I'm only counting full-length albums (no EPs, mini albums or compilations), otherwise my mind would explode, lmao.

• Aliene Ma'riage - Les Soirée 夜の舞踏会/断罪の章～神罰篇
• BUCK-TICK - 狂った太陽
• cali≠gari - 第6実験室
• deadman - no alternative
• D'ERLANGER - LA VIE EN ROSE
• 黒夢 - 亡骸を...
• LUNA SEA - IMAGE
• MALICE MIZER - Voyage sans retour
• メリー - モダンギャルド
• MUNIMUNI - MAGICAL MOONIES

Honorable mentions:

• BAISER - 華
• Dir en grey - GAUZE
• GUNIW TOOLS - OTHER GOOSE
• KYOKUTOU GIRL FRIEND - 勝手にしやがれ
• L'Arc~en~Ciel - ray
• ネガ - GRAVE OF THE SACRIFICE
• the GazettE - STACKED RUBBISH

[Takadanobabaalien]

Pretty much impossible given how many great records exists, so my list is probably interchangeable depending on my mood, but something like this, not in a particular order:

1. LUNA SEA - EDEN
2. ZI:KILL - CLOSE DANCE
3. Dir en grey - Kisou
4. Glay - hai to diamond
5. Buck tick - Seventh heaven
6. Malice mizer - Voyage sans retour
7. Kagerou - Kagerou
8. The Gazette - Disorder
9. Mucc - Homura uta
10. Despairsray - Coll:set

[disposable]

@Jigsaw said:

ネガ - GRAVE OF THE SACRIFICE

this is the wildest take i've seen here so far (i'm so partial to the ballads & two pv tracks on this i like the album that most as well)

@Takadanobabaalien said:

ZI:KILL - CLOSE DANCE

I thought this as well when I was out and I realised the reason why it didn't get a mention is that my music listening has turned so compliant that the fact that zi:kill isn't on spotify has sort placed them in them in the back. Close Dance would've made my list easy one-two years ago when I was on my biggest zi:kill kick

[pairdog]

Like Jig said, no mini-albums!

It hurt me to limit this to 10 ... and hurt even more to rank them.

But the rank is based on "how many times in a row can I listen to it TODAY" + "the positive memories I have associated with it"

1. cali≠gari - 第5実験室
2. Plastic Tree - HIDE and SEEK
3. deadman - no alternative
4. MUCC - 痛絶
5. BUCK-TICK - 悪の華
6. LUNA SEA - IMAGE
7. DuelJewel - Lapidary
8. ZXS - Spiral Code
9. MALICE MIZER - 薔薇の聖堂
10. GUNIW TOOLS - OTHER GOOSE

Honorable mentions:
DEViL KiTTY - 悪魔鬼茶 (inimitable INSANITY)
Dir en grey - GAUZE (obligatory nostalgia piece)
FANATIC◇CRISIS - MASK (discovered late, crazy how much this LP was influential & copied)
グルグル映畫館 - 轍 (tbh they never had a bad album)
GILLE' LOVES - 薔薇色の吸血鬼 (nothing else like it)
メリー - 現代ストイック (life changing)
KARMA=SHENJING - 流転輪廻 (beautiful, catchy & unique)
lab. - Pied & Piper (I always listen to them together!)

Super honorable mention cuz it doesn't qualify:
Janne Da Arc - 10th Anniversary Indies Complete Box (compilation of their 3 indie minis, which are incredible & timeless)

[pairdog]

@Jigsaw said:
...

Solid list. At first I was shocked at Aliene Ma'riage at the #1 slot ...

BIG RESPECT for 第6 & モダンギャルド!!!

[Jigsaw]

@Takadanobabaalien I almost included CLOSE DANCE, and almost chose SEVENTH HEAVEN from B-T too (but then I remembered that Kurutta exists), heh.

Honestly with some of these bands there always exists an eternal "alternate best" album for me (see also: Kuroyume, deadman, LUNA SEA, MALICE MIZER...).

[Takadanobabaalien]

@Jigsaw Yeah I agree. Also forgot to add kuroyume on my list.. but limiting one self to only 10 albums is super difficult. Maybe 10 albums per decade would make it easier hehe

[reiketsu]

this is gonna be real hard... i wont attempt to rank them, this is just a list:

1. DEAD END - GHOST OF ROMANCE (1987) (do they count?)
2. BUCK-TICK - HURRY UP MODE (1987)
3. COLOR - gekitotsu!! (1988)
4. X JAPAN - BLUE BLOOD (1989)
5. ZI:KILL - CLOSE DANCE (1990)
6. ZI:KILL - ROCKET (1993)
7. Kuroyume - nakigara wo... (1993)
8. SPEED-iD - INNER DIMENSION (1993)
9. Laputa - kagerou (1996)
10. NeiL - RAZOR (1999)

if they were considered vkei i would totally add 'electric moon & more' and 'trash land' by der zibet.

[reiketsu]

forgot to add malice oh my god. merveilles and bara no seidou deserve a place in there too

[pairdog]

@reiketsu I don't see Laputa mentioned enough in favorites lists. Kagerou is definitely my favorite of theirs as well!!

[reiketsu]

@pairdog HEAVY AGREE!!! this album had me on chokehold for at least 2 years, even now i sometimes put it on and each song feels like hearing it for the first time again. im so glad to see laputa appreciation too, awesome taste!

[Delkmiroph]

@pairdog said:

Plastic Tree - HIDE and SEEK

solid album

[Jigsaw]

@reiketsu said:

4. X JAPAN - BLUE BLOOD (1989)
5. Laputa - kagerou (1996)

Sweet list! I almost included these two in at least "honorable mentions", but would have been too much.

[pyromania]

@disposable oh gosh that’s gonna be difficult (great taste btw!)

Not ranked btw:

1. STYLE - LUNA SEA
2. BIG WILL - AURA
3. Jealousy - X JAPAN
4. 94 Love - BY-SEXUAL
5. BLUE ROMANCE～優しい花達の狂奏〜 - LAREINE
6. Voyage sans Retour - Malice Mizer (I hardly ever listen to them anymore but it’s one of my top albums for sure)
7. LA VIE EN ROSE - D’ERLANGER
8. BOφWY - BOØWY (that doesn’t count as vkei but whatever)
9. DER ZIBET - Der Zibet (also doesn’t count as vkei uhh)
10. QUEENDOM - SHOW-YA (yet again, doesn’t count as vkei…aaa)

Honorable mention is PYROMANIA by J (ofc) which is once again not vkei.. can’t limit myself to only vkei sorry, gotta mention some other great Japanese bands/artists as well

[Tokage]

Limiting myself to 1 entry per band here. I'm not even going to bother ranking these because I genuinely don't think I can. I've listened to all of these albums a fuckton of times.

1. Guniw Tools - NIWLUN
2. Plastic Tree - Puppet Show
3. cali≠gari - 第6実験室
4. メリー - モダンギャルド
5. FLOPPY - FLOPPY
6. Dir en grey - Arche
7. サンドイッチで１２０分？- ネバーランド
8. ストロベリーソングオーケストラ - 血の濫觴
9. Buck-Tick - 十三階は月光
10. deadman - I Am Here

Honorable mentions:
メトロノーム - COLLECTION (the two COLLECTION albums, when taken together, are two of the best 'let's rerecord our old material' collection albums to come out of the VK-sphere, along with that deadman album up above and that double album cali≠gari released when Shuuji 2 joined the band.)
グルグル映畫館 - 境の朱さの所為なのです。
sukekiyo - Adoratio
SEX-ANDROID - either 平成・コトナカレ主義 (honestly tied with お茶ノ間キラー)
有頂天 - GAN (definitely not VK, but influenced a lot of the bands I like)
犬神サーカス団 - 神の犬
Zilch - 3.2.1. (again, not sure if this really counts as VK proper)
白黒キネマ - 証明 (their 'proper' full-length album is very good too, but i've definitely listened to this one more)

[Delkmiroph]

@Tokage said:

Plastic Tree - Puppet Show

awww my beloved album