Your Top 10 Visual Kei Albums of All Time

[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

[WhirlingBlack]

I'm also doing only full length albums, also doing only one album per band, to keep things more interesting. The list got pretty long, so made both a top 10, and the second tier of "honourable 10". Neither are in order except that the top ten obviously ranks slightly above the other ten, when I had to choose.

Top 10:
黒夢 - 亡骸を・・・ (Kuroyume - Nakigara wo…)
LUNA SEA - LUNA SEA
Aliene Ma'riage - Les Soirée 夜の舞踏会/断罪の章～神罰篇
deadman - no alternative
ムック - 葬ラ謳 (MUCC - Homura Uta)
Dir en grey - GAUZE
X Japan - Vanishing Vision
ROUAGE - ROUAGE
Malice Mizer - Memoire
sukekiyo - ADORATIO

Honourable 10:
Baiser - Ash
BUCK-TICK - 悪の華
D'espairsRay - Coll:set
emmuree - Love Letter -dark mania-
lynch. - greedy dead souls
La'Chryma Christi - Sculpture of Time
guniw tools - niwlun
DEATHGAZE - genocide and mass murder
9GOATS BLACK OUT - TANATOS
√eight - illational

Some of these albums I've listened to consistently for decades, some I listen to only every now and then but have strong feelings for. A lot of my favourite bands does not have full albums, or if they do, the best tracks are spread over several albums which makes them not really fit into a list like this.

[pairdog]

@WhirlingBlack Love the inclusion of Love Letter -dark mania-!!! I wish they had released an album of all the original recordings for their early work, but I still enjoy the remakes.

[WhirlingBlack]

@pairdog They're one of my all time favourite bands, so I had to include them. Honestly it was very close that they made it to the top 10 list.

[disposable]

@WhirlingBlack said:

ムック - 葬ラ謳 (MUCC - Homura Uta)

It's albums like this that I feel bad for not including, but at the same time I am apprehensive about knocking out a seminal classic that I also get tons of mileage over in its stead. A part is also that somehow I view MUCC as almost a singular phenomenon, as in it doesn't really typify vk as much.

If we're talking albums post-2000s MUCC would go straight in. Maybe it's that in my mind, the rupture before and after 1998/1999 when vk spread out to envelop an incredible range of sounds is so total that they're almost two separate things.