Weekly Discovery: week 2 pt1

This week's WD is again a music related one but this time we go from France to Japan, where most of the music related WDs are likely to live.  First however, I'd like to make some changes to my original post season review plan.  Since a few of the shows I am watching have been extended to full 25-26 episode long status or longer, I'll be doing a few more mid-anime reviews.  The anime in question are Giant Killing, K-ON!!, and RAINBOW so look forward to those really soon, most likely next week.  Anyways, back to the WD.

More than tackling a single artist/composer for the next few WDs I'd like to talk about a genre of music that I enjoy a little bit, maybe a bit too much?  This genre happens to be gothic metal/rock.  Now I don't mean to say by any means I'm that kind of person.  The thought of teen guys in all black and jeans much too skinny for them perturbs me greatly goes for teen girls too.  However, when it comes to music, I'm open to many, many things.  While the US has gothic bands, I'm generally not too interested however, some of the music I've found around the internet coming from Japan intrigues me.

In particular, I will be talking about 3 groups MiddleIsland, Asriel, and Rokugen Alice.  I will also be talking about them in order in 3 different posts.  The MiddleIsland post itself comes after this post since I don't like incredibly long posts and this one is more background than anything.  So for background, all 3 groups are labeled as 'doujin' groups.  This means that they are pretty much indie groups in Japan although Asriel has been becoming more mainstream lately with a couple of OP/EDs of anime.  The major events for these types of groups are Comiket held bi-annually in summer and winter, M3 a music convention held bi-annually in spring and fall, and Reiteisai which is a special convention held in the spring for a specific game (Touhou games) and fan-made things including music.  Of these, the most famous is definitely Comiket but I won't go into detail as there are quite a few questionable things to say about it.

Back to the music style, I would call it best as gothic metal/rock or symphonic metal/rock.  All 3 groups make heavy use of various string instruments, pianos, and guitar.  The vocalists are all a bit different, especially when compared to American music standards but that's something you'll find out quickly enough.  So without any more delay, the MiddleIsland post.

--CsMiREK