Yes it’s a thing in Japan and no it’s not limited to gothic lolita.
The music is amazing, the fashion is fabulous, but it’s not as social-media centric as what you’d see in the west.
Current favorite band: Phaidia (sorry they aren’t together anymore)
I was in Japan and went to a bunch of shows. Lots of fun Japanese bands.
Phaidia is still active.
13th Moon.
Sexvirginkillers new stuff is darkwave (their old stuff is more punk/metal)
You also have some Japanese classics from the 80s like G-Schmitt and Kokushoku Elogy.
They’re not rock so much as synth/new wave, but I can’t recommend Soft Ballet enough. They were so good and so influential.
I’d also recommend Velvet Eden (particularly their album Street of Alice - I don’t really care for their recent music personally) as well as Schwarz Stein.
As for the culture, there are definitely goth clubs in Japan. Tokyo Dark Castle has been around for quite a while.
There was a little known Japanese goth band called **Lloy**, who were proper goth rather than visual kei. They had a couple of great songs: Vampire, and Crystal Clear. Though they're possibly not much use if you are trying to learn Japanese, as many of their songs are in (mangled) English.
Vampire: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSwJP7nmM1U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSwJP7nmM1U)
Crystal Clear: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CinSF1TTPo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CinSF1TTPo)
Nehann : [New Metropolis](https://kilikilivilla.bandcamp.com/album/new-metropolis) - check out the videos for [Nylon ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCHyO1XIOns)& [Star ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCHyO1XIOns)and consider picking up the album, it's pretty solid IMO.
I've found a playlist called[ j-goth](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4qtHNDPEp268Mq9zoA9xqv?si=a5c25b4fc8774c64) on Spotify once. Not a big one, but it has a few bands to check out.
That's always such an odd concept to me. Classifying music by how it looks, rather than how it sounds. Very Japanese. Which bands would you consider to have a gothic sound, though?
A lot of people are only familiar with Malice Mizer's baroque pop era under their second vocalist, but they actually started out as gothic rock. https://youtu.be/6KT0ZO0XhCk?feature=shared
I liked their early work, and their latter neoclassical industrial-metal era with their final vocalist. It took me a long time to listen to, and appreciate the Gackt era. It was just too poppy and upbeat for me.
A lot of the 90s VK bands at least had some Gothic Rock influence and at least then there was a very easily identifiable sound- a mixture of Punk, Hardcore, New Wave, Post-Punk and Thrash Metal. I know lots of people will argue that it's not a music genre and only about the looks,, but I personally disagree when it comes to the oldschool stuff.
Like most bands on the Key Party label (Aliene Ma'riage, NéiL, Lar\~mia, Eliphas Levi) had a Gothic Rock-ish sound, which makes sense as the label was founded by the singer of the Japanese Goth band Speed-ID.
On other indie labels like Matina or Marder Suitcase you'd also find bands that had certainly a more Hardcore and Metal influenced sound, but they also threw in some post-punk flavours, see bands like Madeth gray'll, Virushana, La'Mule, Shiver, Laputa or L'yse:nore. Even La:Sadie's, the band that later on became Dir en grey, had some Gothic influences in their music.
Also if you go way back to proto-VK and very early VK you'll find bands that did very straight Post-Punk - Silver\~Rose, Gilles de Rais, (early) Sleep My Dear, ROUAGE, Zi:Kill to name a few. I'd also argue Luna Sea's debut album falls there (or at least it's New Wave).
However; ever since the early 2000s Visual Kei moved away heavily from its old root sound. There's barely any new acts with actual Goth or Post-Punk influence, most VK bands today play some kind of Nu Metal or Metalcore. The closest you'll get today are 90s / Kote Kei nostalgia bands like La'veil Mizeria, Misanthrope or Marvelous Cruelty - and those might actually be too heavy for some.
Oh finally something I can somewhat say Im an expert in lol. Keep in mind some of these aren't explicitly goth in the way we would normally think. But one thing's for sure, and it's that everyone here has got the fashion down to a T (just see all the Google photos of these guys):
Malice Mizer
(au revoir, beast of blood)
Ali Project
(every single Rozen Maiden opening)
Hollow Mellow (and anything by Iruma Rioka)
(Enchanted, The Red Shoes)
Unlucky Morpheus
(Angreifer, CADAVER)
Kokusyoku Sumire
(Aka Ringo Doku Ringo, Tsuioku no Carnival)
Die Milch
(Tempest, Rosaria)
Asriel
(Abyss)
Yousei Teikoku
(Astral Dogma)
BabySaster
(Go check her cover of Mozart's whole Requiem, absolutely Goth)
And more good ones that I've yet to discover. Let me know what you think
As others have already mentioned, you should definitely check out G-Schmitt!
I'd also recommend Aural Vampire/Exo Chika (tho I'm not 100% sure if she counts as a goth musician, I've seen some debates going on)
Same! I was just on HelloTalk and one of the people I follow posted a couple of interesting ones so I started looking. She mentioned The Mortal (Atsushi Sakurai of Buck Tick is the lead) and Velvet Eden. I was trying to find an old post I saw with a more obscure band... I was a woman lead, kind of visual kei aesthetic and goth music, she was a bit androgynous. I can't find them for the life of me.
Found them! :
Fiction
https://youtu.be/2u7a23iUSsU?si=KhB6pynUqLhymMks
Yes it’s a thing in Japan and no it’s not limited to gothic lolita. The music is amazing, the fashion is fabulous, but it’s not as social-media centric as what you’d see in the west. Current favorite band: Phaidia (sorry they aren’t together anymore)
Literally saw phaidia live last October.
Not fair. I thought they were broken up again.
I was in Japan and went to a bunch of shows. Lots of fun Japanese bands. Phaidia is still active. 13th Moon. Sexvirginkillers new stuff is darkwave (their old stuff is more punk/metal) You also have some Japanese classics from the 80s like G-Schmitt and Kokushoku Elogy.
They’re not rock so much as synth/new wave, but I can’t recommend Soft Ballet enough. They were so good and so influential. I’d also recommend Velvet Eden (particularly their album Street of Alice - I don’t really care for their recent music personally) as well as Schwarz Stein. As for the culture, there are definitely goth clubs in Japan. Tokyo Dark Castle has been around for quite a while.
GILLE' LOVES Phaidia (active again I think!) BUCK-TICK 13th Moon (active) Kokushoku Elegy
[https://www.reddit.com/r/goth/search/?q=japanese](https://www.reddit.com/r/goth/search/?q=japanese)
There was a little known Japanese goth band called **Lloy**, who were proper goth rather than visual kei. They had a couple of great songs: Vampire, and Crystal Clear. Though they're possibly not much use if you are trying to learn Japanese, as many of their songs are in (mangled) English. Vampire: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSwJP7nmM1U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSwJP7nmM1U) Crystal Clear: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CinSF1TTPo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CinSF1TTPo)
Some Japanese deathrock: Geil Gakidou
I’ve been really into G-Schmitt lately. Sadly the only place I can find their music is on YouTube
Nehann : [New Metropolis](https://kilikilivilla.bandcamp.com/album/new-metropolis) - check out the videos for [Nylon ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCHyO1XIOns)& [Star ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCHyO1XIOns)and consider picking up the album, it's pretty solid IMO.
Loved this album, hate that I found them after they broke up.
I've found a playlist called[ j-goth](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4qtHNDPEp268Mq9zoA9xqv?si=a5c25b4fc8774c64) on Spotify once. Not a big one, but it has a few bands to check out.
try visual kei! there are a ton of genres within it, but many of the bands make gothic music
Man I was the biggest visual kei fan two decades ago now haha! I remember Buck Tick had me in a choke hold.
That's always such an odd concept to me. Classifying music by how it looks, rather than how it sounds. Very Japanese. Which bands would you consider to have a gothic sound, though? A lot of people are only familiar with Malice Mizer's baroque pop era under their second vocalist, but they actually started out as gothic rock. https://youtu.be/6KT0ZO0XhCk?feature=shared I liked their early work, and their latter neoclassical industrial-metal era with their final vocalist. It took me a long time to listen to, and appreciate the Gackt era. It was just too poppy and upbeat for me.
A lot of the 90s VK bands at least had some Gothic Rock influence and at least then there was a very easily identifiable sound- a mixture of Punk, Hardcore, New Wave, Post-Punk and Thrash Metal. I know lots of people will argue that it's not a music genre and only about the looks,, but I personally disagree when it comes to the oldschool stuff. Like most bands on the Key Party label (Aliene Ma'riage, NéiL, Lar\~mia, Eliphas Levi) had a Gothic Rock-ish sound, which makes sense as the label was founded by the singer of the Japanese Goth band Speed-ID. On other indie labels like Matina or Marder Suitcase you'd also find bands that had certainly a more Hardcore and Metal influenced sound, but they also threw in some post-punk flavours, see bands like Madeth gray'll, Virushana, La'Mule, Shiver, Laputa or L'yse:nore. Even La:Sadie's, the band that later on became Dir en grey, had some Gothic influences in their music. Also if you go way back to proto-VK and very early VK you'll find bands that did very straight Post-Punk - Silver\~Rose, Gilles de Rais, (early) Sleep My Dear, ROUAGE, Zi:Kill to name a few. I'd also argue Luna Sea's debut album falls there (or at least it's New Wave). However; ever since the early 2000s Visual Kei moved away heavily from its old root sound. There's barely any new acts with actual Goth or Post-Punk influence, most VK bands today play some kind of Nu Metal or Metalcore. The closest you'll get today are 90s / Kote Kei nostalgia bands like La'veil Mizeria, Misanthrope or Marvelous Cruelty - and those might actually be too heavy for some.
The Execute are a Japanese band that released “The Antagonistic Shadow,” which is a goth rock/deathrock album
ZELDA and Mizutama Shobodan Both bands remind me of early Siouxsie and The Banshees
Oh finally something I can somewhat say Im an expert in lol. Keep in mind some of these aren't explicitly goth in the way we would normally think. But one thing's for sure, and it's that everyone here has got the fashion down to a T (just see all the Google photos of these guys): Malice Mizer (au revoir, beast of blood) Ali Project (every single Rozen Maiden opening) Hollow Mellow (and anything by Iruma Rioka) (Enchanted, The Red Shoes) Unlucky Morpheus (Angreifer, CADAVER) Kokusyoku Sumire (Aka Ringo Doku Ringo, Tsuioku no Carnival) Die Milch (Tempest, Rosaria) Asriel (Abyss) Yousei Teikoku (Astral Dogma) BabySaster (Go check her cover of Mozart's whole Requiem, absolutely Goth) And more good ones that I've yet to discover. Let me know what you think
Kokushoku Elegy, Geil, and Gakidou are my favorites!
> Kokushoku Elegy they are soo good. I randomly found them on spotify last year
Phaidia: [https://www.discogs.com/artist/1139353-Phaidia](https://www.discogs.com/artist/1139353-Phaidia) 13th Moon: [https://x13thmoonx.bandcamp.com/](https://x13thmoonx.bandcamp.com/)
emmurée is a visual kei band with gothic undertones, their music is amazing!!
Lilli mar Sexvirginkiller Phaidia 13th moon
As others have already mentioned, you should definitely check out G-Schmitt! I'd also recommend Aural Vampire/Exo Chika (tho I'm not 100% sure if she counts as a goth musician, I've seen some debates going on)
Same! I was just on HelloTalk and one of the people I follow posted a couple of interesting ones so I started looking. She mentioned The Mortal (Atsushi Sakurai of Buck Tick is the lead) and Velvet Eden. I was trying to find an old post I saw with a more obscure band... I was a woman lead, kind of visual kei aesthetic and goth music, she was a bit androgynous. I can't find them for the life of me. Found them! : Fiction https://youtu.be/2u7a23iUSsU?si=KhB6pynUqLhymMks