Reader's Question: What do you think the future of j-indies will be in 2011?

If it hasn't been said already, I'm addicted to young visual kei bands. I always feel like I have to prove to the world that there are good indies bands out there and hopefully Muddy Cult can be a great place to promote them in their growth.

Now 2010 has been a harsh time for some of my favorite j-indies bands with the dreaded "D" word: disbandment. A few examples are nil delete heads, VALLUNA, SKULL, kalvary, Dio - distraught overlord, and [_vani;lla]. They were all great and had major potential! But their lives were short lived. Sadly, bands with repetitive melodies, mediocre vocal talent, but great visual appeal live on and keep sprouting up like weeds in the beautiful visual kei garden. These weeds will continue to suffocate good talent and distract fans with their "flowery" appearance. I'm sure this cycle will continue, but contrast is good. You can't love everything or else the genre will be boring!

With the end of great indies bands, new promising ones are born and prepare themselves to debut in the coming year. First example are the former members of Dio -distraught overlord. VII-Sense is fronted by a well known face in the vk scene, Shaura (a.k.a Juka) and has been producing more and more amazing music with each release. Mikaru already has a stunning, deep voice that is very memorable with Dio fans, so digras has major potential with him as vocalist and would be even more amazing if Denka backs him up on drums once more. Lastly, Ivy has teamed up with ex-Lolita23q's vocalist Sou in Remming which shall be an interesting combination.

Then there has been name and label changes. SINCREA disbanded and have formed FEST VAINQUEUR which should be just as good if not better. As.milk has been doing well as L~Lotus~ and Like Absolute Myself (now known as lam.) are on the same boat. ROACH cannot do wrong as they have always been true to themselves. Lastly, there have been member changes that will possibly benefit the band's growth like Sizna joining Moran. They're already great friends and have a somewhat similar style about them. The same goes for Soshi, ex-vocalist of Watashime Slug, joining oshare kei band Lolita23q.

I predict that j-indies bands will be getting a gradual makeover for the better to balance out the tragedies of 2010. There's so much great talent waiting to burst in 2011 and I'm excited to be immersed in it all over again! Now as a genre as a whole, I have different thoughts on that.

Feel free to ask me question any time by sending them to zetsu_nightmare2.0.9[at]hotmail[dot]com and titling it "Cult Question(s)"!