Line #56 Music/SeikimaII


1	[[quoteright:281:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/seikima-ii-281x300_7092.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:281:"The demon that devours holiness has resurrected again!!!"]]
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4	SEIKIMA-II (pronounced ''Seikimatsu'') is probably the first and only band to successfully fuse VisualKei (as well as help create the genre) with a slightly different take on BlackMetal, possibly also being one of the few truly melodic BlackMetal bands in the process. It formed in 1982, around the same time as many of the other bands that would form what would become known as VisualKei such as Music/XJapan and Music/BuckTick were either forming or in the early stages of inspiration.
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6	The band would go on to be one of the most highly successful metal acts in Japan, with sporadic ongoing activities even after it had to officially disband at the end of the century per its mythos. There was also, in TheNineties, at least one interview on CNN world with Demon Kakka, and the band inspired ''many'' a ShoutOut including an appearance of "Kogure" as a character in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', and Manga/DetroitMetalCity and its live-action films, which primarily revolves around a band that is an {{Expy}} of SEIKIMA-II.
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8	! Current Members (as of the 2010 and 2011 reunion gigs (All members use StageNames):
9	* His Excellency Demon Kogure/Demon Kakka: vocals
10	* Empire Magistrate Jail O'hashi: guitar
11	* Staff General Luke Takamura III: guitar
12	* Doctor Xenon Ishikawa: bass
13	* His Imperial Highness Raiden Yuzawa: drums
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15	!Former members:
16	* His Majesty Damian Hamada: guitar
17	* Majo Ryoko: keyboards
18	* Giantonio Babayashi: guitar
19	* Zeed Iijima: drums
20	* [[AerithAndBob Gandhara Sangeria Tigris-Euphrates Kaneko]]: guitar
21	* Jagy Furukawa: drums
22	* Zod Hoshijima: bass
23	* Captain Ace Shimizu: guitar, drums
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25	!!Studio Albums
26	* ''Seikima II - Akuma ga Kitarite Heavy Metal'' (1985)
27	* ''The End of the Century'' (1986)
28	* ''From Hell with Love'' (1986)
29	* ''Big Time Changes'' (1987)
30	* ''The Outer Mission'' (1988)
31	* ''You Guy!'' (1990)
32	* ''Kyoufu no Restaurant'' (1992)
33	* ''Ponk!!'' (1994)
34	* ''Mephistopheles no Shouzou'' (1996)
35	* ''News'' (1997)
36	* ''Move'' (1998)
37	* ''Living Legend'' (1999)
38	* ''Bloodiest'' (2022)
39	----
40	! SEIKIMA-II Provides Examples of:
41	* AerithAndBob: Inverted: Luke Takamura and Damian Hamada are the most ''normal'' StageNames.
42	* ApocalypseCult: Zig-zagged and subverted like crazy - in the band's mythos, it wants to propagate {{Satan}} through HeavyMetal. Except, SatanIsGood, so it's actually an anti-Apocalypse claiming to be an apocalypse.
43	* AwesomeAnachronisticApparel: Just ''one part'' of the band's love for CostumePorn.
44	* AxCrazy: Sometimes a feature of the band's lyrics, though subverted as often as it is played straight.
45	* BadassBookworm: His Excellency Demon Kogure/Demon Kakka, both onstage and offstage, is this. He's a metal singer - but he is also a polyglot (he can speak fluent English and Spanish as well as Japanese), a legitimate journalist and writer, and one of the most intelligent people within VisualKei.
46	* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: What the band claims to be - highly evolved hyperdimensional space demons called "Akuma," sent to Earth to promote [[RockMeAsmodeus Satan via rock and roll]].
47	* CostumePorn: One of the most famous bands for it in VisualKei: their costuming and inventiveness in it was second to none at the time, even if at times they did seem like clones of Music/{{Kiss}} at points. Even now, if you want to look at some of the more heavily costumed visual kei bands, they are still right up there with Music/MaliceMizer and Music/{{Versailles}} and others that would come after them.
48	* CoverVersion: His Excellency Demon Kogure/Kakka covered Music/{{Queen}}'s ''Bohemian Rhapsody.''
49	* DarkerAndEdgier / LighterAndSofter - The discography jumps back and forth between the two quite a bit. ''Akuma ga Kitarite Heavy Metal'' is straight-ahead heavy metal, but the following albums added more and more elements of arena rock and ballads. By the point of ''The Outer Mission'' and ''Yuugai'', their sound had become quite pop friendly. ''Kyoufu no Restaurant'' was a deliberate return to the darker, heavier sound of their early days... which was followed by the even MORE pop-friendly ''Ponk!!'' and a SECOND "back to basics" rock album ''Mephistopheles no Shouzou.'' The cycle repeated once more with the lighter ''News'' and ''Move'' preceding the dark and heavy swansong ''Living Legend.''
50	* DenserAndWackier: Their approach to BlackMetal -- being a StealthParody of the [[RockMeAsmodeus pro-occult]] attitude associated with the genre.
51	* DrunkenSong: ''Chinese Magic Herb'' is sang in the key/tone of one of these. It's actually more likely the audio version of a StonerFlick.
52	* EarthShatteringKaboom: ''Big Time Changes'' PV, in which the Earth explodes in a massive nuclear blast [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext then reforms as an apple]].
53	* GodAndSatanAreBothJerks: Sometimes this trope is played with - one of the best examples of it is the ''Big Time Changes'' PV, where that board game is war in the world and it eventually leads to an EarthShatteringKaboom.
54	* GratuitousJapanese - Parodied in "Tatakau Nipponjin", where the verses are a jumble of random Japanese words foreigners would likely know.
55	* GrowingTheBeard: BIG TIME CHANGES marked a noticeable difference in songwriting and guitar soloing, due to being the first album Luke Takemura played on.
56	* KayfabeMusic: Demon Kogure and his band are demons seeking to take over the world with their music.
57	* RockMeAsmodeus: The band's mythos is all about this - and playing with it ''in every way possible,'' to the point of going around in a circle and being almost StealthParody of the concept. Being Japanese in TheEighties (where playing with Satanic and Left Hand Path themes would not draw fire either from Christian MoralGuardians and get them ran out of town and arrested in the panic, or from occult or BlackMetal StopHavingFunGuys assuming their work was insulting parody or somehow incorrectly portraying something or other or not metal enough) and the enabled them to create both a deep mythos and very interesting and intelligent lyrics based around the theme. One great example is the song ''Adam's Apple.''
58	* SatanIsGood: A common theme here, though it may be ''any one'' of the ways of PlayingWith that trope depending on the song or the performance.
59	* ScareChord: An absolutely classic example comes at the end of "midori iro no ame," which sounds like a peaceful neoclassical instrumental ballad... until the ScreamingWoman at the end.
60	* ShoutOut: Lots of them. Manga/DetroitMetalCity is probably the most obvious of them all, but there was also "Kogure" in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' as well as quite a few others - if a band in a Japanese work after TheEighties is wearing full-face makeup and incredibly elaborate costumes, odds are it is either inspired by or an {{expy}} of Music/{{Kiss}}, SEIKIMA-II, or both.
61	* StealthParody: Of Music/{{Kiss}}, and arguably of every other BlackMetal band.
62	* {{Symbolism}}: A very, very, VERY big thing for SEIKIMA-II. The amount of symbolism both in lives and PV's is intricate, sometimes explicit, sometimes complex, [[MindScrew sometimes some combination of all of it]]. Apple symbolism is VERY common (showing up with at least two songs, ''Adam's Apple'' the live of which involves the band throwing apples at each other and the audience, and ''Big Time Changes'' where the nuked world transforms into an apple.)

Context Music / SeikimaII