Is the GazettE Really the Decay of Visual Kei?

I don't know about you but every time I flip open SHOXX magazine there is some crazy shit going on.  I'm like "Do you even have a concept?"  A lot of it is merely fanservice or pure shock value.  I blame it on the fact that this is the music industry today.  We're very into the glam factor and the extreme in-your-face type of things.  I may not be very into it but a lot of people are buying into it.  It's very frustrating to see that people younger than me are buying into the culture and worshiping it on a pedestal.  There's so much crap on the radio and on TV.  The ideas are very short-lived and are usually detrimental in one way or another.  One example is music and lyrics about partying being broadcasted constantly and occupying most of the airtime.  It's ok to have party songs every now and then, but it looks like everyone is making party songs nowadays.  You can't party everyday.

So what does the shock value in visual kei, the party songs, and the GazettE have to do with each other?  These three are a product of the music industry trying to make lots of money within a short period of time and hoping to continue this cycle.  The GazettE was the first band that officially introduced me and enticed me into the world of visual kei.  Through the different GazettE eras, you can see the various trends in visual kei and a reflection of what could be considered mainstream j-rock.  The GazettE is a mainstream rock band that continued to dominate listeners with not so mainstream music.  Isn't that kind of contradicting in itself?  Many have applauded the GazettE's unique sound and effort that fueled the band's popularity over the years.  In comparison to what would be considered mainstream rock, the GazettE really stand out.  They had a very consistent style and were very experimental on each of their albums.  It is fairly easy to distinguish the GazettE from other bands singing about decay, filth, and uncomfortableness. 

Their latest album, Beautiful Deformity, made me feel disappointed.  I sampled the whole album and I didn't like it too much.  The songs "Fadeless" and "Inside Beast" were the two that were used to promote the sale of the album and probably the only two songs that was reminiscent of the GazettE's previous albums.  They were very experimental in their album Toxic which started adding in electronic influence.  Beautiful Deformity also sprinkled bits of electronica in some songs like Inside Beast while still preserving the hard rock.  Some songs like "Redo"and "Last Heaven" are ballads like the popular "Cassis".  I think this album is easy to listen to for new listeners of the GazettE and overall was very safe.  They didn't do anything out of the box or was radically different than before.  Some parts of the ballad-like songs drifted into a bit more pop sounding.  It's not the worst thing ever made, but I don't think this was their best work.  Nothing really stood out to me and it felt like the producers just told the band to spit out repetitive themes done before. 

Lot's of people use or see the GazettE as a model for today's visual kei and it is wrong to do so.  They may be an influential  group, but they are not the only ones doing it.  This supposed decay that everyone is talking about is a decline in creativity.  Has the "genre" of visual kei really decayed?  I don't think so.  It is a quickly evolving movement and it's safe to say that it's grown to be more of a fashion trend.  Visual kei pioneers, X Japan, had the idea in mind to walk on stage as if anime characters walked out a TV.  It can't survive today with the same mentality and it needs to find a reason to live if it is to continue in the music industry.