So, I can't do a full one until i hear all the singles this year has to offer (that I'm interested in) which aren't available yet. I just got VanessA's single, so that only leaves Ap(r)il, -OZ-, chariots, and xTRiPx singles to hear.

Anyway, let's begin. 2008 was a big year for bands that were already big and a big year for new bands. I'd like to start off by talking about big album releases:

Antic Cafe released their 3rd full album this year called "Gokutama Rock Cafe." Antikku was on top of their game for this album, with amazing songs like "S*B*Y" and "Daybreak," it was a very pop-oriented album. It also included the 3 singles released before the album, and all their b-sides as bonus tracks. Another big album release was Girugamesh's "MUSIC." It was so big because Giru had not released any singles before the album, making it a total of around 12 new tracks! The most outstanding being "puzzle" and "evolution." Dir en grey released their 7th full-length and 3rd major album this year "UROBOROS." Having only 2 singles before-hand the album had 9 all new songs, or somewhere around there. This album's best songs were, in my opinion, "Gaika, Chinmoku ga Nemuru Koro" and "Reiketsu Nariseba." The hype was all because of a "new style" where they would use religious themes and more keyboard type instrumental sounds, but i didn't pick up on too many of those. BLOOD also released a new album this year called "The Reaper Behind Me," which, in my opinion, failed miserably. The best songs on this album were "Dead-Hearted" and "BLOOD ~More Sake Mix~" Which weren't any of the new songs. The album had a total of 22 songs, but only 5 brand new ones. all others were remixed old songs. NoGoD released "Mugenkyou" back in April and this was the release that really got me hooked on them. All the other songs I heard by them before this album were trash, but this album had greats like "Shirasagi" and, my personal favorite "Saikou no Sekai." Miyavi released 2 albums this year, and even though I'm not a fan of myv, I enjoyed these releases. "This iz the Japanese Kabuki Rock" was a decent album, with songs like "JPN PRIDE" and "Hi no Hikari sae Todokanai Kono Basho de." whereas his most recent album of remixes "[Room No. 382]" was amazing. His remixes of "Jibun Kakumei" and "Dear my Friend" really caught my attention. Even though Dio's new album took forever to make it to the net (and for that matter to the people who bought it), it was entirely worth the wait. The new version of "Last Dance" and "GOD Forsaken" were absolutely flawless, along with great new songs like "INSTRUMENT OF HELL" and "Dantourai wa Dare ni Tameni Yureru" as the Hardcore songs on the album and "HAUNTING" and "silence of sorrow" as the more "Carry Dawn" themed songs. Nightmare released their best album since "the WORLD Ruler" called "Killer Show" featuring songs like "White Room," "Cloudy Dayz," and "Konoha." And new songs like "Pandora" and "the LAST SHOW." And now, my vote for best album of the year: Versailles' "NOBLE." The album featured the classic "The Revenant Choir" and the previously released "Aristocrat's Symphony," "Zombie," and "Suzerain." As well as amazing new songs like "Antique in the Future," "Windress," and "History of the Other Side." Good job, Versailles, keep up the good work.

Let's move onto minis shall we?

This year didn't bring a multitude of good mini albums. In fact most of them tanked, like Megaromania's "Birth of an Idea." But there were 3 specifically good minis this year that must be brought to everyone's attention. The first is Oyuugi Wagamama-dan x [PaRADEis]'s mini "the other side of paradeis," which featured the title track, "Ame no Nioi" and "Koerenai Kisetsu" as the best songs from the 5 song mini. Please take note that all their other songs, in my opinion, tank it big time. This is a first that I've ever liked their music, but boy did i like this mini! The second is Rentrer en Soi's "Megiddo" and to be honest, wasn't as good as my expectations, but "Last Scene" was a good song as well as "Baptism" "Crusade" and "Damnation." However, "Metempsychosis" fell off for me in a way because it just seemed.... useless. My vote for best mini of the year goes to Matenrou Opera for their near-perfect "Gilia." "Plastic Cell," "Sara", and "Kokuu Kara no Tegami" being the best songs on there. Let's hope that their first '09 single "acedia" is better than their last 2 singles......

2008 had a seemingly endless amount of debut bands and artists. Let's take the time to review some of them.

Heisei Ishin is among my top favorite for this year because of their unique sound from all other UCP bands. They aren't that pseudo-hardcore you've come to expect from Dali or Siva, they're almost happy in sound, but also dark at the core. Their best songs released this year were Swimmy and The Butterfly. They have a mini scheduled for January called MODS and the preview for Crows is already on their OHP, and it's spectacular.

Lamina is another UCP band that debuted this year, however they are very generic-hardcore and all their songs seem to sound the same. Another UCP band who debuted this year was Zodia, who was amazing until they decided to disband.... their best song was Hatenaki Zetsubou Kuchihateru Taiyou and In the Dark wasn't that bad either. E'm ~grief~ also debuted onto UCP this year with the song "Eternal Melody" which was just about perfect, however the other 3 songs they released this year could have been a lot better. But weren't bad. They also have a mini set for early '09. Megaromania debuted this year with a total of 9 songs on 3 singles. This was a bad decision. Shoving too many songs down the throats of fans at one time, especially at a debut,is wrong. I couldn't get a grasp on any of those songs, except maybe God of Megaromania. Looking back, this band wasn't as bad as Lamina, but they could use work. Their song "Transparent Shine" caught my attention, and will therefore look into their new single in April of '09.

Ap(r)il debuted this year on the omnibus Hysteric Media Zone with 2 songs that were meh at best, but their debut single (r)ush life was really good. Their song Drops was the best on there. They were also featured on 2 other minor releases Hello, Hello, Hello, with their song "Glitter" and on the Shoxx sampler CD with the song "Switch" both very good. Their newest single "(r)everb" isn't online yet....

Other smaller bands that debuted this year that I really haven't had the time to look at: VanessA, Drop Star Shooting, among many many others.

A solo artist debuted this year everyone! Kanon Wakeshima Visual Princess, as i like to call her. Is the first, i think, solo female visual kei artist! Her debut of Still Doll was phenomonal and her follow up Suna no Oshiro was also just about perfect. She plans to release an album in February. She wins 3rd place of best new artist of '08

Seth from Moi dix Mois started a new band this year called Art Cube with members of his old band Brain Hacker. Their debut of "Suna no Hana" was flawless, with their omnibus features of "you're here..." and "A Got Confinement" as being lack-luster, their follow-up to their debut "Shitsurakuchou" was flawless.

Grave Seed, a band i've never heard of, changed their name or something, to Deluhi and became the best new band of '08. Deluhi's debut was a little not all that great, a mini called Surveillance, however their follow up, Orion Once Again, was absolutely perfect. They followed that up with a 3 month release campaign from October to December of '08 with Visvasrit (suck), Mahadeva (perfect), and Jagannath (semi-perfect) I hope they continue to release songs like "Living Dead" and "Hybrid Truth" and stop doing shit like "Freedom" and "Baby Play"

There were also a couple of unfortunate disbandments.

Metis Gretel disbanded and left us with the best of album "The Scene of Transmigration" which was not that great a best album, it was all old songs. which usually is what a best of album is but... Anyway, The singer and lead guitarist are now in Megaromania and the rhythm guitarist was most recently in a session band for Juka.

Juka left us with Seventh Sense, which had a new song on it called Zephyrus, which unfortunately wasn't all that great. However there are rumors of his return to the music scene, which i cant wait for. He was featured in a session band with the rhythm guitarist for Metis Gretel

Ruvie left us with the mini album "from end." which was amazing. They picked many good songs including "hoshikuzu" one of my favorites. I'm not sure any of the members of this band have plans of coming back to music as of yet.

NoveLis left us this year after their release of their first album back in may. Some of the members are featured in a session band, but i dont think that anything they do will match the awesomeness of NoveLis

Rentrer en Soi was the most disappointing disbandment this year. They have already gone extremely far and could've gone so much farther. Their best of album, Ain Soph Aur, was spectacular and they left us with 2 new songs, Stay Gold and Zenkeiiro..., both amazing songs.

There were many many many PVs made this year, but only 2 of them really shined in my eyes:

Versailles' Aristocrat's Symphony. 'nuff said.

12012's Aitai Kara... Along with being a beuatifully written and sung song, the PV was very pretty. It was like a mini anime! With real people! i loved it, it was very spring-timey, just like Taiyou and Merry Go Round. Ahhhh i cant wait for spring.

This concludes Part 1. Be back eventually for part 2! which will all be made of single-talk!