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The 90s are often looked back fondly as possibly the zenith of the visual kei scene. Of course, the movement originated in the 80s but the scene exploded in bands and expanded into many different styles by the end of that decade. The subsequent decade ended up producing many bands whom were massive commercial successes at their peak. There were a lot of substyles in visual kei in that decade (including thrash metal actually), but the one that was probably the most prevalent/popular was the unique gothic/post-punk sound that emerged. Despite my love for super flashy, technical/progressive thrash/death metal (and what not), this particular scene of music that emerged in the 90s is actually one of my favorite music scenes and is home to several albums I adore. They embodied dark, brooding sound music that the 90s was typically known for without mostly aging poorly like a particular scene that started in Seattle around the same time.
Despite there being several other excellent 90s visual kei releases (*cough* early Aion, After Image, Dir en grey, etc. *cough*), I'm only going to focus this thread on the bands that belonged to the this specific substyle. I've so far described it as "gothic/post-punk" which is quite vague but intentionally so. Some of these bands were surprisingly very heavy and full of metal influences while others stuck to more a commercial-friendly "j-rock" sound their entire career. The main thing that these guys all have in common (aside from the look of course) was the gothic/melancholic mood and atmosphere that permeated their music. Many of the musicians in this scene were surprisingly technically talented and many crafted unique, characteristic sounds.
The usual progression of the lifecycle of these bands are what you'd expect. The early indie days had their most experimental, unusual output. As the band gained popularity, the music tamed a bit and the guys would clean up their crazy visual kei look for the mainstream. If they managed to get the major record deal, expect the visual kei image to go away and the sound to change to more mainstream j-rock an album or two down the road. Of course, there's always exceptions but as a general rule, you can certainly expect the early work to be the most interesting and compelling.
I don't claim to be a total expert (there's at least one glaring omission*), but I do own a ton of albums in this style. I've been revisiting them lately, remembering how great this stuff is, and felt like writing up this thread. To keep things interesting, I'm just going to stick to one release per band. You should certainly own several Luna Sea albums, but it's not fair to have them take up half of the list. Anyways, this is just a top ten list (from worst to best) of the bands/releases I happen to find the most intriguing and noteworthy.
One of the earliest albums in this style (1989 technically but hey close enough to the 90s). Probably preceded by only Buck-Tick. I do wish D'erlanger put out at least one album in their original heavy metal style, but La vie en rose is not bad at all. It's got a strong punk attitude behind with some flashes of the metal sound from their demo days. There's some creative, unusual tracks like INDECENT-TWO-PERSONZ that use some of stranger rhythms and melodies. I personally think many of the bands that came after D'erlanger outdid them, but La vie en rose is still an enjoyable album.
Shiver is probably about a D-tier band in terms of popularity. Likely the slight connection to Merry (Yuu started Merry afterwards) is the only reason they aren't totally obscure. That being said, I do find this short mini-album to be exceptional. I love the absurdly loud bass tone and the dark, heavy sounding guitars. The music has some fairly metal leanings with some d-beat driven moments and all that good stuff. Short and sweet, but I'd say this qualifies as a genuine hidden gem.
Fanatic Crisis would quickly turn to commercial-friendly pop rock, but the debut is fantastic. 太陽の虜 has some really aggressive drumming (I think there's even some double bass at times) and riffing. It hits that really strange grey area of gothic/post-punk/metal that only bands from the 90s nailed down.
Strictly speaking, DUNE isn't my favorite L'Arc~en~Ciel album (that would be the next one, Tierra), but DUNE is the sole album that they released in this style. It's also while they were still visual kei. Nevertheless, it's an excellent post-punk/j-rock release. All of the songs are very catchy and well composed. Plus, Tetsuya immediately stands out as one of the most skilled bassists in the scene.
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I thought about being edgy and putting Memoire DX instead (which is a more consistent album), but I can't leave this one off. Although merveilles has some blemishes (the handful of odd electronic tracks), the highs on this album are so good that you can ignore its faults. The blend of the gothic-y synths, neoclassical-sounding lead guitars, the bouncing bass lines, and Gackt's voice (that everyone proceeded to copy later) is just perfect. The opening riff of Bel Air is unforgettable and the other proper tracks on the album are also timeless. Malice Mizer would have one final gasp of breath later, but this is their peak for me (Mana never recovered sadly).
Dead End always had some weird gothic stuff in their sound, but this album sees the band abandoning their heavy metal roots and making more of a gothic/post-punk album similar to D'erlanger's La vie en rose (Zero came out only a few months later). In contrast to D'erlanger, I personally think ZERO is a much more interesting album. Despite the dramatic change in style, You's guitar work is just as good as it ever was. Stuff like Hyper Desire and Baby Blue are way weirder songs than you'd normally expect on an album like this. It may not be metal like their other albums, but it's still damn good.
Penicillin is one of those bands that is safely in the "only the early stuff is good" category for me. They got popular two or three albums into their career, and the songs I heard all sounded boring to me. That's why I was surprised to discover that God Of Grind (originally released as Penicillin Shock; confusing stuff) was actually good. The band was very heavy and even a bit thrashy then. There's some really nice soloing and fast-tempo stuff on that album. The follow up to this album, Missing Link, isn't bad either but it takes out all the heaviness and is much tamer and safer in comparison. After that, you might as well just forget they ever existed. Hands down, God of Grind is their best release and surprisingly enough a gem from the 90s.
Unquestionably one of the all time greats of visual kei. Even if Luna Sea is officially washed up now (I still blame Yoshiki), the genius of the early albums cannot be denied. I personally adore the first four Luna Sea albums, but time has proven Mother to be my favorite of the bunch (with the self-titled debut barely trailing). The band was always hard to describe. They had the post-punk/new-wave influences going on at the time. They also could write surprisingly complex songs and never rocked too hard but definitely could rock hard when the time called for it. Mother stands out for just having amazing songs from start to finish.
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Kuroyume bounced all over the place stylistically throughout their career. 迷える百合達 ～Romance of Scarlet～ is another one of those changes in their sound, but I still consider it to be their brightest flash. Their previous stuff was all indies releases which was significantly heavier and less accessible (and also really good). 迷える百合達 ～Romance of Scarlet～ was the band's major label debut and it cleaned up their sound to be more friendly, but the quality of the music didn't suffer at all. Shin shifted away from heavier riffing to more melancholic, atmospheric chord progressions. More importantly, Hitoki stepped big time on bass guitar and gave the performance of his lifetime by weaving all sorts of complex, intricate basslines into every song. Kiyoharu sounds possibly the best he ever has behind the mike as well. The production of the album is quite perfect with how it emphasizes every instrument (especially the bass tone which is just glorious).
La'Cryma Christi were quite possibly the single most unique band to emerge from this entire scene. They're an incredibly hard band to describe. It's gothic/post-punk tinged rock of course, but Hiro's lead guitar work is extremely characteristic and outstanding. The combination of Hiro's lead work with Koji's rhythm guitars weaved an otherworldy atmosphere over their music. Taka is an above average VK vocalist as well which helped nail the choruses down. La'cryma Christi would streamline their sound later in their career and become less genius, but the first two albums are nothing short of amazing. Sculpture of Time gets the pick over Dwellers of a Sandcastle mainly for being longer (i.e. more of a good thing is good). Both albums are essentially equal in quality although Sculpture of Time has my personal favorite La'cryma Christi song, 偏西風, which just oozes sadness and soul in a good way.