i realized it has been much too long since i loredumped anything interesting

if it wasnt immediately obvious, a lot of the themes and doodads and whatnots in my worlds are inspired immensely by music, usually the heavier experimental scenes. as a result, many of the characters are themed by music if not actively in a band. in grey sessions, the band is more relevant to the story than something like mind vomit where the main crew is in the band moreso just as a fun character feature. i was going to write about the band in grey sessions when i realized that it would be pretty friggin hard to write about it without spoiling anything. alas, i must write about rawhide, the not-so-relevant band consisting of tsuru, luo, yama, shinsei and sometimes jai, most of which i have yet to introduce, and the solo project go!go!goch lead by luo.

i think it would be fun to first explain the music-inspired themes of the members before i get into the bands.
if it wasnt immediately a tell by how her everything functions, tsuru is inspired by both goregrind and harsh noise. by goregrind im more specifically aiming for niche subgenres like the frognoise of phyllomedusa. just some total audio bullshit that makes you rethink what led you to listen to such a stupid set of noises. shes the bassist, and i imagine the tone of her bass guitar is similar to the tone of impetigo, if not even more drowned in noise.
luo, who has not been introduced, is inspired by stereotypical virgin loser music nerd bands like radiohead, panchiko and weezer. that "erm... actually" type shit. hes the guitarist, and he generally deals in light distortion.
yama, whos mother is the purest form of goth rock, is mostly inspired by goth in appearance, but personality and interest wise inspired by black metal and its variants. (dungeon synth, black ambient etc.) hes the drummer, and has a raw and drowned tone and fast playing style similar to most black metal.
shinsei is probably the least easily descriptable genre inspiration as far as im aware. i haven't come across any one genre that classifies heavenly metal in the way im looking for. either way, he's mostly inspired by the novembers, more leaning towards the sound of their albums zeitgeist and angels. also a little bit of shoegaze here and there, something like kairon; irse! and lsd and the search for god. also some maudlin of the well in there too. maybe also some blackshape??????? hes a mess. anyways, hes the second guitarist and mostly plays in lighter cleaner tones with some reverb or shimmer mixed in. sometimes some very light distortion.
jai isnt a permanent fixture of rawhide but he does play with them from time to time to add some more instrumental variation. appearance wise, i was mostly thinking just regular alternative or grunge, nothing too special. he plays sitar, similar to the style of kikagaku moyo. i havent put much thought into him because he is mostly a pretty minor character.

all this comes to form a strange combination of heavy and light metal, but i will say, because of the absolute volume at which she plays, tsuru has the most influence on the band's genre and sound. the bass tends to take the spotlight meanwhile the two guitars drone around in the background. they have a few different styles, but it tends to lean towards heavy experimental metals. live, their performances are played at extreme volumes similar to the live performances of les rallizes denudes and is generally attended more by turned devils and helldevils rather than regular surface devils because of their ability to withstand higher amounts of volume without ear damage. also because they primarily play at a diner exclusive to turned devils and helldevils.
with the state spirit is in, it is hard to find and afford musical equipment, let alone high-quality ones. because of this, many of their instruments and equipment are stolen or improvised by tsuru, as her devilism makes it extremely easy to steal things and get away with it.

luo is obviously the music nerd of the group with his telling music taste, so naturally he has his own solo post rock project called go!go!goch. bit of a jumpscare, but shinsei gets beheaded by asmodeus and his head is sent to luo's door in a cardboard box. as a result, many of the themes and lyrics are about that day, and the experience of losing one of his best friends. very sad.

oh yeah i forgot to mention tsuru also has a solo harsh noise project. basically hanatarash. no further explanation needed.

gah.