actually many of us, japanese metalheads think like this.
cos this band is just a boring follower from 90's V-kei bands and they are recently ripping things from death metal music.
i really can't agree that they are showing up on many metal festivals overseas, even though
their fanbase are mostly creepy fan girls.
the singer kyo has a horrible voice and technique for a death metal singer and the guitarit, bassist, drummer are also horrible for metal musicians!

I used to like them when I was a teenager, who thought listening to japanese bands made me a unique flower.

I lost interest when they started shifting to a more metal sound though. Because as you said, they are a bad metal band; decent as a prog rock band, but shitty shitty metal.

The worst part is that their fan girls have never cared about what kind of music they make, as long as Kyo screams about killing something and the other members pose and look cute.

Most Japanese music is really weeaboo, they made some great hardcore in the 80s though.

Good Japanese heavy music is stuff like Sigh, Galneryus, a decent amount of X-Japan, and some others. In other words, bands who can play and sing first, rather than just preen for the girls and sound like a monotone lounge singer (99.9999 percent of visual kei). Loudness is also great for the 80s metal sound, along with peers like the excellent Earthshaker.

I love Visual Kei and Dir en Grey is a pasttime favorite of mine from around 2005. I'll have to disagree with you fine gents.