Originally Posted by Fire~Mustang

Here is a great article about visual kei that was overlooked: http://www.proxemics.net/honyaku/history.html

You are right that many subgenres of visual kei exist. But let's go over a little more about the sound of VK.

You see, there are 2 definitions of VK among japanese, the type of band and the type of music.

Musically, Visual Kei is seen by most japanese to be goth rock. The lyrics and the themes of most VK songs and albums are usually in the gothic vein.

While many forms of VK exist today, there did, at one point (recall the article above) exist a primary, dominant, definitive style of VK music that was mostly associated with the image. The goth/metal/punk hybrid is evident in a large majority of the 2nd wave (early-mid 90s) VK bands, manifesting in early incarnations of Shazna, Penicillin, Pierrot, Baiser, Malice Mizer, L'arc~en~Ciel (Dune-era), Luna Sea, D'erlanger, ZI:KILL, Dir en Grey, Rouage, Due'le Quartz, Da'vid Shito:aL, Deshabillz, Lareine, Laputa, etc, etc. and much of it (the later stuff moreso) was majorly influenced by early Kuroyume (no one ever succeeded in duplicating the style of more sophisticated bands like Luna Sea and L'arc). Their first full indies release, Nakigara Wo (a highly reccomended work of VK music) helped give rise to the dark underground culture of VK. Yet, many of these co-existing bands each had their own style done within the common elements of what was then the typical VK style (now known as the traditional form) up until it's death in 1999-2000. Less-typical bands were groups like Velvet Eden, or Fiction but they were the exception and not the rule. X Japan's first release may serve some relevance as well, but it did not shape the majority of what followed. GLAY represents the so-called 'pop side of visual kei', yet, at the same time, GLAY did not and still does not have a strong influence on the VK scene, neither do most of the exceptional 'poppy' groups. These groups are more influential to mainstream or non-VK groups but have never had much impact in defining VK's primarily gothic culture.
Many offshoots of the traditional form exist, but artistically it is mostly a deceased genre.

The online japan-based shop Third Stage refers to VK primarily as "Japanese Gothic Rock". Several other major stores do the same thing when you search the database.

http://www.vkdb.jp <- The japanese visual kei database. Good page to see what many would classify as visual kei.

By the way, I have on my harddrive literally hundreds of VK albums and singles. If you're looking for one, I may have it. Both first, second, and third wave bands.