I skipped so many months of monthly picks in 2016. I need to keep this up in 2017! You all know how much I love my Japanese metal bands. This list will not be short of them. Here's the first monthly pick of the year.
To be honest, I wanted to do a monthly pick in December, but it didn't happen because my package never arrived. I ordered some CDs and I hoped to review them when I got the physical copy. The holidays rolled along and decided to delay them. Given that it is shipped from overseas, my wait is extremely long. It's been over a month and these CDs finally arrived.
Karyoubinga by Onmyouza
I don't know how popular Onmyouza is overseas, but I do feel they are underrated in the music community which was why I was glad to know that Syu of Galneryus was a fan of their works. Even Galneryus is slowly building up a larger fan base and I really hope they tour overseas someday. Karyoubinga are celestial beings recognized in Buddhism as mythical beings with an angel head and a bird's body associated with music. For the cover, Kuroneko was used to portray Karyoubinga which I found very fitting because her voice is very celestial-like. In the opening track titled "Karyoubinga", Kuroneko's voice overlaps with her own voice creating a trance-like sound at the very beginning. As the song progressed, it reminded me a lot from their previous albums though I cannot pinpoint which song exactly. Maybe Raijin, but less dramatic. This album had me surprised because I expected more of a balance of vocals, but most songs featured a heavier emphasis on Kuroneko.
We have another very long song in this album. Last time it was "Yaobikuni" on Fuujin Kaikou, this time it's "Ningyou no Ori". This song is my new favorite because both Kuroneko's and Matatabi's voice weave together nicely. It has a bit of that gothic arrangement with the piano and the scales on the guitar yet it still has that distinct Onmyouza sound. The headbanger in this album would most obviously be "Nijuuni hikime ha Dokuhami" though I think "Ran" and "Shiten no Sekiyoku" would be great hard rocking songs live. Of course we have "Aisuru mono yo, shinisorae" as the promotion track for the album. As soon as I saw the title, I knew it was for Basilisk, one of my favorite anime of all time. "Kouga Ninpouchou" is still a classic, but "Aisuru mono yo, shinisorae" is a good follow up to it.
Now that I actually have the album, I realize that I ordered the first press version. Other than than the CD, it comes with a photo booklet printed on really nice thick paper and a PlayPass code which I'm guessing with my broken Japanese that it gives me access to certain things like free listening to tracks for a limited time.
You Play Hard by Syu
Ever since discovering Galneryus, I've been a big fan of Syu and his work. I follow him on social media where he keeps us fans updated with photos and things. For a while, he's been doing guitar lessons as part of his You Play Hard series. I only recently discovered that he had a You Play Hard album out which contains his original instrumentals. Ever since hearing "Grrmetal" on Youtube, I've been looking forward to any of his original guitar pieces.
Think of You Play Hard as Galneryus minus vocals. There's classic power metal riffs sprinkled throughout each of Syu's pieces. I can pick out various similar sounding Galneryus sounds in it though you can't say that it sounds entirely like "xyz". A lot of the tracks showcase Syu's signature playing being very fast and precise. His music often times is heart pumping and head banging, but almost never repetitive. Like classical music, there's always variation of the same theme.
The only tracks that were originally featured on Galneryus albums are "Chain of Distress" from Under the Force of Courage and "Endless Story" from Vetelgyus. On this album, You Play Hard, they became entirely instrumental tracks using guitar to replace the original vocal track.
Baby Who Wanders by Decays
I pre-ordered this album almost as soon as I heard about it. Since it was a pre-order, it came with a Tokuten postcard for collection purposes. Congratulations to Decays for their first major album release! I saw that the tracklist had a re-recording of "Secret Mode" and "Ai to ai wo Nokosa zu ..." and that had me excited. Now that Nakamura Ataru is contributing to the vocals, how will the pieces sound now? Plus as a Die fan, I am highly interested in how his vocals will sound in this album. Will they be heavy auto-tuned like the previous limited release of Red or Maryam? That was my biggest worry.
First impressions after listening to the songs was that it was a refined edition of their previous limited release, Red or Maryam. A couple of their songs were re-recorded with Ataru's vocals. "Red tide" became "Drifting litter". "Rana~From Future Boy~" became just "Rana". "Beautiful" became Eve. Ataru's voice has a very unique quality to it. I feel that it wavers between feminine and masculine. I especially like it in "Drifting litter" and "Eve" where the band re-composed some of the parts. The music for the most part is more on the upbeat side though it does contain a few ballads. It's very pop and rock infused with some psychedelic and groove influences.
Die's vocals acted mostly as backup or secondary to Ataru's parts and weren't very prominent throughout the album until the final track "Kirei na yubi". This was a complete surprise to me as I didn't expect him to sing a ballad. Perhaps maybe the limited single "Veludo no Tori" may have spurred him to give ballads a try. It has become one of my favorite songs on the album and it is one of the highlights of the album. The inclusion of a violinist sets it apart from other bands which reminds me of Sugizo who frequently incorporates violin into his personal works. As a debut album, I personally feel that it's not as strong as I had hoped it to be. Though I can see that certain songs may sound better when performed live.
Luna Sea Singles by Luna Sea
Like the name suggests, Luna Sea Singles is a 2 disc compilation of their most popular singles of their musical career from 1993-1996. What made me purchase this CD was because it was at a marked down price at BookOff. Seeing that there were limited to no copies for purchase online, it made more sense for me to buy it on the spot for 9 bucks. I'm not a big fan of their music to begin with, but a couple of their songs are very easy to listen to so I decided to give them a try.
"Rosier" to this day remains to be my favorite Luna Sea song. My first Luna Sea intro course came from a Luna Sea tribute album titled Luna Sea Memorial Cover Album -Re:birth-. I was a big fan of Abington Boys School at that time and desperately looked for their "Sweetest Coma Again" cover. I guess their memorial album would be an appropriate follow-up listen. Disc 1 is more focused on the hard rock while disc 2 features more ballads. I think it's important to know about Luna Sea as they were notable acts of the visual kei movement. If you like visual kei, do your research and learn about bands that came before Nocturnal Bloodlust and Mejibray. Classics like "In Silence" and "True Blue" are signatures of Luna Sea.
Tribute to Seikima-II -Akuma to no Keiyakusho- by Seikima-II
As I progress with this list, I got considerably old school. I don't know how many overseas fans still listen to them, but I guess I'm one of them. Considering how I became so easily converted simply because of a Gintama reference, it should be no surprise that their tribute album would become part of my possession. Typically I listen to tribute albums because they introduce me to more bands or allow me to rediscover bands I have already encountered. Who would have known that Sex Machineguns became number one on my list because Anchang is so hilarious in his PVs (Mori no Kuma-san!!!).
Various bands from powerhouses to some lesser known establishments cover hit Seikima-II songs and reinterpret it through their performance. The album opens with "Fire After Fire" covered by Sex Machineguns by kicking it up a notch on the hardcore scale. "Rouningyo no Yakata" covered by SHOW-YA became much softer bringing it back to 80s rock ballads. "El Dorado" had a bit of reggae sprinkled in during the bridge. "Holy Blood" straight up sounds like a Galneryus song after being covered by Galneryus. Under Jigoku Quartet's influence, "Adam's Apple" becomes more thrash and speed metal. As the tracklist continues, you see that Seikima-II's songs get modern makeovers. The last two songs, "1999 Secret Object" (hands down favorite Seikima song) and "Arcadia", are covered by non-Japanese artists, Grand Illusion and John Wetton.
I'm not sure how new listeners will react to Seikima-II. Maybe they will like the covers more than the original or the other way around. Being that a lot of their songs have English versions, it may help for international fans to get into. Meanwhile, I'll continue listening to "Mori no Kuma-san" on repeat.
No comments:
Post a Comment