Is it possible for a band to be better than the one they model themselves after? Them seems to prove it is. Starting life as a King Diamond tribute band, Them eventually started writing their own material that in my opinion surpasses anything the horror metal master ever released. It helps that Them is not blindly copying King Diamond. Just listen to their brand new ‘Return To Hemmersmoor’ and the thrash and speed metal influences of guitarists Markus Ullrich and Markus Johansson are immediately obvious, though not without the drama that conceptual works like this require. This is simply excellent heavy metal.
After listening to ‘Return To Hemmersmoor’ a couple of times, it finally dawned on me why I prefer Them over their main influence. Everything on King Diamond’s albums is in service of the narrative. This includes his vocals, which are a great atmospheric tool, but don’t offer a lot in terms of memorable melodies. For example, a melodic anthem like ‘Free’ would probably not have made the cut on one of his albums, but stands out here. Them’s Troy Norr is far more capable of carrying a strong melody. Am I saying he is a better singer? Not necessarily, but yes, he is.
Them’s main appeal to me was always their guitar work and that is no different on ‘Return To Hemmersmoor’. There aren’t many bands with an actual keyboard player in their ranks this guitar-oriented, but that hardly is a complaint. Most of the riffs on ‘Battle Blood’ would not have sounded out of place on any of Exodus’ recent albums, which makes it one of the highlights of the record. ‘Age Of Ascension’ has got some vicious, yet creative riff work going on as well, providing an energetic start of ‘Return To Hemmersmoor’. Plenty of excellent dramatic guitar harmonies are all over the album as well; ‘Hellhounds: The Harbingers Of Death’ had me sold within a second in that regard.
Most albums like ‘Return To Hemmersmoor’ are designed to be listened to in one sitting, but I always feel like concept albums like Them’s are truly great when their songs are impressive even without the context of the album. This is certainly the case with ‘Return To Hemmersmoor’. Apart from the theatrical interludes, obviously, none of the songs need their conceptual surroundings to be good. Even the more dramatic tracks, such as the excellently dynamic ‘Waken’, are simply excellent songs.
‘Return To Hemmersmoor’ did not have the immediate impact on me that ‘Manor Of The Se7en Gables’ did, but it is an equally powerful record full of dynamic heavy metal that apart from its production could easily have been from the late eighties. I’m not a fan of the plasticky snare drum sound and I have never enjoyed voice acting in music, but I tend to pay too much attention to the excellent guitar work and Norr’s melodies to let that ruin my listening experience. With ‘Return To Hemmersmoor’, Them once again proves that the step from tribute band to original material doesn’t necessarily result in lesser music.
Recommended tracks: ‘Battle Blood’, ‘Age Of Ascension’, ‘Free’
Mary’s Blood guitarist Saki may just be the most beloved female rock and metal guitarist in Japan. She recently started two new bands. First off, there is Amahiru, featuring former DragonForce bassist Frédéric Leclercq as fellow guitarist. In addition, she started Nemophila. And all of this while Mary’s Blood is still active. Plenty of reason to catch up with the guitarist.
Amahiru’s self-titled debut album will be released internationally on November 27th. The project is a full-fledged collaboration between Saki and Leclerq. “Fred and I got to know each other when Mary’s Blood was opening for DragonForce in Hong Kong“, Saki explains. “We discussed making music that combines western and eastern elements. About two years ago, our record label in Japan approached me to release a solo album, but I thought the timing was right for my collaboration with Fred. That’s when we started working on the album.”
And while that may seem inconvenient, with one band member based in France and one in Japan, Saki emphasizes that a majority of the album has been composed as a duo: “Some of the songs were already written at home by Fred and me. Maybe three or four songs. We met in Tokyo last year, where we wrote the rest of the songs in the studio and combined everything.”
Traditional
For an album that is to supposed to bring east and west together, the emphasis on ‘Amahiru’ initially appears to be strongly Japanese, as evidenced by song titles as ‘Samurai’ and ‘Ninja No Tamashii’, as well as brief melodies that appear to be taken from Japanese folk songs. “That was all Fred’s idea“, Saki admits. “He was coming up with so many of these things. The ninjas, the samurai… That was too traditional for me, but Fred said that was the most important thing to bring into the album, because those were very new things to the western audience.
Amahiru needed to be a little more modern than Mary’s Blood. Mary’s Blood is straight heavy metal for me, but Amahiru sounds more like hard rock in some parts, so the sounds should be a little more modern and have less distortion. Also, I use seven strings for Amahiru, whereas Mary’s Blood is all six string guitars.”
Fluffy
Amahiru is not Saki’s only new project. Earlier this year, the first two Nemophila singles were released. Besides Saki, Disqualia guitarist Hazuki and former Lipstick singer Mayu (formerly known as Sindy) are among the band’s members. And just like Mary’s Blood’s Eye, Mayu stands out due to her powerful, notably raw-edged voice. Where does Saki find all these singers? “During my auditions for Mary’s Blood!“, she laughs. “And Mayu was a friend of friends of mine. I didn’t know her very well, but my friend told me she was looking for other musicians to play with after she quit Lipstick.
She asked me to play a session with her, for one time only. We got together at Mayu’s session in August of last year and we quickly found out that this was going to be a good band, so we simply decided to start a band. At the time, my management was already talking to Ward Records, so they booked us to play at Metal Weekend last year. So we started composing songs that combined some little Japanese things, like in ‘Oiran’, some electronic elements and Japanese rock with lots of melodic elements.
The most important thing to us is to play hard music like metalcore, but make it ‘yurufuwa’, to give it more of a personality. A Japanese word, it means… Fluffy and smooth. That’s the concept for Nemophila. Nemophila is also a little more modern than Mary’s Blood, with the metalcore-inspired sections. Also, Mayu likes to scream sometimes. I had not worked with that before.”
Freedom
It appears to be the different styles of vocalists that are the most important distinctions between Saki’s projects. “They all have completely different ranges“, says Saki. “Archie (Wilson, Amahiru’s singer) is a man. That was the most different thing, haha! At first, I was writing songs as I usually write them, but they were often too high or very odd for Archie, so we had to change the keys.
It’s not that much different than writing for Eye or Mayu, as they are very different types of singers as well. I have to think about the type of vocals when I’m writing the songs. So it’s definitely more exciting for me to work with all these different typers of singers.
For Mary’s Blood, I write a large portion of the songs and when I write a song, I compose almost everything in the song, except for some fills that (Mary’s Blood drummer) Mari comes up with herself. n Nemophila, I write songs, but there is also a composer team, so we compose the songs at the same time and give every member the midi’s. Tamu (Nemophila drummer Murata-Tamu) has had the longest career of the band, so she always makes her own fills by herself.
I have the chance to try many different things. Mary’s Blood is a straight heavy metal band, but we have so many different styles of songs, so for my songs in Mary’s Blood I feel really free to make all the sounds that I want. In addition, Eye and (Mary’s Blood bassist) Rio love Japanese visual kei music so much. t’s a little bit different than heavy metal sounds. So with their songs, it is sometimes difficult to find the tones that match the vocals.”
Serious interest
A couple of years ago, all-female metal bands were a small hype in Japan. Saki joined Destrose in 2009 – after her later Mary’s Blood bandmates Eye and Mari had left the band already, remarkably enough – and saw the trends come and go. “When I joined Destrose, Aldious and Destrose were releasing albums and gaining popularity already. HMV in Japan started a label and an event around the same time for all-female heavy metal bands.
Also, Burrn!, the magazine, released issues about these types of bands. Serious Japanese heavy metal media started to search for female bands like these. Then, after Babymetal gained popularity, idol fanzines started noticing these female metal bands. Maybe that was the point when heavy metal fans started searching elsewhere.“
Allegedly, Aldious often faced remarks that their popularity was mainly due to how they looked and couldn’t really play in their early days. Mary’s Blood was spared most of that. “Maybe because we didn’t dress quite as colorfully“, Saki thinks aloud. “There are still people who say that they are like Babymetal, but fortunately, we never had anything like that.”
Studying songs
Saki may have described her main band as straight heavy metal, but her influences are far more diverse than that. “When I started playing guitar, I really loved Queen“, she explains. “I love Brian May. I love Brian May. Also, I was influenced by Seikima-II, a Japanese heavy metal band. I like them so much. I played so many songs of Seikima-II and Queen. I studied their songs and sounds for a long time.”
And then the most important question: can we expect Saki to pop up in Europe more often now that she started a project with European musicians? “We were actually thinking of doing some shows in Europe with Amahiru in June and July. Unfortunately, the corona virus happened. We are still planning to tour with Amahiru. Hopefully we can do it sometime next year!“
Hidden behind this atrocious album cover – admittedly, I really don’t like dogs – is one of the most pleasant musical surprises of the year. It should not be too surprising that a record featuring an all-star line-up of sorts, including Fumihiko Kitsutaka on guitar, recorded something I like, but XYZ→A’s recent albums have been quite hit and miss for me. ‘Wonderful Life’, on the other hand is one of the most enjoyable albums I have heard all year. It harkens back to a time when hardrock and heavy metal were not necessarily separate things yet without ever sounding too dated or nostalgic.
As experienced and skilled as all musicians in XYZ→A are, their greatest works are largely defined by all the members of the band being excellent songwriters. Almost all of the songs on this album have been composed by Kitsutaka and drummer Funky Sueyoshi, who obviously know how to combine memorable hooks with enough riffs to keep the guitar freaks interested. It also seems like they are intent to write for Minoru Niihara’s voice. His vocal cords may sound as worn as they do on Loudness’ recent records, but overall, Niihara sounds far more free and comfortable on XYZ→A’s material.
It really is remarkable how much variation XYZ→A packed into ‘Wonderful Life’ without the album ever sounding unfocused or messy. On the one hand, there are intense, riff-heavy power metal tracks such as ‘Chapter Has Begun’, the awesome speed metal of ‘Yusha Wo Tataeru Kane’ and the typical Kitsutaka approach – dense riffs and neoclassical themes broken up by open passages – of ‘Shijo No Takera’. But when XYZ→A goes a little lighter and hypermelodic, such as on Niihara’s jumpy poprocker ‘Hey! Hey! Hey!’ or the stellar title track, the band sounds equally powerful while skillfully avoiding the clichés that plague so many J-rock songs. Call it experience.
Some of the tracks on ‘Wonderful Life’ are surprisingly adventurous. ‘Senshitachi No Requiem’ technically counts as a ballad, but through the use of Kitsutaka’s classical guitar and the obvious nod to Deep Purple’s ‘Child In Time’ halfway through, is heavier and nowhere hear as saccharine as one would expect from a Japanese ballad. Opener ‘Give Us The Power’ is surprisingly multi-faceted as well. The AOR of ‘Here You Go!’ works really well too. With a somewhat cleaner singer, the track could have been on any record released by Frontiers Records, although Kitsutaka’s guitar sound is notably more ballsy.
Truly, I did not expect ‘Wonderful Life’ to be as good as it is. The album has an almost carefree, spontaneous nature that really benefits the songs. The excellent performances drive that home. Niihara sounds better than on most recent Loudness albums and Kitsutaka never disappoints, while Sueyoshi’s drums and the melodically very interesting bass work by Tatsuhiko Wasada are surprisingly fitting for this type of hardrock and heavy metal, despite their background being in J-pop. If you are looking for an hour of dynamic, melodic and powerful music, there are certainly worse places to start than ‘Wonderful Life’.
Recommended tracks: ‘Yusha Wo Tataeru Kane’, ‘Shijo No Takera’, ‘Here You Go!’, ‘Wonderful Life’
After crazy eclectics Kinniku Shojo Tai reunited about a decade and a half ago, they decided to focus on what they did best. Melodic power metal, muscular funk rock, Queen-ish layered bombast and proggy weirdness. If that already sounds quite eclectic to you, you would not be wrong. Post-reunion Kinniku Shojo Tai just happens to sound a lot more focused than they did in the nineties and nowhere is that more obvious than on their 2015 release ‘Omake No Ichinichi (Tatakai No Hibi)’. It still has a few quirky detours, but is mainly a powerful heavy rock album with metallic guitar work.
While Kinniku Shojo Tai could not have come from anywhere else than Japan, there aren’t really any Japanese bands that sound like them. Even at his most neoclassical, guitarist Fumihiko Kitsutaka has too much feel in his playing to be dismissed as just another Malmsteen clone – besides, he debuted with Arouge around the same time as Malmsteen, so he probably is not a prime influence. Or even intenationally; guitarist Toshiaki Honjo’s funk riffs are far too measured to summon the Peppers spirit. In addition, Kenji Otsuki is far wilder than the average J-rock singer. His voice isn’t exactly beautiful per se, but his performance is spirited and convincing.
The songs are what makes ‘Omake No Ichinichi (Tatakai No Hibi)’ better than the rest of their already usually great post-reunion albums. The pounding hardrocker ‘Mazeruna Kiken’ and the interestingly structured yet still memorable ‘Kyutai Kansetsu Ningyo No Ie’ have since become staples in Kinniku Shojo Tai’s live set, as has the typical Kinniku Shojo Tai combination of dense, aggressive riffing and a big, open chorus that is ‘Owakari Itadaketa Daoka’. And let’s be honest: how many bands that have been around for nearly forty years can claim that some of their classics and audience favorites are less than twenty years old?
‘Omake No Ichinichi (Tatakai No Hibi)’ is not just about the hits though. ‘Rejitero No Yume’ is probably the closest the band has ever come to thrash metal, had it not been for the final minute or so, which is dominated by piano and acoustic guitar. Latter day Kinniku Shojo Tai turned out to be excellent in mid-paced hard rock with dragging riffs, as evidenced here by ‘Makura Nage Eigyo’ and the excellent ‘Toki Wa Kita’. Of course, bassist Yuichiro Uchida is responsible for some of the weirder moments, including the dark, eerie ‘S5040’. Despite Otsuki not having the ideal voice for them, even the ballads are great. Especially their cover of Fausto Cigliano’s ‘Watashidake No Jyujika’ is great. The light rocker ‘Live House’ is a surprisingly effective duet between Otsuki and Honjo.
For all their weirdness, if ‘Omake No Ichinichi (Tatakai No Hibi)’ proves anything, it would be that Kinniku Shojo Tai knows how to write a good song. The listening experience is further enhanced by the album having an excellent flow. Whoever came up with the song order obviously knew what he or she was doing. Ulitmately, there aren’t many bands as weird as Kinniku Shojo Tai that are this listenable. Eclectic bands are always at risk of not being enough of certain things to please anyone, but ‘Omake No Ichinichi (Tatakai No Hibi)’ has the potential to appeal to hardrockers, metalheads, J-rockers and prog fans equally.
Recommended tracks: ‘Rejitero No Yume’, ‘Toki Wa Kita’, ‘Owakari Itadaketa Daoka’, ‘Makura Nage Eigyo’
Licensing issues prevented Aria from releasing their two albums with Artur Berkut internationally or even including tracks from them on compilations for years. As a result, the band simply decided to re-record the albums with their current – and best – singer Mikhail Zhitnyakov this year. Not a bad idea, because those outside of Russia and other former Soviet countries who are now discovering Aria’s discography through digital media were missing out on some truly excellent tracks. In fact, ‘Kresheniye Ognëm’ – originally released in 2003 and the first of the two albums – is loaded with Aria classics that are still frequently played live today.
At the time of the release of ‘Kresheniye Ognëm’, Aria had something to prove. Their legendary singer Valery Kipelov had left the band only a year prior and took both guitarist Sergey Terentyev and drummer Aleksandr Maniakin with him, leaving only founding guitarist Vladimir Holstinin and bassist and main songwriter Vitaly Dubinin to rebuild the band. Such a split could have crippled any band, but in Aria’s case, it only restored the focus of the band. Prior years had been plagued by various band members trying to pull Aria in different directions. ‘Kresheniye Ognëm’ brought Aria back to what they did best: traditional heavy metal with triumphant melodies.
While the album contained quite a few future classics, there is one song on ‘Kresheniye Ognëm’ that will likely get Aria into trouble if they don’t play it live and that is ‘Kolizey’. The song has one of the most incredible choruses in Aria history and a feel that is somewhat hardrock-ish, but not without the tight riffing that defines heavy metal. Zhitnyakov enhances the chorus beyond how good it already was and invites listeners to sing along even if they don’t speak Russian. The title track also became a classic with its strong build-up, propulsive rhythms and cathartic chorus.
Despite all these Aria staples – the dramatic, theatrical epic ‘Palach’ is another one – the most interesting thing about this re-recording of ‘Kresheniye Ognëm’ is probably to hear the deeper cuts with Zhitnyakov and a line-up that has nearly two decades of experience playing together. The uptempo, energetic opener ‘Patriot’ was one I particularly looked forward to and it does not disappoint. The original production was a little too dry for its own good; the re-recording tightens the track up as seemingly always intended. For similar reasons, tracks ‘Tvoy Noviy Mir’, the rocking ‘Beliy Flag’ and the pounding ‘Bitva’ – the first of many excellent songwriting contributions by then-new guitarist Sergey Popov – are lifted to a significantly higher level, with especially ‘Tvoy Noviy Mir’ suddenly revealing its brilliance to me.
Re-recorded albums will always spark discussion about which version is better. Vocally, I will always prefer Zhitnyakov’s cleaner, more theatrical approach, but I can see why people would prefer Berkut’s rawer vocals. In terms of production, the re-recording of ‘Kresheniye Ognëm’ really kicks up things a notch or two though. The bottom end got a significant upgrade, with Dubinin’s bass having a nice warmth to it and Maxim Udalov’s bass drums having a modern, tight low-end that really enhances the rhythms. Ultimately, the best thing about this version of ‘Kresheniye Ognëm’ is that everybody can now listen to it easily. I suggest that you do.
In the nineties, Seikima-II basically released two types of albums: distinctly old school heavy metal albums and poppy hardrock albums with a glossy production. The former tend to be more to my liking, but both sides of the aisle have one notable exception. ‘Kyofu No Restaurant’ is easily the most aggressive Seikima-II album, but it also lacks memorable songwriting, whereas the much more poppy ‘News’ features some of the band’s best work. It’s not perfect – not every song has the intended impact and the experiments are hit and miss – but as far as poppy hardrock goes, this is excellent stuff.
Songwriting-wise, Sgt. Luke Takamura III’s signature is all over ‘News’. Ever since Takamura joined Seikima-II in the mid-eighties, his highly melodic songwriting and fleet-fingered lead guitar work have greatly expanded the band’s compositional scope. He is credited for all but two of the songs on ‘News’, which means you can expect a few returning elements: a strong, hooky lead guitar melody in the intro, a seemingly simple, but cleverly layered chorus and long guitar solo sections. Usually all in the same song. Stylistically, ‘News’ is similar to 1988’s ‘The Outer Mission’, but the songwriting is far more consistent and the production more organic.
Don’t let the first two tracks of the album fool you. Neither ‘Departure Time’ nor ‘Mahiru No Tsuki ~Moon At Mid Day~’ is a bad song, the former in particular is perfect for setting the mood of the album, but they feel a little lightweight compared to some of the cuts that follow. Not that there are huge stylistic differences between ‘Digitalian Rhapsody’, ‘Crimson Red’ and the excellent ‘Brand New Song’; all of them are energetic, riffy hardrockers with simple, but powerful rhythms and an atmosphere that is simultaneously hopeful and melancholic, only enhanced by their cathartic choruses.
Now, it may sound like we are dealing with the Japanese take on an AOR album here, but to be fair, the riffing by Takamura and Ace Shimizu is far too traditional heavy metal-inspired for that. Only the heavily keyboard-laden ‘Koku No Meikyu’ is fairly AOR-ish and quite successful at it. ‘No Good News Today’ is the most experimental track on the album with its heavy industrial metal vibe and while I think it kind of disrupts the atmosphere of ‘News’, it’s a really cool track on its own. ‘Save Your Soul ~Utsukushike Kurishe Ni Se Wo Mukete~’ closes off the album in style. Its melancholic chorus has excellent layered vocal arrangements and rivals that of ‘Brand New Song’ as the best on the album.
Though unequivocally starting out as a heavy metal band, Seikima-II gradually became harder to pin down stylistically as their career went on. Like much of their early fanbase, I tend to prefer them playing heavy metal, but albums like ‘News’ prove that there is value to their extremely melodic side. Especially because their metal background keeps the music rhythmically far more forward than similar melodic hardrock bands. It seems like Seikima-II was always doing exactly what they wanted and when the results are as good as on ‘News’, they deserve all the respect they can get for that.
Recommended tracks: ‘Brand New Song’, ‘Save Your Soul ~Utsukushike Kurishe Ni Se Wo Mukete~’, ‘Digitalian Rhapsody’
For the last three decades, I have been on a quest to find the greatest music from all over the world. On my weblog, I would like to share some of my findings with you. Please enjoy your stay and come again!
Kevy Metal 