Imho the "Oo lalala" would've gotten old fast if used for more than the bookends. In fact I think it would have been better to only have three repetitions instead of four at the beginning, with the added bonus of being a classic Band-Maid timing twist. But after a week to wrap my head around it, I really like the song.
Asterism and Manga artist Acky Bright first met at Anime Expo 2023 in LA. They knew about each others work before, the chemistry was there and so they decided to do a colab together. The result is the "Planet of Metal" EP, which is a concept album. The idea is, that they are 3 super heroes arriving at the Planet of Metal. A villain has cursed the planet and they have to fight 6 enemies to bring back peace again. Each enemy is a track on the album (the Dragon, the Ninja, the Squid etc.) And the Titan is like the final boss. I like this album a lot, reminds me of their pure instrumental days, although there are vocal parts here and there. My favorite is the Zombie, which could aswell fit onto their brilliant Guernica+a album. Anyway, I'm going to Japan Expo in Paris tomorrow and am very excited to see them live for the first time ever. One of my all time favorite band 🙂
I think the discord comment said it was unsettling. A foreigner walks into her ladies bar in Shinjuku, gets drugged, enslaved and forced to wrestle for her entertainment. I'll never look at her sweet smile the same. I did like her singing and rap. And her dress.
Fate Gear is basically Captain Mina (the writer of most, if not all, Destrose songs, Fate Gear still performs a bunch of them) and Haruka (drums). All the rest are "crew" aka guest members nowadays. Just like with Destrose, the band has been a revolving door, although I have a feeling Mina nowadays has found a way to keep most people she works with happy since some of the ex-members are still performing for the live shows. Their keyboard player (Kurosaki) recently left and has left music altogether if I'm not mistaken, she was also a fulltime member of the band for a year or two. The bassists, Erika, in most videos (and usually live) used to be a member, but went to Pinkish Crown (who are now on hiatus). Nana has been doing live vocals for a long time in most of their shows with how versatile she is, I have seen her sing everything from harsh vocals like here to old school metal in duet with I believe the vocalist from Loudness during one of Haruka's Session live sets and she is usually showing up for the MV's as well. Nana's current bands are Gungire (which are way heavier than this, but still include a mix of harsh and cleans) and Theo Nova. I actually really like Nana's cleans, including live. She is actually the reason why I kept checking them out in the beginning. The first time was in a 3-band show (streamed) with Exist Trace and Ibuki solo and I though she blew both the vocalist from Exist Trace and especially Ibuki out of the water back then even though both of them are really good vocalists, so I was immediately sold. They had a song or two with all the vocalists (and a bunch of the members) on stage, so it was easier to compare. She is also very good at commanding the crowd and reminds me a bit of Regan from Saiseiga in that regard. I don't know a lot about the other guest vocalist, but I have seen under the MV that other people seem to know her and like her. Most of their newer albums have a mix of vocalists across the tracks. Funnily enough, even Mina has vocals on one of the tracks of their newest album for the first time. And yes, Jill is also present on this track, she has been on a couple of other ones over the years. Jill is somewhat of a hired gun and I have seen her show up with multiple bands, which I guess is one of the things that you can do when you are in a self-produced/basically doujin band like Unlucky Morpheus (also check out her project Tonerico with the violin player from Soli). Edit: well apparently someone already put most of this info (I missed it before writing mine), they clearly know more about Fate Gear than I do though. That said, about Nana's bands: Reasterisk was Nana's old band, although I don't think Theo Nova perform a lot any more either, her main focus is Gungire nowadays.
OK, try to stay with this. Fate gear have 2 members Mina (ex-Drestrose), and Haruka on drums. Haruka is also an artist and has had a amine on Japanese TV, and does some of the album artwork. On bass is Erika, who used to be a member but left a few years ago, to join Pinkish Crown. But after her replacement left Fate Gear, Erika came back to help out as a support member. They used to have a keyboard player called Yui, but she was replaced by Kurosaki, who had to leave due to family issues, but no one has replaced her. And yes that was Jill, she has joined them on 4 or 5 other songs. OK now the singers. Fate Gear used to have a full time singer, but like all good Japanese singers, she became ill and stopped singing, and now does amine voice acting. Now Mina likes to pick the singer to match the song, from a pool of people she knows, Nana is the one that she chooses a lot, the growler in this song and many others, but can sing clean. She also has her own bands Reasterisk and Gungera. Nana is the one you are more than likely see at a live show. The other singer in this video is Hime Hashimura, who is also in a band with Mitsuru, who used to be in Bridear. They have also used Ibuki (ex Disqualia), and was going to be the sing in Destrose, but Destrose split just before. She sang with Fate Gear @ Metal Matsuri in London, when I 1st saw them. They has also used Maki Oyama, has sung a few tracks for them. Rami, who used to sing for Aldious. Plus maybe 10 others I can't remember. They are about to do their 1st tour in Canada, and Hime Hashimura is going as singer, mainly because Nana has her own bands ding stuff. Also Junna is going on the tour to play drums, like she did last year on Fear Gears Euro tour, as Haruka is committed to other things. Next I'd put forward MEGABULLETS by them ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x--sGzoAzrA.html Different sound and feel, oh and hey, they had 4 members of the band then.
Jill has appeared on a couple of songs and FG videos. Mini the guitarist has used several vocalists over the years. More recently and most used is Nana (growler) as she is most versatile. She has her own band called Gungire. Others that have been used are Rami ex:Aldious and Ibuki ex:Disqualia. Mitsuru ex:Bridear was featured for a second guitar not that long ago. Hime and Junna (drums) will be joining Mina and Erika on FG's Canadian tour in August.
橋村姫 - Hime Hashimura - singer songwriter, guitarist. Not known as a metal singer AFAIK. Has own website, has recorded several albums / mini-albums. Her voice works well in this context. Fate Gear is basically (Captain) Mina. First took flight in 2015. The line-up of the band is pretty fluid. A lot depends on who is available. Erica (bass) and Haruka (drums) are regulars, and Nana often does vocals. Keyboards - varies. Lots of videos on RU-vid. Some of their music is reworkings of Destrose songs but most are originals. Thematically some are based around the airship Fate Gear and the adventures of the crew. Others are more mainstream metal. Check "The Sky Pirates" video for more on the airship side of things. Other videos worth a gander : Scars in My Life ; Headless Goddess, Winds of Fall (but all of them are OK.)
It seems the only permanent member is the guitarist vocalist. I've seen Wakazaemon on bass and Murata Tamu on drums for this group as well as Nagisa and Fami.
Yes, the violinist is Jill. Nana does the growling in this song, but during many of their gigs she does the clean voices too. Not my favourite song of them. To much growling.
Pinyo is like Fami in that she has a very popular channel with many bass covers. I am glad to see her get this chance to collab with more well known artists.
One of the good things about the last few Dreamcatcher EPs is that the producer's got a load of "real" rock musicians working with him, so the drums and the bass are written and recorded by people in bands which brings an interesting feel to their songs. This EP's definitely got an older rock sound to it, too. I recommend giving it a listen, whether or not you react to it, they're off doing their own thing and it's great fun.
Thanks so much! I do like their sound having such a nice combination of genuine rock sounds and pop clarity. Certainly I will follow up on more, thank you :)
The initial impact was similar with me, but I did like the range of harmonising vocals that were making that individual note so thick. It was a nicely layered sound more than a melodically complex one. I agree, with each listen and awareness of that approach, it gets more rewarding to hear :)
dreamcatcher \:D/ great to have you back doing a dreamcatcher reaction after so long lol. also remember to put reaction in the title for more exposure because you bring more to the table than your average reactor 😉. you can also check out 'reason' and 'bon voyage' which have proper music videos or 'demian' which has a dance video similar to red sun. as for the justice album, there's also a couple songs you could check out like 'stomp' and '2 rings'
Thank you! I corrected a couple of title errors actually, so much appreciated ;) . I heard Bon Voyage when it came out, but I may have missed "Reason", so I will have a look out for that ASAP. Hopefully I can dig around in a few of the songs that maybe slipped by whilst I was awaiting releases and restructuring all my channels :) . Big thanks!!
Great reaction! I really enjoyed it. I'm really enjoying the analysis portion. I like that your reactions include pretty detailed analysis of the song as well.
I saw them live in London earlier this year, they were really good, lots of energy and they played a good mix of there own songs (MVs) and covers of songs by Metallica, White Stripes, Accept(Metal Heart), Nirvana, etc. They were very professional and great fun to watch. For a live performance check out ‘Rock & Roll Paradise with drum solo’. Thanks for reviewing them.
Sweet life was my first i heard from them, its gotta a helluva hook. And they have more experimental fusions as well. The Dawn is badass, Crush has the fun glitchy production with odd song structure, etc
Thanks man! AFS is one of the most enjoyable, newer acts i've been following. This wasn't the best representation or their catalog but its new and solid and fun lol. They need the love for sure
I was trying to think who this reminded me of. Superorganism (remember them). They have or had a similar laid back style. 'Nobody cares' has a repeated scene of somebody walking in yellow coat. Anyway After Squall definitely have a sound worth keeping an ear to.
I feel that this song is a lot of subtleties all stacked atop one another. - The little gutar accents, Jayoung's rather relaxed vocal delivery, and Arem's bass not overshadowing, but that interplay with Yeongeun's drums. I feel it's a song with heavier parts rather than an all out heavy song. - RQ have excelled here, once again. Great band, great live too. - What's not to like? And it would appear that after being fatally shot, Jayoung got better. :)
Talking of Korean bands (and they have all the genres even though many seem underground compared to Japan) Boys and Girls Drinking Choir regularly support Otoboke Beaver. I saw them last week and they seem stronger with their new Scottish guitarist (Megan Nisbet) than before - Meena Bae and Myeong-jin Kim are still Korean
I almost know nothing about the music from BanG Dream and mostly know what I have heard from my sister over the years since she has been playing the rhythm games for years which I believe existed before the anime (edit: I am wrong, they seemed to have started around the same time and it looks like it was a manga series at first). She is mainly a Roselia fan from what I remember. I expected something way more poppy than this actually because even though it's still very poppy it also has some punk/pop-punk vibes as well (with an overly kawaii sounding vocalist). It actually reminds me of something like a slightly toned down Necry Talkie or Moshimo for example (going with poppy punky bands with kawaii vocals). I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would and am happy I gave it a chance. I am sure most of their stuff is way more electronic/poppy, but this might be one of my favourite BanG Dream tracks I have heard (I haven't heard that many to be fair). Edit: Poppin Party was the very first "real" group from the franchise I believe, which is one of the reasons why I expected something even more poppy, but maybe they started with a couple of them (again, I mainly know second hand info).
k, gonna try this one more time .... _Planet of Metal_ is a concept album collaboration that ties-in with a graphic novel illustrated by Acky (i'm sure you can still get the complete package from the official planet of metal site. each song is a different boss monster they have to defeat as they save the world (or something like that ... the story synopsis is on the site). the album on whole is a real journey. they definitely do some experimentation. other songs get super progg and a couple get super heavy. i certainly really like it. my only complaint is that the drums feel a little hollow ; probably due to the fact that Mio keeps taking pieces out of his rig , while most drummers tend to do the opposite 😂 (in this video you can see he's down to a snare, a kick, 1 floor tom, a hi-hat, a ride, and a crash)
k, so i had to brainstorm a bunch to try to figure out what was tripping some asinine filter ; i don't know what it was, but _something_ seemed to have worked. 😂🤦♂
Great reaction/review. It seems to be dividing opinion but I am very impressed by this - one of the most creative things they've done. Like you say it has the vibe of a type of rock that is rarely, if ever, associated with this kind of composition and musicianship. The combination is fantastic. I generally dislike heavy vocal effects and that was the case here on first listen, but then I realised it's completely artistically justified by the story and the mood of the song. So I now like these vocals as long as it's a one-off. They're what people are complaining about, but I think really the song might just be a bit too experimental for some people. Personally I like for bands to experiment, especially if they pull it off this well. I'd like for more of the Japanese bands we follow to do that.
I must admit, I hadn't really considered general opinion on this as I am so used to Asterism being beloved, but I do agree that the whole sound came across as incredibly intentional. I think some folks have an aversion to certain sounds and techniques, but this was beautifully constructed. So glad we agree again :D !
This feels much more mainstream than Wednesday Campanella, which is not a bad thing. Utaha is charming beyond belief, and I liked this quite a bit, even more than WC. Good stuff!
Thanks Scott! Weirdly, if I put this alongside say Edison, they both feel like they are mainstream in different universes. Edison is the mainstream of today, this song is the main stream of Pop circa 1995 :D . I do love hearing her on such different songs though!
The EP is very good! I would even say ... much better than the last Wednesday Campanella IMO. I particularly like the last two songs, highly recommended!
Banger of an album. This track is my favourite. I won't say I'm disappointed but in the build up to release I expected it to be even heavier. I know Moe leans in that direction. And it's also great they are pushing Natsumi. She's on fire the whole album.
Finally I can watch this video just received my cd this morning personally I like 9/10 songs the final song "die like this" didn't gel with me . Great vid Howard 👌 and my pronounce of bridear is bride- aar probably wrong who cares po!!
I can see someone loving any track as their favorite on this album. the entire album is awesome. every song has its own reason to love it. my favorite BRIDEAR album to date. and that's saying a lot because I loved Overturn the Doom, then Aegis of Athena replaced that and now Born Again...this song is pure fire too man. NATSUMI gets a crazy hard workout if they do 6+ songs from this album when they tour
