BAND MAID: THE 1 HITTER  

Good reaction! This track is off their latest EP Unleash. As good as this studio recording is, witnessing it live a few months ago when they toured the US was equally great and felt even heavier when I experienced it live. I did not think my love this band can be any greater until I saw them live and how they connect with the fans. Ultimate respect for Band-Maid!

Yea this song was awesome live at Aftershock, August Hall San Francisco, Crescent Ballroom Phoenix and The Fillmore Silver Spring 😀

I think my favorite thing about this song is how MISA, who is normally incredibly active on the bass, uses her feature time to offer suspended notes. Kanami and Akane are going a million miles an hour, and so MISA stands out by slowing down. It's just a wonderful musical choice.

Yes this is BAND-MAID`s newest instrumental from the new album Unleashed !!!!! , saw them in Seattle in Oct Fantastic show .

Shit. This instrumental is the shit, man. This amazing band is fucking badass. ;-) Nice, happy reaction, from both of you. Thanks for that.

Be it Rock (classic or otherwise), Instrumental, Acoustic, Ballad, traditional Japanese Instruments, Anime, Show tunes, Live with fans, Live w/o fans, Covers. BAND-MAID kicks the Awesome arse out of all of them. Just try and refute that. Peace.

Great reaction. No matter how many times I watch and listen to this masterpiece of music I’m completely blown away on another level no other rock/metal band has done before

Thanks from Japan 有難う💛。 (You Virginians should have gone to see Band-Maid concert at The Fillmore, Silver Sprig, MD on Oct.25.) I witnessed this song performed flawlessly in Tokyo as 12th song in the setlist and Band-Maid played it perfectly in 12 out of 13 US concerts as 8th to 11th song (9th at The Fillmore). Most of the audience at those venues had, of course, already known their skills and talents. When I heard that they played this instrumental piece as opening at Aftershock (Sacramento) on Oct. 9 and at Saitama Super Arena on Nov.6 (as support to Guns N' Roses), I felt very proud of them. Yeah! they showed off their skills and talents to the audience who did not know who the girls in maid outfit on the stage were. I felt as if I heard them screaming "Hey guys! Listen to us and open your eyes wide! We are not the persons that you think ! Salute us!" 😄

I tip my hat. You got me good. I thought for sure you were going to call MISA by Koga's name, again. 😁 Well played!

Chopper is a pretty good new nickname for Misa, obviously The Barefoot Assassin is the best and The Grudge is good too.

The more you listen to it, the more you get stuck in the swamp. When you drink a glass of whiskey without a chaser. , I think you can get out into the air.

Cuando las manos y los dedos vuelan, vuelan también las cabezas. Cada segundo de este instrumental es una jodida obra de arte. El mejor momento para escuchar a BAND-MAID, siempre es: ¡¡¡ AHORA !!! "🤘🤘 ¡ ¡ ¡ B A N D M A I D H E A D ! ! ! 🤘🤘" www.youtube.com/@BANDMAID

I don't know .It's metal or hard rock but sound so heavy and beautiful.

FROM NOW ON is a phenomenal composition by KANAMINCHO. Try INFLUENCER next.

MISA!!! MISA!!! MISA!!! 🥃🥃🥃

Misa!!!!!!! 🤘

Many of us just recently saw Band-Maid play “From Now On” live. OMNG! Kanami riffed her ass off. And the BPM’s matched the DB's! 😶‍🌫Thx, Brewguys!

Great instrumental. Live it was incredible. Kanami rocks. Yeah Maids are right there with Nemophila of course for me, plus Lovebites, Bridear, MARDELAS.

You guys always schedule these when I'm cooking LOL

Chopper is a hell of a bassist too. The slap queen.

loved the reaction.. the Lady was rocking out!! and Ted Nugent was slipping in and out of a coma!! HA!!

Chopper, Chopper Chopper!!!!

God, I hope they come to europe next year!

Amazing song :) Thanks for the reaction! p.s You wear the glasses because you think it looks cool? Loose them. It blocks peoples ability to read your reactions- and thats meant to be what you are doing. Its like if you wore a bag over your head while doing this- just not quite as bad.

Hitting this on the green light. Bye!

They opened their set at Aftershock with this. It was amazing and pulled people from all the other stages to them.

_Band Maid_ always has good production on their music videos, but not always in their live clips. Usually it's the lead guitar too low in the mix. The real issue is the RU-vid compression sometimes, especially with such dense music...just sayin' 🤘

If you're saying this is your favorite it makes me wonder have you heard their other live songs? Specifically"Onset official Live" And an instrumental not too many people even bother to react to a song called without holding back that's mind-blowing

This band just keeps doing cool shit, which is pretty cool. Edit: if you haven't already seen their other instrumental Without Holding Back, then I suggest you do because it's a f'n banger.

It's a great band after all！😱😱😱

Present!!

Definitely sounds fat. A big part is that the lead guitar is on top of the mix. It's often buried in their recorded songs even though Kanami plays active riffs and melodies a lot. Apparently, the lead is also forward in the house mix during their performances so that all the songs have punch. Not sure why they keep it so far back in the studio mixes.

Here's something for you to consider: if you take the pop-influenced vocals out of each Band Maid track, many of them will seem to have become noticeably harder/heavier pieces. In Band Maid, Saiki's and Miku's musical interests lean toward straight rock and pop (we're talking in terms of preponderance here, not absolutes). The rhythm section -- Akane and Misa -- like heavier music (as well as rock and some pop). Kanami will go anywhere that you want to go (although she's tended towards more hard-rock, prog and quasi-metal performances since before COVID). This is why their instrumentals are often perceived as some of Band Maid's heavier songs. What I've said could be interpreted as being anti-Saiki and Miku. It is emphatically not that. If either of them left, I would be inconsolable. I like the band just the way that it is -- no one leaves, no one new comes in. I'm just trying to note a phenomenon that I've seen regarding Band Maid, and to assign it a rationale. Try to listen for what I've described, and see if you don't agree. (One could say, "Miku's still in the instrumentals, so why don't they still have a "poppy" feel?". My response is that she is playing, not singing, and her guitar teacher was Kanami...and, in the instrumental format, she's one out of four, while in the "regular" format, she's part of a two out of five). One more time fellow Maidiacs, I wouldn't change Band Maid if I could -- I love the Ladies just the way that they are!!!!!

I agree that this is their best song.....BUT looking over the past songs you have reviewed in my opinion has not been an accurate representation of their best work......please look at the live performances of Domination, Freedom and Manners. I think you have a new outlook on their overall music. But From Now ON is a absolute JAM !!!!!!

Agreed. Not sure why but Band Maid aren't in my top Japanese groups. Not that I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. They attract a lot of people that like US style rock. They are more at Marysblood level for me. Nemophila, Lovebites, Dazzle Vision, Hanabie, Hagane more my top bands along with Maximum the Hormone, Show Ya and X-Japan but this instrumental is very good.