Luna Sea

Luna Sea (1991)

Ryuichi – vocals
Sugizo – guitar, violin
Inoran – guitar
J – bass
Shinya – drums

To my mind, there is no direct Western comparison; Luna Sea played a unique mix comprised of ethereal jangle, goth, heavy metal technique, punk energy with a knack for catchy hooks.
From the beginning, their albums were split between three songwriters (the string players). Most songs followed a fairly simple formula, Inoran’s clean chorus-y jangle and Sugizo’s distorted guitar hero theatrics, a catchy bass line from J, and maybe some violin from Sugizo for even more ‘atmosphere’ (it’s always impressive when someone is a genuine multi instrumentalist).
‘Fate’ opens the album with an excellent minute and a half burst of energy that isn’t just an intro track, it’s a miniature song.
Ryuichi’s singing can take some getting used to, he employs a somewhat strained, full of vibrato style, but it definitely works for this kind of music; the exception is the disgustingly phlegmy ‘metal’ voice he uses on ‘Blue Transparency’ and ‘The Slain’. This is forgivable as it’s their first album (they used to be more on the metal side of things when they formed), and every song has something going for it – a memorable refrain, an interesting guitar part, a catchy bass line.
The last two songs are where they really take off – ‘Moon’ gradually builds up to anthemic crescendo (with a cyclical Emi7-Fmaj7-G6 progression), and ‘Precious’ is fantastic pop song with the catchiest singalong chorus on the album.
The album, at 38 minutes, is short by 90s standards, but I find 30-40 minutes the perfect length. As someone raised on the likes of the Ramones and The Beatles, I believe it allows the songs to leave a more lasting impression, and if the songs are good then the listener will be left wanting more.
(Beautiful album cover – reminiscent of the House of Love’s first one.)

Image (1992)

Early on, Luna Sea display a bit of artistic growth; more progressive elements on this one, with six songs in the 5-7 minute range. Thankfully, this isn’t at the expense of hooks and catchy choruses – ‘Wall’ and ‘Mechanical Dance’ are perhaps the best examples of ‘young’ Luna Sea mixing with ‘older’ Luna Sea. This was their first album for a major label, and they clearly didn’t want to mess with the formula too much, as the album follows a similar structure to its predecessor.
Once again, the penultimate track is the epic ‘Moon’. This time it’s a rerecording with prominent use of keyboards (in contrast to the “NO SYNTHESISER” statement found in the first album’s booklet). I find this one unnecessary, as the original had managed its evocative atmosphere by guitar work alone.
It is followed by ‘Wish’, another catchy closer(with a “lalalala” coda somewhat typical of 90s visual kei bands).
The live DVD ‘Image or Real’ documents a show from this tour; for me, it sums up the contradiction in terms of music, image and fan base – thousands of screaming teenage girls, aching for these beautiful androgynous beings, who enter the stage to the sounds of ‘De Profundis (Out of the Depths of Sorrow)’ by Dead Can Dance, a haunting gothic-medieval chant piece.
Cover matches the music well.

Eden (1993)

Probably their best, most consistent work. They scale back on their progressive tendencies to produce a very solid album where almost every track is at least pretty good.
Opener ‘Jesus’, a weak rocker, can be ignored, it’s the second track where it really gets going. ’Believe’ is perhaps their definitive song, a driving ethereal rocker. It’s mostly just based on a IV-V chord progression (with strings 1 and 2 left open to give it that off-kilter ‘heavenly’ sound, of course) and features relentless drums, extremely memorable vocal melodies and guitar bits. The dazzling keyboard part in the chorus just makes the song however.
I’d also rate this album as Ryuichi’s best vocal performance – his high harmonies on ‘Rejuvenescence’, his blending into the music on ‘Anubis’ and his desperate whine on ‘Recall’ are among the highlights. In fact, ‘Recall’ is another incredible song, a subtle shoegaze-y number to drift away on.
The album just continues on a high – the six song run from ‘Believe’ to ‘In My Dream (With Shiver)’ is part of their discography. Unfortunately, ’Steal’ ends this run, its ‘quirky’ guitar riff is pretty irritating. Things pick up after that, and the record is again brought to a close by a straightforward hook-filled song, this time in ‘Stay’. The way the guitar part resolves at the end of the pre-chorus is pretty majestic.
Mother (1994)

Where can you go after an album as fantastic as Eden? Mother is a more ‘mature’ work, moving towards a more standard 90s J-rock sound. Not really for me, but it’s still a nice album all the same.
‘Rosier’, the main hit from this album, is like a cleaned up cousin of ‘Believe’. It’s an instantly memorable pop/rock single, but that’s just it. The ‘ethereal’ is disappearing from their music.
Most of the album sounds rather nice, but isn’t particularly memorable. It sounds pretty big, in the way a blockbuster massive rock album should. ‘Civilize’ begins as a lame attempt at punk/hard rock in verse before the payoff comes in the chorus with its massive jangle (why did 90s visual kei bands have these type of songs? The ones with two chord punk riffs, distortion on the vocals… needless attempts to be diverse and ignoring what their strengths are). Luckily, the record finishes pretty strongly (like all the others up to this stage), with two more catchy pop/rock songs in ‘Fake’ and ‘True Blue’ followed by Inoran’s haunting title track. Based on a lovely G6-Dsus2/F#-Cadd9/E progression on a 12-string acoustic and filled out by… I’m not sure what. Keyboard or Sugizo making some strange noises on his guitar? The chorus of ‘mother of love’ gets a little overbearing, but it’s still a beautiful song. The video for it was shot in snowy Ireland and fits it well.
It probably sounds like I don’t think Mother is very good, but on the contrary, I’m glad that it exists. They’d made three albums following a similar formula and had to move on, as they’d pretty much perfected it.
Aftermath

 

Style, Shine and Lunacy followed. Broadly in the same style as Mother, what strikes me about these ones is that they sound like a rather typical J-rock band. Their songs should be the theme to some anime series. In addition to ‘diluting’ their sound, Ryuichi’s vocal technique is different. Apparently this was due to him putting too much strain on his voice, so it was in his best interests to change and preserve his voice, so I can’t blame him for that. And their late 90s work is some of their most beloved, so I don’t know. I just think their early work mixed a unique sound with solid song craft to create some great albums that are unjustly overlooked in the West.

BUCK-TICK – Aku no Hana~Complete Works~

I recently splurged on the pricy limited 25th anniversary edition of Buck-Tick’s fifth album, Aku no Hana (1990). It comes in a fancy box (mine’s number 03026), including the original album remixed/remastered, an extra disc with B-sides, a DVD/bluray of the promo videos, the album on vinyl, plus some stickers and photo prints. When I first came across this, I was a bit tempted but also hesitant; I do think it is a fantastic album, definitely Buck-Tick’s best, but spending $140+ on it seemed rather unnecessary. What swayed me was the inclusion of the LP – the album was never released on vinyl (apparently Japan doesn’t care for vinyl much), and an album cover like this deserves the medium (the band looks wonderful in their gothic attire, posing in a place that reminds me of MC Escher, or David Bowie’s Labyrinth. I also love that in one of the photos, Atsushi is fingering a Cmaj7 chord on the accordion). Apparently the band has never been happy with the album’s mix, so they saw this as an opportunity to get it ‘right’. I can definitely see where they’re coming from, the original mix isn’t perfect; it sounds a little bit muffled and distant, with Atsushi’s vocals blending into the music, rather than standing out from it. For me however, I happened to like it that way, I saw it as part of its charm (though this could be a case of me being used to it, as I’ve only heard it this way for the last five years). I can’t say that I agree with the way it’s been remixed. Here’s the main differences I noticed: the vocals are up front and centre, more prominent guitar effects have been added in certain spots, and the opener ‘National Media Boys’ sounds quite a bit closer to heavy metal (or maybe my mind is playing tricks on me, who knows). But really, nothing will sound ‘wrong’ or out of place to anyone who hasn’t heard how it originally sounded, and I still can listen to the original mix whenever I want, so I guess it’s a bit of a moot point. As for the music itself, it’s the band’s first foray into goth after their previous new-wave-quirky-guitar-pop releases, but it’s not exactly ‘serious’ gothic music. I’d say it’s closer to Bauhaus/Love and Rockets, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, plus an excellent sense of pop music than, say, Joy Division, the Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, or someone like that. You could say it’s a little bit kitsch, but it’s done in an endearing and professional manner. Highlights include the title track (catchy!), ‘Dizzy Moon’ (flailing lead guitar, as wild and spinning as the title suggests), ‘Sabbat’ (eerie), ‘Pleasure Land’ (begins with an anthemic, pompous guitar riff, but the vocals make it sound totally melancholy). If I had to nitpick, I’d say the album could do with one classic guitar pop song, like the ones that filled their previous albums, but that’s neither here nor there. I like that the band filmed a promo video for every song (like Sonic Youth did for Goo). IT’s always cool to ‘see’ an album in addition to hearing it. The photo prints are very nice (I might frame them), and the stickers will forever remain unused. In summation, I’d say it’s a worthwhile purchase for those that love the album; it’s probably not worth the money, but that’s always the case when dealing with CDJapan, plus it’s really limited and will make people happy. Isn’t that what matters most?

Malice Mizer – Part II

1998

2001

Merveilles (1998)

An incredibly diverse listen, approaching pop perfection. This is the album where they hit the big time, moving to a major record label, reaching number 2 in the charts. They released five (!) singles from this album, all with high budget videos and convoluted plots. All of the singles are brilliant – the beautiful ballad ‘Au Revoir’, with its reverse music box intro and moving violin solo (this was the first song of theirs I came across, and the video is  probably my sentimental favourite); ‘Bel Air’, the culmination of their twin lead guitar obsession, its mesmerising interlocking parts are permanently imprinted into my fingers after learning this for a high school performance; Közi’s ‘Illuminati’ and ‘Gekka no Yasoukyoku’, two creepy carnivalesque dancey numbers perfect for his ‘jester’ persona; and finally ‘Le Ciel’, the only song written by Gackt, is quite nice, it reminds me of a song commissioned for an anime. Other highlights include the Yu~ki written ‘Syunikiss’, an epic ‘sea shanty’, and a reworking of ‘Eege Gekai ni Sasagu’ (I go back and forth on whether it’s better than the original). However, as this is such a diverse album, the band do bite off more than can chew, which results in several misfires – the video game industrial mess of ‘S-Conscious’, and ‘Je te Veux”s sickly sweet Eurodance. But really, this doesn’t matter too much since the band manages to hit so many highs here. It appeared that Malice Mizer were at the peak of their powers, the height of their popularity…

Bara no Seidou (2000)

Tragedy struck for the band as Gackt decided to leave (possibly a dispute over creative control, egos, the usual) and then Kami died from a brain haemorrhage. This sent the band into mourning; the colourful historical outfits were swapped for more traditional Victorian gothic clothes, the guitars and synths (for the most part) exchanged for authentic Baroque instrumentation. Klaha is now the vocalist, but he only features on five songs here, as he hadn’t been announced as an official member yet. This is definitely their most unified sounding album, as the instrumentation is kept fairly consistent and certain chord progressions appear time and again (mostly the vi-ii-V-I-IV-ii-V-III/i-iv-VII-III-VI-iv-VII-V one). The album begins in quite a prog-rock manner, with track one, an instrumental overture introducing the melodic theme of the album, followed by an 8 minute epic. At the moment it’s all pipe organs, strings and faux operatic vocals (plus a brief teasing glimpse of the old dual guitar sound). The rest of the tracks follow a similar sort of sound with minor variations – an industrial beat and choir in track 3, harpsichord in tracks 4, 5, 9, 10, a bit of wall-of-sound metal guitar in tracks 6 and 8. The standouts would have to be track 4, a lovely pop song with a key change in the chorus, track 10, a moving instrumental tribute to Kami, and track 9, possibly the definitive Malice Mizer song. This song really is amazing, finally reintroducing the twin guitar sound of years gone by and melding it with the current pipe organ/harpsichord sound, adding in ‘scary’ storm sounds, a dramatic pause before the chorus and a wonderful modulation. As stated before, this is their most unified album statement, rather than just a collection of songs. It does get quite monotonous when you’re not in the mood for it, and I for one really miss the guitars, but this album is still a fitting finale for their career.

Extras

The four albums themselves don’t quite tell the whole story – there is world of demo tapes, bootlegs, non-album singles, concerts and videos that are essential to this band’s story. Here’s a brief guide:

Demo Tapes: Sans Logique is their first release, it is all instrumental and has terrible sound quality; Sadness/Speed of Desperate has two excellent songs, the first an ethereal ballad, the second a sort of speed metal piece.

Bootlegs: Tetsu’s Last Live is the definitive document of their early years, featuring almost all the songs from 1992-1994. A 1993 one, Higeki no Bansan, is also pretty good. Gackt’s First Live is pretty interesting in that it has Gackt attempting some Tetsu songs (they really don’t suit his voice). The Gardenia Tour has one of their last shows, the best bit is when Klaha’s voice breaks in the climax of ‘Shiroi’.

Non-album Singles: the early Gackt ones from 1996 are quite nice, and probably should have been on Voyage. Their three final releases were also in this format – Beast of Blood (uninteresting plodding metal, but with an excellent chorus), Gardenia (one of their best pop songs) and Garnet (likewise).

Concerts: There is a video for Tetsu’s Last Live, though it’s mostly just a straightforward gig. Merveilles L’Espace, their best visual spectacle at the height of the popularity in 1998. Bara no etc. more of the same but much darker.

Videos: Almost all their singles had fancy, elaborate videos to go along with them, the best being ‘Au Revoir’, ‘Beast of Blood’, ‘Gekka no Yasoukyoku’, and ‘Shiroi…’

Malice Mizer – Part I

1994

1996

1992-2001

There are many different sides to Malice Mizer – their elaborate outfits and stageshows, their dual guitar attack, their ‘eras’ (defined by who was singing), the band that gave birth to Gackt, crossdressing non-speaking leader Mana. Over their four albums (plus non-album singles) they showed a lot of variety and versatility; however underneath it all, they did rely on something of a formula to remain fairly consistent throughout their career. Listening to and watching them can be quite an experience, they are a band that invites obsession and devotion from its fanbase.

The lineup changed a few times over the years: Mana (guitar, synth, main songwriter), Közi (guitar, synth, occasional songwriter), Yu~ki (bass), Kami (drums, died 1999 and not replaced); the three vocalists Tetsu, Gackt and Klaha all had their own style and brought something to the band.

Memoire (1994)
Their first album is their most traditionally gothic release, with it flanged guitars (which wouldn’t be out of place with the likes of The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, The Cure) and generally dark themes. Tetsu is quite a distinctive singer, relying on a forceful emotive voice with lots of vibrato; it isn’t hard to see why fans of the ultra-smooth Gackt or faux-operatic Klaha don’t like him (but again, old-school gothic fans shouldn’t have a problem, as he sounds quite a bit like Robert Smith). For me, this is their most consistent album, but at 28 minutes definitely could have been longer. ‘Kioku to Sora’ probably sums up the album best: minor key, baroque allusions, an unpredictable structure and Tetsu wailing over the top (I enjoy his wailing however). ‘Seraph’, the only song written by Közi, is the best showcase for Tetsu’s vocals, with some lovely harmonies over a very saccharinely sweet synth backing (plus a wonderful key change). Also impressive is the bouncy ‘Miwaku no Rooma’, featuring a distinctive synth-violin part, and the beautiful ballad ‘Eege Gekai ni Sasagu’. The final track, ‘Baroque’, used to unquestionably be my favourite; now I can see all its flaws quite clearly (though this doesn’t stop me from loving it). It features some brilliant Bach-quoting on dual guitars, a great two part chorus (the stop-start bit and the falsetto bit) and a rousing finale (“Oh my sweet corpse!”), but for some reason, has a Für Elise guitar solo – 1. No one needs to hear Für Elise again. 2. The song is called ‘Baroque’, but includes a Für Elise quote? It’s from the Classical/Romantic period! Overall, I enjoy this album immensely, but a better summary of the early years would have to be the Tetsu’s Last Live bootleg, documenting Tetsu’s final show with the band (he left over artistic differences). They play nearly every song from the band’s early years (showing that there was surely enough material for another album, but alas, it was not to be) though the sound quality isn’t too great.

Voyage~Sans Retour~ (1996)
This one is completely different to Memoire; the only ‘links’ with the past seem to be ‘Shi no Butou’ and ‘Tsuioku no Kakera’, the former a very catchy dual guitar song and the latter more of the same (though it does sound like something of a prototype for ‘Bel Air’ on the next album). Part of the change is down to new vocalist Gackt – he sounds much more ‘professional’ and trained than Tetsu, he has a very smooth tone and an impressive range (though he is not always to my taste). Probably the biggest letdown with this album is not the lack of guitars, but what they decide to do within this new format. Synths are used throughout to imitate strings and orchestras on, for the most part, fairly unexciting ballads and pop songs that lack energy. When they do decide to up the excitement, on NPS NGS, it ends up in an almost embarrassing industrial dance track that really doesn’t suit the band. This probably does sound overly harsh, but their are some bright points: the aforementioned guitar songs, ‘Madrigal’ with its quite cute and fey sound. But really, they would do the baroque-classical-goth-pop-band thing much better on Merveilles.

Kuroyume

Kuroyume

One of the most influential visual kei bands, Kuroyume are responsible for setting the template for most vk bands of the 90s. Sadly, once they had created their defining work, they lost a member and went on to make some okay-to-not-particularly-good albums. After breaking up around the turn of the millenium, they are now active again, but really aren’t worth listening to.

Kiyoharu (vocals), Shin (guitar), Hitoki (bass), various support drummers

Ikteita Chuzetsuji (1992)

Like a lot of early visual kei bands, Kuroyume display a metal influence; however this isn’t the usual glam/hair/speed/thrash kind of metal (think bands like X Japan, Dead End, D’erlanger), it’s more of a grinding, lurching, “evil” kind of metal. It’s not very good. Kiyoharu shows that he has a good voice but is let down by the plodding riffs which don’t really go anywhere. Fortunately, this EP does contain two tracks which save it from being worthless. “Shinainaru Death Mask”, the one song written by Kiyoharu, is quite catchy despite containing virtually all the elements I’ve described here. The final track “Kagami ni Naritai” is beautiful, definitely one of their best songs. It begins with a guitar part which seems to glide (and wouldn’t be out of place on an album by some English shoegazers) with Kiyoharu calmly speaking over the top of it. It transitions into a jangly part, and Kiyoharu demonstrates his skill as a vocalist – his voice has a strangulated quality and he uses loads of vibrato. Overall, not particularly good except for the final two songs, but it is interesting to hear where they began.

Nakigara Wo… (1993)

THIS IS THE ONE. The album that set the tone for nearly a decade of visual kei. They got rid of all the metal influences, moving in a more gothic/post-punk direction, and were all the better for it. A lot of credit should go to Shin, who wrote most of the songs and created some fantastic guitar parts. The best song, again, is the closer (the title track). It’s a faux-epic (it’s long, but doesn’t really change musch throughout), and has one of my favourite guitar riffs – pretty much my go to riff whenever I pick up a guitar. The drum loop is also great, and it’s interesting to hear the verses calmy sung by Kiyoharu – this is what he’d sound like if he decided to sing like anormal person! And don’t let the fact that this song is heavily influenced by Killing Joke’s “Love Like Blood” turn you off. All the other songs are great, but special mention for an improved version of “Shinainaru Death Mask” (which they recorded their first PV for) and “Misery”, a really catchy song with some nice mangling of the English language (apparently the last word in the chorus is “law”?). Unfortunately this album is long out of print and I had to go to quite a bit of trouble to find one – navigating my way through Amazon Japan’s second hand sellers who mostly don’t ship outside of Japan – but it is well worth the trouble. Many bands (especially Dir en grey) were inspired by these guys, so if you’re into 1990s visual kei you need this album.

Mayoeru Yuritachi – Romance of Scarlet (1994)

This was their first album for a major label, and again they changed up their sound, though this time it wasn’t for the better. Gone are the gothic/post-punk influences (for the most part); the band sounds a lot more upbeat and “pop”. Maybe they thought they’d taken their dark sound as far as they could? Or the pressure from their label to sell forced them to change? Maybe they didn’t even like how they sounded before, seeing as they’ve never returned to that style? Whatever the reason, it’s a real shame. First single “For Dear” is a classic though – a wonderful Cure-esque riff and one of Kiyoharu’s best ever vocals. The chords in the chorus are very nice too (Gmaj7, F#min7, Emin7, F#7; same as the ones in “Au Revoir” by Malice Mizer). I’d have loved it if the rest of the album sounded similar to this song, but they don’t. The rest just kind of blend into each other. Don’t get me wrong, they’re nice songs, they’re just kind of unmemorable and formulaic (a calculated push for success?). Worth it for “For Dear”, though.