Behold: a titan has been reborn! Japanese rock legends Luna Sea have reformed and released A Will, their first new album in 13 years. After all this time, can Luna Sea live up to their legacy as one of the first and most talented visual-kei bands in existence? Let's find out.
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| A Will Regular Edition Cover |
Tracklist:
1. Anthem of Light
2. Rouge
3. The End of the Dream
4. MARIA
5. Glowing
6. Run (乱)
7. absorb
8. Metamorphosis
9. Gin no Tsuki (銀ノ月)
10. Thoughts
11. Grace
(Fair warning: I am not a Luna Sea fan, nor do I have a large background in listening to their music. Because of this, I will be reviewing this album from the perspective of visual-kei listener in 2013 while taking the well-known talent and history of these musicians into consideration.)
There are three distinct qualities that you will notice about each song on A Will. For starters, there is a staggering amount of talent packed into each track. The songs are fantastically composed, and Sugizo's guitar work is particularly phenomenal (I've haven't listened to an album where the guitars have felt so "right" in a very long time). Secondly, most of these songs are a 2013 rendition of traditional rock and roll: no dubstep, no pop sounds, and very few bells and whistles of any kind. A Will is Japanese rock and roll to the core and not much else (don't worry, this is a good thing).
Finally, the primary focus of this album is on positive, upbeat, and relatively slow songs. While there are a few fast and intense tracks on this album, most of them have been previously released as singles, whereas the new tracks range from medium-tempo to slow ballads. Luna Sea's members have clearly stated in the past that this album was created with the intent of conveying a message of hope and joy to the listener, and that is exactly what it does.
I will evaluate how these three qualities effect the overall product later in the review. But first, let's take a look at the songs on A Will. The triumphant "Anthem of Light" opens the album on a positive and hopeful note. Guitarists Sugizo and Inoran contribute intense chords and slow, crooning guitar melodies while a violin sings in the background. The song gives off a very large presence and serves its purpose as an opening track well. After "Anthem of Light" ends, A Will opens up the throttle with "Rouge". This song is one of the best on the album and my personal favorite. Much of "Rouge" involves a relatively low, repeating guitar melody reminiscent of classic rock, but set to a faster tempo. This melody is periodically punctuated by sexy-sounding guitar wailing. Sugizo does an especially phenomenal job in this song, and while I wish the guitar solo wasn’t so short and unvaried, the entire song is so full of his masterfully-executed guitar work that it makes up for it.
Finally, the primary focus of this album is on positive, upbeat, and relatively slow songs. While there are a few fast and intense tracks on this album, most of them have been previously released as singles, whereas the new tracks range from medium-tempo to slow ballads. Luna Sea's members have clearly stated in the past that this album was created with the intent of conveying a message of hope and joy to the listener, and that is exactly what it does.
I will evaluate how these three qualities effect the overall product later in the review. But first, let's take a look at the songs on A Will. The triumphant "Anthem of Light" opens the album on a positive and hopeful note. Guitarists Sugizo and Inoran contribute intense chords and slow, crooning guitar melodies while a violin sings in the background. The song gives off a very large presence and serves its purpose as an opening track well. After "Anthem of Light" ends, A Will opens up the throttle with "Rouge". This song is one of the best on the album and my personal favorite. Much of "Rouge" involves a relatively low, repeating guitar melody reminiscent of classic rock, but set to a faster tempo. This melody is periodically punctuated by sexy-sounding guitar wailing. Sugizo does an especially phenomenal job in this song, and while I wish the guitar solo wasn’t so short and unvaried, the entire song is so full of his masterfully-executed guitar work that it makes up for it.
"The End of the Dream" was previously released (along with "Rouge")
as a double-sided single. Although similar to "Rouge" on paper, this song has a more
medium-ranged tempo and a somewhat different sound. Its repeating-yet-complex guitar melody is
appealing to the ear, and Ryuichi’s powerful vocals pack quite a punch. Luna Sea then slows the album down with "MARIA",
a peaceful and joyful song that I enjoyed much more than I expected to (I
personally don’t enjoy many slow songs, but all of the slow songs on A Will are top-notch). "Glowing" invokes the "slow-but-sexy
rock song" archetype and mixes it with a somewhat somber feeling. It’s filled with
crooning guitar notes and sports a pretty
powerful guitar solo, courtesy of Sugizo. "Ran (乱)" wastes no time getting to its upbeat and familiar-sounding chorus. It sounds similar to many other slow alternative rock songs. It's a solid song, but I found it to be one of the less interesting tracks on the album. A Will continues its streak of slow songs with "absorb", a track that makes clever use of bell chimes and lulling guitar chords to create an smooth and relaxed sound.
Luna Sea picks the speed back up a little bit with the oddball song of the album: "Metamorphosis". The frantically-strummed guitar chords in the verses give the song a faint sense of urgency, while the powerfully-sung chorus helps to calm the song down a bit. There's one especially strange point in "Metamorphosis's" bridge where the song suddenly slows down and Ryuichi sings a couple of auto-tuned lyrics. Before the listener even has time to react to (or in my case protest) this surprising move, the song bursts into the wildest guitar solo heard up to this point on the album. It's a peculiar track that definitely caught my attention, which had begun to wane after so many slow songs in a row. In "Gin no Tsuki (銀ノ月)" (yet another slow song), acoustic guitar chords mix with slow electric guitar riffs to create a full yet relaxing sound. In lieu of a guitar solo, Sugizo plays a beautiful and echoing violin piece during the bridge.
A Will's energy level skyrockets in "Thoughts". Second only to "Rouge" in energy and intensity (and that's definitely debatable), this song is fast, emotional, and powerful. More importantly, "Thoughts" is the only song on the album where Sugizo and Inoran truly let their guitar prowess run wild. The song is filled with guitar riffs and melodies that range from powerful to lingering, and the stunning guitar solo will keep your adrenaline rushing long after it finishes. It's an intense display of raw talent and energy that I wish I could have seen more of throughout the album. Luna Sea closes the A Will with the elegant "Grace". I found this song to be surprisingly enjoyable even though it follows one of the most attention-grabbing songs on the album.
So how does this album hold up as a whole? The short answer is very well. As previously mentioned, A Will is a well-crafted work of art, and it's clear that the members of Luna Sea possess a level of musical expertise that is incredibly rare in modern rock music. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Luna Sea's newest album is their ability to show their talent and musical depth through slow songs in unique ways. There may be a large amount (I'd argue a surplus) of ballads and medium-tempo songs on A Will, but they all feature complex instrumentation that made them feel larger and stronger than many similarly-written songs on the market.
Had any band other than Luna Sea taken the more "simplified"approach of straight rock and roll used to create this album, the results would have been disastrously uninteresting. However, the talented members of this band were able to create an album that demonstrates the correct way to construct the core of any rock song. Luna Sea has successfully shown the industry that, while newer studio effects and genre trends can definitely improve the quality of a song, the key to that song's success lies in its rock music core. Sugizo said in recent video message to Luna Sea fans that he believes Luna Sea has set a new universal standard for Japanese rock bands to follow, and I think that they've succeeded in doing so, at least at the core level of rock song composition.
If you don't like lighter rock music, you may not enjoy most of this album, but even so, it's hard to deny the talent finesse that permeates those slower songs. Although I wish Luna Sea had shown their intense side more often in A Will, I understand why their commitment to creating an album with a message of hope lead to an inclusion of many light tracks. I recommend everyone listen to this album at least once. If nothing else, come for the guitars and stay to see if you prefer the graceful ballads; however, egardless of personal preference, it's clear that Luna Sea is poised to retake their place among the most elite visual-kei artists in the Japanese music scene. Current visual-kei bands who were inspired and influenced by Luna Sea's older work (of which there are many) have the unique privilege of seeing their role models lead by example. I hope that these bands strive to meet the high compositional and instrumental standards that Luna Sea has set, because doing so will greatly improve the depth of visual-kei music as a whole.
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Do you agree or disagree with my review? What do you think of A Will? Let me know in the comments below.
Very well reviewed, especially for a non-Luna Sea fan. Thanks for this article. Was very happy to read it as a fan. :)
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