MEGURO LIVE STATION's Amusment Park vol. 6.
Small (tiny...) live-house in Meguro (Tokyo). Band list: Zero, Longinus, Vrain and Axbites. Doubt you know any of them: all Japanese groups... I was there for Longinus, but got pleasantly surprised by all the others, which I completely ignored before the gig! By the way, Longinus plays a melodic speed metal with a damn perfect blend of cheese, power, energy, screams and kick-ass performance! Their album (LONGINUS, 2006) is very good, but as Maiden and other bands you get a real hold of them and their sound only live! They're made to play! I came to know them last year (thanks to a HELLHOUND's gig) and then kept following them onward. The guys are really cool on stage: they do enjoy performing - you can get it! - and that's pretty much what METAL should be about!
Zero opened the show. What to say...? Young band: a cute female singer (good performer and full of energy, even if sometimes she pushes her voice beyond the needed); an even prettier female axewoman (got my eyes unwillingly turning on her all the time, while she was pointing at me - at least that was the impression - ... guess because I was the only foreign pirate in the crowd!); a good drummer. The guitar-man freaks around a little bit too much for what he can play at now. Youngster like to attract the attention, but they should concentrate a bit more on the sound and save the performance for the future (he trew the guitar around his neck twice, missing the catch)! Overall impression: they are promising and will certainly grow, but for now it's still "a long way to the top if you wanna rock'n'roll"! [AC/DC]
Longinus : at the cost of sounding repetitive: kick-ass performance! Good tunes, good lyrics (in Japanese) and good fun! Killer drumming; incredible guitar shredding (the axeman is impressive); pounding bass and a singing with a dose of originality (rather rare around here). I love them and I am very impatient to listen to new material as well as to other live gigs. After the show, they blessed me with some chit-chat, pic, CD signing, etc. (they went on purpuse finding out the guitarrist to get me his sign - thanks guys!).
Got also some extra booty... (yeah, J13, always thingking of you!)
Vrain. "OK, nice... but you'll never catch me listening to this stuff", I was thinking during the first track. Too visual... Then the only thing that prevented me from getting one of their CDs was the shortage of money!!! Indeed at half the show they got me! It's not properly metal: speed/melodic inserts, with techno; a bit of pop sound; stuff like that. Spiced up with the female voice of their frontgirl. Yes, again an attractive female singer/keybord player, very talented and good performer (with a voice perhaps too close to that of Onmyoza's singer and many other Japanese female singers). Very skilled guitar-hero (dressed like a Christmass tree, though!) and bassist, and an ABSOLUTELY amazing drummer! Who's this guy???! Star Wars-like Chewbaka look, but an inhuman drum-machine! I wanted to approach them after the show (they were there around), but... well, not knowing anything, it would have been a bit too embarassing. Next time.
Axbites were the highlight of the night. Good musicianship and very pleasant show. Endless guittar "ripping", solos, blasting drumming, etc. Yet, I didn't headbang! Don't know why. A bit tooooooo cheesy (if I tell you that half of the crowd were girls, perhaps you get my point)! The singer has a great voice (Eizo Sakamoto-like) and I would like to listen to him using it with some more originality. Very nice, but "You ain't got an hold on me" [AC/DC]
It's not MAIDEN, nor ARCH or 3IOB... but that it's something! I just quite don't get whay I have a mountain of good shots of Axbites and virtually no one of Zero's chicks...!?
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