Power Metal: The Jap Attack!
So welcome to the next in line for my specials, a review of the Japanese Power Metal scene. Like both European and US Power Metal, the Japanese have a slightly different way of doing things. Though still fairly small, the influence Yngwie Malmsteem has had on this scene is rather profound, with exceptional neo-classical shredding something of a normal. The keyboards aren’t used as lavishly to smother the sound (as in EPM), still retaining a guitar focussed core, though the guitars themselves are often played in a lighter or softer manner. The vocals are often sung in overtly smooth manner, utilising their native Japanese tongue, and it is here that female vocalists seem almost as common as male.
Contained in this special are the following:
Ferrets Picks:
Fumihiko Kitsutaka and Friends – Never Ending Story
Saeko – Life (and “Above Heaven, Below Heaven”)
LaCroix Despheres - Dernier Paradis
Minstrelix – Reflections
The Rest:
Dragon Guardian – Dragonvarius
Iron Attack! – Savage Flames (and Devils Daughter)
Ancestral – The Beginning
Ark Storm – The Everlasting Wheel
Sulfuric Acid – Sulfuric Acid
Balflare – Sleeping Hollow
X Japan – Vanishing Vision
So welcome to the next in line for my specials, a review of the Japanese Power Metal scene. Like both European and US Power Metal, the Japanese have a slightly different way of doing things. Though still fairly small, the influence Yngwie Malmsteem has had on this scene is rather profound, with exceptional neo-classical shredding something of a normal. The keyboards aren’t used as lavishly to smother the sound (as in EPM), still retaining a guitar focussed core, though the guitars themselves are often played in a lighter or softer manner. The vocals are often sung in overtly smooth manner, utilising their native Japanese tongue, and it is here that female vocalists seem almost as common as male.
Contained in this special are the following:
Ferrets Picks:
Fumihiko Kitsutaka and Friends – Never Ending Story
Saeko – Life (and “Above Heaven, Below Heaven”)
LaCroix Despheres - Dernier Paradis
Minstrelix – Reflections
The Rest:
Dragon Guardian – Dragonvarius
Iron Attack! – Savage Flames (and Devils Daughter)
Ancestral – The Beginning
Ark Storm – The Everlasting Wheel
Sulfuric Acid – Sulfuric Acid
Balflare – Sleeping Hollow
X Japan – Vanishing Vision
» Click to show other artists considered for this special «
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