KAGARIBI’s “Noroshi” is a perfect entry in this UNLIMITED CD series, going straight for your heartstrings, making a mess, and then treasuring them.
The Dear Vocalist cast counts with RE-O-DO (Toshiki Masuda), Joshua (Nobunaga Shimazaki), Judah (Soma Saito), A’ (Ryohei Kimura), Momochi (Toshiyuki Toyonaga), and (2)YOU (Natsuki Hanae).
Title: Dear Vocalist Unlimited Entry No.3 篝火 Label: Rejet Release date: 27/07/2022 Genre: Rock
Tracklist:
1 - 狼煙 2 - meant to be 3 - NIGHT ROAD 4 - extinguish 5 - Music is everything
Track by track analysis:
1 – 狼煙
Heavy guitar riffs open the doors to “Noroshi”.
The chorus brings hard-hitting snary drums, a punchy, intense bassline, and sliding, dirty guitar riffs.
The song sounds like the perfect clash as well as the perfect harmony between opposites that are, in their essence, the same.
The high, clean vocals VS the low and dirty guitars is quite the interesting feature throughout this song.
Soma Saito’s vocals are higher than usual as Judah, something that arrives as a surprise of sorts. The loud, low guitars wink at the band’s original sound however with a more refined and intense twist.
As far as this song goes, it is both a glimpse of the past and also the perfect representation of the core of KAGARIBI’s relationship: always clashing and quite violent/passionate.
2 – meant to be
Closing this CD is “meant to be”, song that brings to the spotlight a softer, passionate sound that is unusual to KAGARIBI.
Dreamy synths paint an endless soundscape
On the vocal end, this song requires a great deal of control. For starters, Soma Saito has low-toned vocals in the verses and high-toned vocals in the chorus.
The difference between the performances on each part is subtle yet, on a closer listen, are drastically different in the vocal tone required.
Then, there is plenty of vibrato going on as well, and with this song being a ballad (not a power ballad but close to it), it is a song that demands a lot of Saito’s emotional range.
So you have technicality on the vocal end not only in terms of voice tone and range but also in the details (emotions). What Saito delivers is a gripping performance that feels like baring the heart for someone. With all these nuances, I wonder if it will be a complex song to perform live. This remains to be seen however I already leave my curiosity written here for when the time comes and I check if my suspicions were right or not.
All in all, beautifully passionate rock ballad with one of the trickiest performances Saito has delivered as Judah.
Final considerations
KAGARIBI powers its way through with an aggressive and incredibly emotional CD. “Noroshi” has a perfect balance between the band’s heavy rock sound and the clash of personalities within the band VS a softer sound and an open showcase of love and care for the story’s protagonist (you, the listener) in the drama CD parts.
“Noroshi” has a sound I was missing from KAGARIBI, however, taken to a whole other level with its dirty delivery and hard-hitting drums.
One thing that strikes me as instantly different from usual is how high Saito’s vocals are in comparison to Judah’s usually lower ones (almost in faux baritone range).
This arrived as a surprise however within the song, it is the perfect contrast to all the aggression and bass sound going on in the composition.
On the other hand, “meant to be” is an open declaration of love. While Judah was quite subtle about those in previous entries – even in the “Raving Beats” CD -, nothing had come close to this.
As such, the tone is soft and dreamy, warm and careful as the lyrics trace back memories and talk about hopes for the future. The vocals are equally warm and a bit lower – still not the usual “low vocals” that Judah has -, sounding closer to the listener.
The performance is intimate while the instrumental is more about depicting the conflicting emotions going on for Judah. In the verses and chorus, you get to see the two sides of his personality: the calm and collected – the tsundere – vibe about him hiding all that love and passion that you get to experience in the chorus.
This was perfectly represented in the composition. This is really one of those songs in which I could have not told you the context and you would easily understand what it is about and what is being represented here. The music does an awesome job at that.
And even if you are not knowledgeable about the Japanese language, the way Soma Saito performs this song is clear as day. The tone, the key, and the way he delivers the performance, are all tied up neatly with this performance.
All in all, KAGARIBI’s “Noroshi” is a perfect entry in this UNLIMITED CD series, one that goes straight for your heartstrings, makes a mess of them, and then treasures them.
“Dear Vocalist Unlimited Entry No.3 KAGARIBI” is available for purchase at CDJAPAN.
