
A solemn goodbye sets a dark, emotional tone for the heavy rock tune “Zankyou” by Ramo Toride (CV: Shohei Komatsu).

Title: 残響 Release date: 06/06/2022 Label: Movic Genre: Gothic-rock
Tracklist:
1 - 残響
Track by track analysis:
1 – Zankyou
Reverbed guitar chords paint a dark soundscape for “Zankyou”. As soon as the leading piano melody starts playing, you know you are in for a dramatic, almost solemn tune that will play with your emotions.
This song feels and sounds raw as soon as the slow-paced, hard-hitting drums make their way into the track. Slowly, the song brings in a punchy bassline – which helps enhance the power of the bass drum – and heavy, dirty guitar riffs.
As “Zankyou” approaches the chorus, drama heightens however what awaits you in the chorus is something devastating. The tone is final and there is desperation, something that the solemn strings perfectly illustrate.
The singing remains calm and steady which ends up sounding quite haunting. It feels like a goodbye, almost like the burial of something or someone (figuratively).
In the second verse, there are some changes made to the instrumental. Alongside the electric guitar, listeners can find – although subtle – a sitar adding a mysterious twist to this song.
There are little details in the background with glitching vocals panning left and right for a split second before going for a dark, emotional narration section within this song.
While this song is performed by Ramo Toride, ESMERALDA’s drummer, the song doesn’t feature a drums solo nor the drums are the focus of this song. This is quite interesting as all other songs by ESMERALDA’s members had that sort of focus in the performance.
“Zankyou” ends up being a song that will shake you to your core for its final, dramatic sound and that is where the song – as a whole – does an awesome job.
It’s not instrument A or B, it’s the song as a whole leaving a big impression, conveying those emotions, and making the listener focus on the story unfolding.
On the vocal end, Shohei Komatsu has a unique performance ready for you.
From his steady mid-toned vocals, delivering clean singing for the most part of the song, to a brief lower-toned narration section, he did a little bit of everything. The narration in this song is not cheesy, so don’t worry. It is brief and focused on the story being told in the forlorn lyrics.
All in all, Ramo Toride’s “Zankyou” arrives to shake your emotions to the core with a heartbreaking performance that, strangely, will leave you wanting more.
“Zankyou” is available for streaming on Spotify.
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