The beautiful mask falls off the Momochi’s face, leaving only darkness and twisted love in full display in Veronica’s “Kaleido”.
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).
Veronica is fronted by Momochi (CV: Toshiyuki Toyonaga).
Title: Dear Vocalist Unlimited Entry No.5 Veronica Label: Rejet Release date: 23/11/2022 Genre: Rock
Tracklist:
1 - カレヰド (NEW SONG) 2 - 夜香花 (NEW SONG) 3 - 一蓮托生 4 - Quiet Water 5 - 胡蝶之夢
Track by track analysis:
1 – カレヰド
“Kaleido” is not your typical Veronica song. It starts off dark and aggressive while having quite a slow pace to itself. Overdriven guitars paint a dark soundscape as another electric guitar goes for an emotional solo right off the bat.
When you get to the first verse, you’ve already experienced a lot of “Kaleido” has to offer you but there are still some surprises awaiting you. The instrumental has subtle influences of enka music, noticeable in the melodies being played as well as the progression of the song itself.
While presenting itself as a modern rock tune, it actually has a lot of traditional elements at its core and is driven by that main Enka-inspired melody on the overdriven guitar that is playing since the start of the song.
With a darker, slower-paced sound in “Kaleido”, the stage is open for Momochi to lead the way and deliver what is quite the emotional performance yet lacking most of the devious, manipulative vibe that he had up until now in both his performance and lyrics.
The chorus is where all the Enka influences shine the most. Yet again, this is a strong blend of traditional Japanese music and modern rock and R.O.N made this unique sound come to life with such a style and impact that is quite impressive.
The bridge is heavy on all fronts. The bassline is punchy, the drums hard-hitting on the snare and splash while the guitars go low and overdriven.
What gives off the weirdest vibe is how slow and violent this song is while stylishly boasting a lot of beauty as its mask.
This is really on brand with Momochi (CV: Toshiyuki Toyonaga) but had never been executed in such a way when it came to the music.
On the vocal end, Toshiyuki Toyonaga goes for a performance that mixes traditional Enka with modern pop – by now this shouldn’t come as a surprise. He manages to have that seemingly “delicate” and “beautiful” vibe that Momochi usually brings to his performances but not without forgetting to add a more “realistic” and less violent vibe to his delivery.
Expect a lot of technicality in the performance as Toyonaga delivers everything with a unique flair and overflowing with emotion.
2 – 夜香花
“Yakouka” goes as dark as you could imagine. It is pitch black, grim, and suffocating. The guitars are distorted and with a lot of reverb echoing in the background as you move forward.
There are drum and bass hits running around you and synths glitching through the soundscape.
To your left, there is a thunderous bassline whereas to your right there are muffled drums. And circling you in what is quite the creepy performance are Toyonaga’s vocals.
But things change – drastically – when you get to the pre-chorus. Everything is glitchy and close to you. The sound is dirty and heavy, bringing a lot of violence to this performance.
The chorus goes by as quickly as it arrived. It seems like something was left unsaid but then again, do leave the song to do the talking for the vocals.
The vocals in this performance are unreal. The way Toyonaga’s vocals glide in the intro to “Yakou Hana” is hauntingly beautiful.
But that beauty in darkness vanishes when the vocals start surrounding you, panning from left to right, staying locked at the center when you get to the violent pre-chorus. Actually, more than feeling like moving forward, as you take a closer look at the soundscape and how it was laid out to you, it sounds like you can’t move and are just there, being played around with in the middle of what is a violent love.
Haunting, beautiful, violent, and sexy all in the same place. Yet again, a song performed by Momochi that feels weird yet is extremely alluring.
Final considerations
Veronica’s “Kaleido” is heavy. This is quite possibly the heaviest release by the band so far, being violent in all its songs while still having that unique “beautiful” and “delicate” edge that is a trademark of the band.
“Kaleido” hints that maybe – and I say this loosely – Momochi changed a bit in his demeanor. The tone in the lyrics is not as violent and manipulative as in previous songs and the performance is quite sober and simple in its emotions. There is, of course, a lot of technicality going on in the performance as Toyonaga had to fully embrace Enka style of singing for it but the tone is off for a change, which is quite surprising.
However, things were not as they seemed, and “Yakou Hana” only confirmed that weird after-taste that you get in “Kaleido”. That was, yet again, a mask.
In “Yakouka”, the feeling of powerlessness is quite present and the fact that the sound is constructed around you signals that you are sitting there, watching everything unfold, not being able to change anything. This is stifling in a way but much of what Momochi is about.
The drums to your right, the bass to your left, the guitars in the background echoing in this dark and grim soundscape, and the voice of Momochi going on around you as if contemplating what he just did or teaching you a lesson. It feels wrong as hell and the tone of the song only helps further enhance the whole vibe you get in this performance.
When “Yakou Hana” is over, you’re left there… broken. Alone. That violence, twisted love and desire, and manipulative – borderline psychopathic – vibe is all that is left lingering in the air.
From a composition and storytelling point of view, “Yakou Hana” is brilliant, bloody brilliant in creating that soundscape, putting you in that position, and running with a weird mix of violence and allure that confuses you big time during the performance. As far as enjoying who Momochi is as a character, this song is a massive red flag that you should stay far, far away from him, no matter how alluring he can be.
Despite the efforts to maintain a beautiful façade, the mask continues to come off for Momochi as “Kaleido” – the single – boasts quite the aggressive sound in the middle of insanely violent and grim soundscapes. Stellar performances by Toshiyuki Toyonaga and masterful work on the composition end by R.O.N make Veronica’s “Kaleido” stand out in the UNLIMITED CD series in the Dear Vocalist franchise due to how twisted and dark it is.
“Dear Vocalist Unlimited Entry No.5 Veronica” is available for purchase at CDJAPAN.
