TRIGGER “Heavenly Visitor” (Review)

Exciting and completely different from what they’ve been releasing up until now, TRIGGER will keep you on our toes with unpredictable instrumentals and polished vocal performances on “Heavenly Visitor“.

Title: Heavenly Visitor
Label: Lantis
Release date: 28/02/2018
Genre: J-Pop/J-Rock

Tracklist:

1. Heavenly Visitor
2. DIAMOND FUSION
3. Heavenly Visitor (Off Vocal)
4. DIAMOND FUSION (Off Vocal)

Track by track analysis:

1 – Heavenly visitor

TRIGGER dive into new territory for “Heavenly Visitor”. Wrapped in shredding guitar riffs, a reverberating bassline, and powerful, snary drums, this song is far from sounding like the typical TRIGGER fans are used to.

This change of pace, embracing a heavier sound while still donning their catchy and suggestive pop lyrics is a breath of fresh air on their repertoire.

This rock instrumental has everything, an exciting chorus, melodic verses, a breathtakingly beautiful piano-driven outro and, to top it all, a memorable guitar solo. Now, on the vocal end, we have one of the most exciting and powerful performances from TRIGGER. The trio fits like a glove with this new sound.

Wataru Hatano and Takuya Sato’s low vocals are more than familiar with rock music, tackling low-toned sections and melodic mid-tones with ease.

Soma Saito, although not as familiar as Hatano and Sato, performs on par with them, leading the group towards perfect performance. “Heavenly Visitor” is the song we didn’t even know we’d need to listen to from TRIGGER. 

2 – DIAMOND FUSION

“DIAMOND FUSION” takes TRIGGER back to their alluring, slow-paced yet catchy electronic pop sound. Progressive synths are a must for this kind of song, meant to set the danceable tone and hype the listener throughout.

However, the way the synths were used on this instrumental was rather fresh. The lead synth isn’t looping endlessly, it only comes to the spotlight to enhance certain elements – i.e. intro, pre-chorus – and add explosiveness to the build-ups.

The verses mix progressive synths with slow-paced dubstep-ish drum samples.

This mix did wonders to the whole pacing of the song. So, don’t expect any over-the-top dubstep drum loops or the sort, the drum samples used avoided any kind of ridiculous or annoying results.

The vocals are off the charts.

There’s no shortage of quality and variety. Rap parts, flourishes, some R&B touches, and high notes, all were performed perfectly as you’d expect from them. “DIAMOND FUSION” is an exciting addition to TRIGGER‘s repertoire.

Final considerations

Heavenly Visitor trailed new territory for TRIGGER. When we first listened to the preview and short versions of the song, we weren’t expecting that the whole song would embrace aggressive guitar riffs, fast-paced explosive drums, and shredding guitar solos.

We weren’t expecting it because TRIGGER isn’t known for that.

This was the first time the trio experimented with the rock genre. For a first experiment, we can only say that TRIGGER was more than up for the challenge and cleared it with flying colors.

Somehow, the same vocals that dazzle everyone each and every time, teasing the listener with their dangerous suggestiveness are exactly the same that was powerful enough to keep up with an uptempo high throttle rock song.

In case you didn’t notice, synths were nonexistent for this song. Some would think that TRIGGER without any synths backing them up would be like throwing away their identity and, as result, they’d sound awful or not have any chemistry on the vocal end.

The reality is quite the opposite. They are versatile enough to fit in almost any music genre and despite the fact that synths were removed from the equation only proved that TRIGGER‘s core is in the group’s powerful vocals, instead of in the instrumentals.

Yes, the instrumentals are part of their identity, but what made this song sound theirs were the vocals – that unique harmony between the contrasting yet complementing tones, their technicality, and chemistry.

The alluring way in which they tackle each song. Give them any instrumental and they’ll make it theirs in a heartbeat. That’s impressive in itself.

DIAMOND FUSION has some of the most interesting vocal performances we’ve ever heard from TRIGGER. They’ve managed to cover almost all bases with this performance. Want rap parts? They got those in the intro as well as later on.

Even though those might be on an idol level, their rap parts are still groovy enough to grab your attention and fit well with the song’s vibe.

On the other side, if you’re a fan of flourishes then Hatano, Saito, and Sato have you covered – expect sweet vibrato here and there. Also, there’s no shortage of high notes, however, those are only noticeable when paying attention to the backing vocals.

The trio tackled everything without a single issue and even showed us a glimpse of R&B riffing, a technique that, as of late, they’ve been slowly trying to incorporate in their performances.

Just listening to all that, plus their melodies and harmonizations are more than enough for us to notice that TRIGGER was incredibly comfortable showcasing everything they know and more. They might even have more to show us in the future.

In conclusion, “Heavenly Visitor” is a top release from TRIGGER. I dare say this is the unit’s best single to date. Exciting and completely different from what they’ve been releasing up until now, they kept surprising me whether it was with improved vocal approaches or different instrumentals.

Part of the fun on this single was not knowing and not being able to predict what would await in the instrumentals (especially the progressions) or even on the vocal end. I am thoroughly delighted with what I found.

TRIGGER is in peak form right now and “Heavenly Visit” seems to be just a snippet of something greater, untapped potential in this unit.

“Heavenly Visitor” is available for purchase on CDJAPAN for all overseas fans.

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