“ruby” introduces nu-metal to this series, however lack of consistency and some vocal issues in the duet song drag it back.
VAZZROCK is the newest 2.5D project by Tsukipro. The cast includes 12 characters split into 2 bands: Vazzy and Rock Down. Those 12 characters represent different precious stones. Besides this and in regards to the interactions between this series and others under Tsukipro, it is mentioned that VAZZROCK‘s members are on good terms (some even friends) with some members of SQ and ALIVE.
Title: 築 一紗-ruby- Label: Tsukipro/Movic Release date: 25/05/2018 Genre: Alternative Rock/Nu-metal
Tracklist:
1 - DRAMA「お騒がせは、朝にやってくる」 2 - DRAMA「お兄ちゃん」 3 - DRAMA「いざ、勝負！」 4 - Blurry Sorrow 5 - Time is Now... 6 - Blurry Sorrow -off vocal- 7 - Time is Now... -off vocal-
Track by track analysis:
4 – Blurry Sorrow
We kick off this release with a massive throwback to the early 00’s nu-metal era. In an exciting turn of events in the bi-color series, “Blurry Sorrow” delivers the heaviest instrumentalization – so far – in the series.
Slow-paced raw guitar riffs, thunderous, bassy drums, and a dirty slap bass are the core of this instrumental.
The instrumental also features some synths/piano parts that helped to set the dark atmosphere that took this song over. There’s a major focus on bass elements as it can be heard through the deep, groovy verses that stole the spotlight. The tempo doesn’t change as much from the verses to the chorus.
The chorus keeps it all heavy and slow-paced, consistent with the song’s dark vibe. Aside from all these aggressive guitar riffs and powerful drums, we still find some precious bits of melodic guitar riffs and a shredding guitar solo. The finishing touches were given by Masahiro Yamanaka’s vibrato-ed vocals.
He was up to the challenge, delivering a powerful and exciting performance that is meant to impress.
His vocals are the polar opposite of the instrumental, clear and clean, and he showed impressive control over his tone in this performance.
As a whole, “Blurry Sorrow” sits pretty high among the best songs released so far in the bi-color series.
5 – Time is Now…
Masahiro Yamanaka and Tsubasa Sasa team up for “Time is Now…“, an alternative rock tune that brings synths and heavy guitar riffs to the spotlight.
The dark vibe from the previous song is ditched in favor of a simpler rock sound. The song has a simple structure with fast-paced choruses, hyped verses, and an explosive bridge. Once again there’s a focus on a bass-driven sound.
Nevertheless, the spotlight lies somewhere else. The guitar solo in the bridge has a great 80’s rock vibe that fits well with this song, packing the right amount of tension while setting up perfectly the stage for the last chorus. All this excitement unfortunately doesn’t make up for the fact that this instrumental doesn’t sound as interesting as previous duet songs did.
On vocal duty we find Masahiro Yamanaka and Tsubasa Sasa. This is an odd pair.
It’s easily noticeable the gap in quality between their vocals, while Yamanaka is incredibly technical in his performance, showing great control over his mid-toned vocals, Tsubasa Sasa lacks a bit of control, and his tone continues to be far from a good match with rock music.
It’s impossible to shake off the feeling that “Time is Now…” is, at best, an okay song. You listen to it once but it’s not memorable, nor catchy. Ended up being blander than I expected. 4/5
Final considerations
Up until now, we’ve listened to almost every sub-genre of rock from this bi-color series. This entry, however, turned up a notch the tension and dark vibes and went back in time to revive “nu-metal”.
Yep. Nu-metal.
Forget jazz, blues, dance, acoustic-rock, this song is heavy, the heaviest so far in the series. “Blurry Sorrow” came out of nowhere to embrace nu-metal however, this song might not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you don’t like metal, rap-metal, or nu-metal, then this song isn’t for you.
However, if you’re that kind of person to whom “the heavier, the better” or lived the whole nu-metal era passionately, you’re in for a treat. Everything about this song is heavy. The instrumentalization is aggressive, with slow, dirty guitar riffs, slap bass, and fast-paced double-bass drums. It doesn’t get any better than this. This instrumental is reminiscing of good old-school Korn.
Make sure to warm up your neck, you’re going to headbang a lot to this song. Wasn’t sure at first if Yamanaka would be able to tackle such as song, especially when his vocals are clearly far from being deep or aggressive as the song demanded, but his performance ended up being pleasantly surprised.
What he doesn’t have/show in his range, he compensates with technicality and vibrato, which made his performance shine.
Gears changed with the duet song, “Time is Now…“. The dark vibe and heavy instrumentalization were replaced with a simpler rock sound, exciting and filled with interesting bits.
And quality took a hit in the process. After listening to several duet songs in the bi-color series, I can’t help but compare this with those. One, two, three listens to this song didn’t make it sound any better. This is clearly the weakest duet song – so far – released in the bi-color series.
Yes, it’s exciting at times, has some highlights (those guitar riffs and solo) but it doesn’t really introduce anything new to impress the listener. It’s far from being memorable like, for example, “TRICK TRAP TRICK” is.
On the vocal end, it seemed like Yamanaka was carrying Sasa on his back throughout the performance. The gap between their talent is like night and day, which also made their performance take a hit.
All in all, “ruby” is an ambitious release that slightly failed the mark. Given how much we’ve been spoiled with several high-quality releases in the bi-color series, it’s easy to rank this one beneath them.
There was a lack of consistency between songs and although Yamanaka is a force to be reckoned with in the vocal department, he wasn’t enough to save this release. The title track is flawless, and I’d rank it among the best in the franchise, but the tie-up track dragged this release down with a forgettable instrumental and inconsistent vocals. Was expecting much more from this release.
“VAZZROCK” bi-color Series (4) “Issa Kizuku – ruby –” is available for purchase on CDJAPAN.
[…] Sasa hadn’t shone once on Vazzy‘s first unit CD nor in “Time is now…“, duet song included in the previous bi-color series CD. Things changed for this release and […]