KAMIJO - Heart

[sai 868]

Artist: KAMIJO

Album: Heart

Score:

 

The best Versailles album since Jubilee.

 

I basically stopped caring for Versailles after the mediocre album that was Holy Grail. Their next few releases weren't too impressive either and thus I found it no surprise they called it quits about a year later. While the other four moved on, recruited Zin and started Jupiter, Kamijo announced that he would be starting a solo project. My only thought at this time was "this solo project is going to be a fucking disaster". How wrong I was. I truly, really missed the musical efforts of "Japanese man pretending to be 16th century vampire from France singing in English". Actually, I'm daring to be as bold as to say that this is VK's best release so far this year.

 

Now before I go into the actual album review let's make clear what this album has that Jupiter sincerely lacks. It's character and charisma. Despite how ridiculous everything is, from the costumes to the incredibly bad PV intros, Kamijo knows how over the top it is but the best part of this is that it still brilliantly works. This was Versailles' charm before they started taking themselves seriously and I'm glad Kamijo never lost this touch for drama, it's what makes him stand out.

 

Kamijo was always my favourite Versailles member, mostly because all of my favourite Versailles songs were penned by him. Not to mention he wrote Versailles' best effort to date (God Palace -Method of Inheritance-). It's very clear Kamijo is a good songwriter, yet I was slightly worried how he would work out this solo without working together with say, Hizaki and Teru. Heart shows Kamijo does fine enough on his own.

 

Despite the fact that Kamijo chose to keep dabbling in power and symphonic metal, the songwriting on this album is far from stale. There are different influences in play here, both new ones and ones that can be recognized from his Lareine days. The synth use isn't always perfect, but it's done tastefully and moderately. Despite that it's clearly audible it isn't Versailles backing him up (though the lead guitar recordings were actually done by Hizaki!), their influence is still there. Death Parade is a song I can imagine that Teru could write.

 

The album switches up quite often, but never gets stale or boring. Despite it being a song not really fitting the rest of the album, Moulin Rouge is brilliantly placed after two more mellow songs and is the start of the album picking up pace again. Transitions are smooth despite all the different influences. There are a few filler tracks on the album that I had difficulty getting into, but in general almost each track offered something different, something that Versailles desperately lacked at the end. I wish some of the songs would've been more similar to stuff he did with SYMPHONY OF THE VAMPIRE, but it's quite possible that mini was so different because it consisted of stuff he had meant to write for Versailles.

 

For how shit he sounded at the end of Versailles, he really seems to have found a way to work his deep voice the best at this point. Tracks like Heart showcase a huge improval from Versailles' last releases, he hits the right notes at just the right time and it's just a huge pleasure to listen to.

 

At this moment I don't really know what else I could name. I mean of course I'm going to make you want to try this album when I say even Zeus enjoyed it. We have officially boarded the Kamijo hype train.

 

Never change Kamijo, never change. Stay classy.

 

 

Final score: and two big middle fingers towards jupiter, probably. good luck beating this hizaki, you're going to need it.

[Senedjem 510]

I feel so good about this album, nice



good


is romantique literally metamorphose on purpose

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

Yay! I'm really glad you liked it, Sai. That was a great review (and I really hope Zeus reviews it too!!) and now it's my turn!

 

I made it clear in the review for Jupiter's Arcadia that I am extremely biased. I try extraordinarily hard to be objective when writing reviews for these musicians because Versailles was and is my favorite rock band of all time. However, what everyone is saying is totally true: Kamijo was the (sorry about the pun...) Heart of the band. While the other members were all extremely talented, Kamijo brought the charisma and character to Versailles that if any other singer lead Versailles, it wouldn't have been the same. That being said, I knew I was going to end up liking Kamijo's solo project more than Jupiter's work (although, like I said in my Arcadia review, I do see Jupiter progressing in a huge way... Still doesn't touch Kamijo).

 

Again I will agree with Sai that Kamijo is a ridiculously amazing songwriter. While he wrote the lyrics to basically every song, the majority of Versailles's best songs were composed by Kamijo as well. This is where I'm going to start my review: With the best composed VK song that I have heard in recent years.

 

It's easy to see why the album was called Heart. Either Kamijo wrote the big epic song and then named his album after it or he wrote this song because he wanted the album's name to be Heart. Either way, the 8.5 minute epic is brilliantly composed and executed. Dare I say it's better than most Versailles compositions? The thing that I love about it is that it's this hard rock song that literally does use an orchestral arrangement interwoven with bits and pieces of heavy metal guitar. It's such an interesting composition that even if it were instrumental I'd be into it, but this is also where Kamijo's voice stands out the most on the album.

 

I'll continue on with the singles: Yamiyo no Lion was easily the best A-Side single released for Heart and I say this because it's the whole package and largely Versailles reminiscent. Again his voice stands out and the song has an excellent blend of serious composition and catchy chorus work. My second favorite single song on the album is Tsuioku no Mon Amour, given that Kamijo does sound excellent, but my favorite part of the song is the orchestral "breakdown" if you will about halfway through the song. However, I do wish that he had chosen a different B-side (Gensou Trianon, perhaps) to include on the final track list. While Louis and Moulin Rouge are both good songs, their place on this album is a little... Meh to me. Louis was released long enough ago that I've listened to it so many times that having it on an album is really not going to do much for me (plus I still cannot get over that terrible high note he hits at the end of the song. I was hoping he would change that for the album version, but alas. He did not). Additionally Moulin Rouge is the single least favorite song Kamijo released for his solo project so far.

 

My standout favorite of the other songs on the album is Katate ni Yume wo Motsu Shojo. Everything about this screams that it should've been a single. And the cheesy outro is what I've come to love about Kamijo.

 

Brief thoughts on other songs:

Rose Croix, Death Parade, and Sanctuary are all pretty good rock songs that I think if they had been on a Versailles album they would've been a bit more polished, but otherwise these versions are pretty good. Catchy and big where they need to be.

Vive le Roi was a great intro, but I do think there could've been just a smidge more done with this.

Presto Acoustic was brilliant. I don't know why I had it in my head that it was going to be done with acoustic guitar, but I'm glad it was piano.

Romantique and Dakishimerarenagara were probably two of my other favorite songs. I think Romantique was an excellent throwback to Lareine and Dakishimerarenagara gets stuck in my head easily. In fact, I didn't like it the first time I heard it, but had to add it to my phone because of how badly it gets stuck in my head.

 

Overall, the album is easily 4.5-5/5 stars for me. In considering my list of the best albums of the year (that I publish on my tumblr between the last week of the year and the first week of the following year *shameless promotion* ShanethVarosa.Tumblr.com) last night, I found that thus far, Kamijo's releases together (SoV and Heart) make my second favorite rock releases of the year and my #1 favorite VK release so far. They probably won't be beat unless Dir en grey pulls a great album out of their ass for Arche. 

[dannemannen 69]

Ill return with a detailed review later but just gotta say that this album is awesome!
More or less every song has "magic" in it, he is so talented. Blown away.
Best album this year? Maybe!

[Igyou_Hime 80]

Could someone help me out and tell me what's included in the DVD that comes with the limited edition version? I want to buy this release because like the above comments say, it's pretty awesome, but I first want to clear out what that DVD includes and if it's worth it or if I should just go for the regular edition.... Is it the same PV's as the singles?

[JukaForever 758]

From CDJapan:

 

"Comes with a bonus DVD featuring music video(s), footage shot at his photo session in France, interview footage, a video message from KAMIJO"

 

plus I think he talks about some of specific songs, I don't understand Japanese sorry. It has a lot of him posing around in France with his outfit. One of the song is featured as the theme of said posing around. Same PV as the singles except Louis is metal version, some slight changes in the scenes, nothing too big though.

[Igyou_Hime 80]

Is it changes in all PV's or just Louis? I want the PV for Yamiyo no Lion, but if it's the same PV on the cd and on the single I might skip the single. Thanks for your reply!

[JukaForever 758]

just Louis 

[eiheartx 1310]

Btw, the album is 30% off, thanks to CdJapan's clearance (until dec 17) : http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/WPZL-30917

[Igyou_Hime 80]

I noticed, but since I'm in Japan I was thinking of getting mine from ZEALLINK so I can get the bonus DVD instead...I don't really need another poster XD

[Vitne Eveille 65]

I'm very impressed by this album.  I'm a semi-Versailles fan, and I like the Jupiter album, but you pretty much nailed it how Kamijo has more charisma and character.  Its true!  I dig how this album feels like a Castlevania soundtrack

 

Very happy with Kamijo