paradoxal 2948 Posted November 26, 2014 pURPLE STONE (2013-) Vocals Keiya Guitar & programming GAK Bass 風麻 Purple Stone is one of the most promising new visual kei bands. Sharing the same label as hyped 少年記, I think they deserve a lot more hype too. Their first mini-album NEXUS was released almost exactly one year ago, and now they’re finally back with their first single (not counting their first one-coin single Scar). 甘酸っぱいマンゴー (amazuppai mango) As much as I love NEXUS and Scar, I must say that 甘酸っぱいマンゴー (Amazuppai mango) is an amazing single. One of the strengths of Purple stone is undoubtedly vocalist Keiya’s amazingly powerful voice, combined with catchy melodies and well composed songs. Being a part of the new era of visual kei, they also utilize a significant amount of synths composed by their guitarist GAK in their songs. Add a dash of SINCREAesque metal parts, and that’s pretty much what the single Amazuppai mango consists of. The A-side Amazuppai mango is a song, whose PV and song title make you giggle, because who the hell would make a song about mangos? I’m still 100% convinced this single was created because of “I dare you to make a song about mangos”, but nevertheless it doesn’t take away the fact that this song is one of my favorite singles this year (and yes I know, I declare this fact like 10 times a year…). The A-side combines beautiful riffing and carefully placed synths, and Keiya’s powerful vocals just take your breath away. The B-side Hysterical Lady is a harder song, and the chorus somehow reminds me of girugamesh, even though I’m not that familiar with their discography. This is undoubtedly a song that is super fun live, with lots of jumping and head banging. If you can overlook the title ‘sweet and sour mango’, I think this particular single deserves 5/5 and a golden star, even though it doesn’t add anything new to the world that is visual kei. Purple stone hasn’t done anything ground breaking, nor do they deserve a gold medallion for creating something totally new, because they by no means have done that. Not every band has to be always creating something new. As generic as this single is, it’s beautifully made and definitely deserves your attention. TL;DR: If you don’t like new visual kei, don’t try this. If you like new visual kei, try this. It's awesome. 5 Zeus, CloudyTree, hiroki and 2 others reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MikuKun 83 Posted November 27, 2014 I'm really loving Purple Stone, I also really love Shounenki so I'm very happy with this release! I think these two band's are going to be huge!!!!!! Great review! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CloudyTree 158 Posted December 22, 2014 First: Great review paradoxal!! After the announcement of their new single and seeing their new look and website, I feared they would turn into one of these countless "Let's-throw-as-many-electronics-as-possible-in-our-music"-bands. But after hearing the first preview my doubts were blown away! Yes, 甘酸っぱいマンゴー is full of electronics, but GAK did a great job here. His programming pushs the song to a whole new level and harmonice great with the guitar riffs. Together with Keiyas great voice, an amazing song is created, which could be the trademark of this young band. 5/5 Hysteric Lady sounds more like a left-over of their Nexus-Era and reminds me of Dark Insanity. Nevertheless it's a cool song. It is much harder than the A-Side and a song which is live a lot of fun. 4/5 Just try this single, it's absolutly worth it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
