Featured Review #64: BURNING SOUL by 摩天楼オペラ (Matenrou Opera)

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

Artist: 摩天楼オペラ (Matenrou Opera) Single: BURNING SOUL 1. BURNING SOUL 2. EMPEROR 3. アブサン (Absinthe)

Rating: | Matenrou Opera is set to burn the competition up!

 

This year has been an interesting one for our boys in 摩天楼オペラ. Starting off strong with the incredible "Ether", they set high expectations for their new elemental-themed album era. However, their following three singles of the elements wind, water, and earth fell short of those expectations. It was quite a let down as they are among my favorite active bands today and typically rock the longer songs without losing my interest, but these elemental singles just felt half-hearted and long for the sake of being long. Wrapping up this consecutive single quintet with the fire element was an astounding idea. "Burning Soul" brings to life the passion that the band so clearly had in their last few eras. The title track has several different movements that all make sense in the context of a song of average length. The only questionable aspect of the song is Sono　yelling towards the beginning and the end. I find him to be an excellent singer, but not particularly good at anything even close to harsh vocals.

That being said, the rest of the single continues to live up to the expectations set by the previews. Sono's vocals are pretty consistent whether they're screamed or not, which is refreshing. "Emperor" has a twinge more edge to it, with a pretty decent guitar solo, which in comparison to what we know Anzi can do is a bit understated. However, it flows well with the energy of the song. Additionally, there's more electronic influences in this song which is anticipated due to the fact they have a keyboard player, but we rarely ever hear him use actual electronic music in lieu of the kinds of synths we hear in the final track, "アブサン" (Absinthe).

Instead of providing energy to the track, the keyboards set the mood. "アブサン" has an immense presence; the intro is rather foreboding leading into one of the catchier visual rock songs I've heard in recent memory. Again, the only complaint is with Sono's "yelling". Yelling is really the only word to describe it. It's less of a harsh, threatening scream and more of an attempt to yell. Otherwise, the song's mood fits in well with the single as a whole. All very hard rock and appropriately heavy when needed, melodic and catchy, but most importantly: memorable.

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