featured review #80: Hizaki - Rosario

[ShanethVarosa 1209]

 

| Another effortless masterpiece from one of visual kei's brightest musicians

 

Hizaki has been an absolute fixture in the Visual Kei community for quite a number of years. Spending some time with a number of small indies bands up to his totally-solo EPs "Dance With Grace" and "Maiden Ritual", and his Hizaki Grace Project albums; continuing on with big-name bands Versailles and Jupiter and now back to being temporarily solo: Rosario is an opus of Hizaki's decades-plus knowledge of the guitar and melody combining technical skill with the most beautiful of melodies and the heaviest riffs and beats. 

 

It's no secret that his greatest skill is in songs like promo single "Grace & Dignity". In fact, if you had to pick a song in all the songs he's ever composed and performed, "Grace & Dignity" would summarize it effortlessly. Utilizing a mixture of guitar solos and dual-guitar melodies with heavy beats in the background and graceful arpeggios, you have all you need to know about this man's career. But why stop there when you can listen to 13 more songs of it? 

 

In all seriousness, about half of the album can be blown through in about ten minutes. Any long-time fan of the man will have heard songs like "Race Wish" on at least one other release prior to this one. I, for one, cannot believe it's actually surfaced again. The rerecorded version is as good as the original with the key elements still intact. The same can be said for recent Jupiter songs "Rose Quartz" and "Church Candle" which show totally opposite sides of Hizaki's ability. Where "Rose Quartz" is actually pretty much an advanced version of "Grace & Dignity", "Church Candle" offers a softer side of Hizaki that is reminiscent of the "Calm" number from Curse of Virgo a few years back. Not so much a dueling-guitar battle, but a single guitar playing a single melody that is both beautiful an captivating. Some Versailles songs even make an appearance: "Silent Knight" and "Desert Apple" also show the same level of contrast in Hizaki's abilities being that "Silent Knight" is incredibly hard-hitting (like "Rose Quartz") with an insane amount of energy and "Desert Apple is slightly less exhilarating, but not quite a ballad. A mid-tempo song with riffs that are incredibly catchy (For example, you find yourself humming the melody because there are no words to sing along to). 

 

Those songs out of the way, there are actually a couple of songs that can be considered transitionary or possibly filler, whichever term you prefer. "Eien no Tomoshibi" and "Elizabeth" are both not particularly enthralling, but not altogether bad. "Eien no Tomoshibi" is just a lighter more ethereal version of "Church Candle". One guitar playing a soft, subtle melody that transitions between songs. "Elizabeth" is far more powerful and uplifting, with an anthemic feel that doesn't actually give a lot of credit to Hizaki's guitar skills, but more generally as a composer.

 

One of the key differences that this album has compared to a lot of Hizaki's other compositions is that not all of the songs are incredibly lengthy and showy. "Fly Through the Air" is a pretty good rock song that doesn't insist upon itself, but doesn't do a  ton to stand out either. "Beating the Sky" must take it's name from the fact that it's backbone isn't melody but rhythm with a pulsing beat like a club song. "Presto" is one of the best songs on the album and it's less than 3 minutes in lengths, apparently it's a cover of a Vivaldi song. Who knew Hizaki would actually do covers of classical music. 

 

The remaining songs have left quite an impression on me: one good, one bad, and one incredible. The good: "Dark Classical", a song with a strong beat and heavy guitar interpolated with melodies that only Hizaki can pull off. As far as original compositions go on this album, this goes the farthest. The bad: "A Ray of Light", while not being an altogether bad song, was just far too.... much it was five minutes of the same theme that was used in the single-guitar, low-tempo ballads "Eien no Tomoshibi" and "Church Candle" but without the drama and emotion of either. A perfectly fine tune, but I did find this one to be a bit insistent upon itself. As though it were saying "Listen to me, I demand that you listen to me even though I'm not that special."

 

Finally, the incredible: "Rosario". The title track has elements of every great song Hizaki has ever composed with the melody of "Created Beauty" from Versailles's self-titled album  built right into it. While it has only been a week and I need to digest the song more, one can tell from first listen that a huge amount of thought and planning needs to go into creating a 10-minute epic without words to keep it entertaining and meaningful. It's clear that this was meant to be the title song all along. 

 

In short: the album was a huge success and really let Hizaki indulge himself and his fans in his ability while separating himself from other musicians so that if it isn't your thing you can simply bypass it. Another potential upside: Now that he's gotten this out of his system maybe Teru can compose more Versailles songs.

 

 

 

 

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