Ryujin – Ryujin
Ryujin – Ryujin
Napalm Records
Release Date: 12/01/2024
Running Time: 57:25
Review by Metalphysicist
9/10
Back in 2019, I ran an interview with Christofer Johnsson, the leader of Therion, when his band played a concert in São Paulo, and we were talking about “Theli” (1996) and why Therion left behind their usual Death Metal style back then to try something very diverse of what their fans were used to expect from Therion. He answered me that he loved Iron Maiden, especially the album “Seventh Son of the Seventh Son” (1998), because he was really into the epic passages of such songs like “The Clairvoyant” and “The Seventh Son of the Seventh Son”. He said that he wanted to compose songs that highlighted mostly the epic elements on Iron Maiden’s albums and that was why he composed the songs on “Theli” with a melodic and symphonic vibe. And the lyrics on “Theli” were inspired by the ancient books and Pagan myths and legends that he was reading about.
As far as I can remember “Theli” was the very first album that gave life to that kind of grandiose sonority and introduced Folk/Pagan lyrical themes on Heavy Metal songs. And Amon Amarth was probably the most well-known band which embraced fully and ferociously the Viking/Pagan Metal musical style. I think that is was back in the 90’s that Viking Metal was born and since then had influenced tons of bands throughout the next years, not only from Scandinavia, but also all around the world.
Following that above mentioned musical stylistic, Ryujin is a Japan based band (they’re from Hokkaido Island) formed around the impressive ability of Ryoji Shinimoto’s shredding guitar technique – who is also the singer of Ryujin, whose main proposal is to deliver Heavy Metal from Japan to the international masses with their self-titled Napalm Records debut, “Ryujin”, which was produced by Trivium‘s Matthew Kiichi Heafy.
I think that this overall vision on Viking/Pagan Metal bands are enough to set what Ryujin is up to. They name their sonority as Samurai Metal and that makes perfect to me, as the thematic of “Ryujin” is about Japan’s Pagan Heroes – the Samurais, known as devoted soldiers of their leaders, The Shoguns, who dominated the Japanese territory from the XII until the XIX Century. The Samurais was known as excellent swordsman, who handle their Katana (spades) with precision and bravery.
Apart from their own Folk tradition, over the last two or three decades, the Japanese Heavy Metal musicians turned out to became extremely dedicated and technical drum players, bass players and, in particular guitar players. That is exactly the profile of Ryujin’s band members who perform the songs with high precision, next to the main Samurai of Ryujin – the above mentioned guitar axe Ryoji Shinimoto.
Ryoju Shinimoto delivers lots of great guitar solos during the audition of Ryujin’s new and self-titled album. The guy contemplates us with classical influences while shredding his guitar on ‘The Rainbow Song’, a solo that would make Yngwie Malmsteen envy on him – and maybe Satriani should hire Shinimito for the Big 3 sessions to give some break for the Ultimate Self-Proclaimed Metal ‘Maestro’ (as Malmsteen call himself). If that doesn’t happen, Trivium’s main man Mathew K. Heafy joins Shinimoto to play guitar on ‘The Rainbow Song’, making it a perfect ‘Big 2’-guitar-song out of the new generation of shredders.
And Ryoju Shinimoto also knows how to play solos with a feeling technique like in ‘Scream Dragon’ – the most epical song on the record, along with ‘Kinnecup’ (that sounds very similar to the epic songs from Therion). Ryujin, as told in the band’s press release, introduces typical Japanese folk instruments on songs like ‘Gekokujo’ and in many other passages of the album, which perfectly combines with the bands Folk/Samurai Metal whose aesthetic delivers Ryujin own fingerprint to the delight of lovers of Folk Metal.
The average sonority on the songs on “Ryujin” resembles to Power Metal and Melodic Death Metal, as heard on their first single/video for ‘Raijin & Fujin’, opting for less prominent vocal lines, preventing the vocals from obscuring the main Ryujin’s focus on the guitar riffs, melodies, and solos. If you don’t raise your fist to sing along ‘Raijin & Fujin’ chorus, probably you are reading the wrong album review, my friend.
The only “if” about the album as a whole is the peccadillo committed by the band on exaggerating on picturesque Japan musical tastes on “Ryujin” sometimes. ‘Saigo No Hoshi’ is the song that highlights what I am trying to say – the song combines Melodic Metal conductions with J-Pop Songs and I think that neither the metallers are interested on it nor the average J-Pop fans (I showed the song for my wife, who is a Japanese descendant and a huge fan of J-Pop songs and she said for me that she felt that the ‘Saigo No Hoshi’ is too heavy for her ears). Maybe Ryujin should hold their horses on using all the pallets of Japanese sonorities at a single album, saving some of those textures for the next records of this great Folk/Samurai Metal band commanded by the Great Warrior Ryoju Shinimoto that wields his guitar with the same strength and precision as a true Samurai held their Katanas in his times of glory along the famous Japanese Dynasties which takes special part on the history of the civilizations, since the very beginning of the mankind.
Ryujin’s self-titled album is a must-listen album for all the Folk Metal fans and for the ones who are into listening to Heavy Metal played with care and good taste in the musical arrangements and production touches.
TRACKINGLIST
01. Hajimari
02. Gekokujo
03. Dragon, Fly Free
04. Raijin & Fujin (Feat. Matthew K. Heafy)
05. The Rainbow Song (Feat. Matthew K. Heafy)
06. Kunnecup (Feat. Mukai Wataru)
07. Scream of the Dragon
08. Gekirin
09. Saigo No Hoshi
10. Ryujin
11. Guren No Yumiya (Feat. Matthew K. Heafy)
12. Saigo No Hoshi (Feat. Matthew K. Heafy)
LINE – UP
Ryoji Shinomoto – Guitar, Vocals, Shamisen, Erhu, Dragon Flute & Orchestration
Shuji Shinomoto – Drums, Vocals
Aruta Watanabe – Bass, Vocals
LINKS:
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