Song of The Week: the GazettE - Reila

Though the GazettE has been labeled as nu metal or alternative metal occasionally, you can probably recognise straight off that its a japanese visual kei band. In any case, zetalambmary is a metal (and rock) music review blog so it works anyway.

A song from their maxi-single released in 2005, the first impression Reila gives, especially in the first 35 seconds or so before the vocalist begins to sing, is most probably derived from the simple yet beautiful piano part as well as the interesting combination of using an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar in tandem. This pretty much shows the level of musicianship this band is capable of. Aoi is my favourite member of the band (lets face it, us metalheads always eyeball the guitarists more, and this guy just sways like a grass caught in a hurricane during his guitar-playing XD) and the fact that his acoustic playing can strike up a good rhythm with Uruha throughout the song comes to me as a pleasant surprise. There's no 'boardist in the line-up, and I reckon keyboards are rarely used in the GazettE's songs, but while whoever tickled the ivories ain't no Janne Wirman, its inclusion is a really good idea and totally helps add to the atmosphere of the song.

Ruki's vocals shows little power in this song, but expresses truckloads of emotion, and there's this slight tremolo to his voice that just makes you fondly catch onto his words. Nothing else in this song, save the mournfully slow guitar solo at 3.15, can possibly express the whole feeling of melancholy and strong emotion more than his singing.

This song is amazingly clear, every individual instrument, even Reita's bass guitar, can be distinguished. In fact the weakest link seems to be Kai's drumming, which seems rather soft than most, but its not exactly a bad thing. Gawdknows a sad song like this doesn't need a million decibels worth of blast beats tearing it up.

Listen to Reila, the 7 plus minutes pretty much flies by. Get sad. Cry. Or you can just sway with Aoi. Watch the youtube vid below and you'll see what I mean =P. Its english subbed as well, in case you feel like knowing what Ruki's singing and don't happen to know a shred of japanese.

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I know this site's not meant to be personal, but this is dedicated to the one who sent me this song. Because I don't know what to leave her before my imminent departure. I don't know if she'll approve of this, there are a lot of things I don't know. But I'm leaving, and now I just wish to know that she knows I want her to live well.