Obviously spurred on by Henkka's last couple of posts, Momoclo have decided to join in the action with their wonderful new rearrangement of that Christmas Bside called Santasan on their previous single, Roudou Sanka (also worth a listen if you're into Kinniku Shoujotai or The Go! Team, as Ohtsuki Kenji wrote the lyrics and Ian Parton did the music).
Anyway, here is the "Bloody Christmas" version of Santasan:
[audio:http://www.intlwota.com/metalhead/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/04-Santa-san-Bloody-Christmas-Version.mp3|titles=04 Santa-san ~Bloody Christmas Version~]
Straight from the start, bells and doomyness remind of Sabbath, but more evilly of a group called Legions of Crows from my hometown of Salisbury who release Christmas songs every year. Doom Metal Christmas songs. Sometimes featuring Paul Di'anno, but I digress. Having jingle bells la'd over the top is hilarious. Then death metal as fuck. Blastbeats and heavy riffs. Then Momoclo vocals being happy and cute over it... This is a niche market that I think could work, need to look into it.
Honestly, this puts Babymetal to shame. And everything on my Top 50 Metal Idol Songs list. Even has a random death grunt in here somewhere. Riffs are actually pretty cool death metal riffs, with a hint of groove at points. Hint of a black metal riff somewhere, but still, this just takes everything idols have been slowly building up to for the past couple of years and melds it all in together. Under a Christmas song.
I think no one would be too pissed off if I said this is more metal than Cannibal Corpse.
Then Santa starts raping and murdering the girls or something, while death grunting "hohoho". Completely "wtf" and "rofl" at the same time. Honestly can't think of what more to write because I'm still too busy being in awe at how amazing it is and then giggling at the silliness of it all.
Of course, this being Momoclo no doubt they're giggling at the silliness of it all too, but then again, on their upcoming next single that's out in March, "Mouretsu Uchuu Koukyoukyoku Dainana Gakushou 'Mugen no Ai'" (if you wondered, this means something like "Violent Universe Symphony, Seventh Movement 'Infinite Love'", just proving their psycho status even further) they have Marty Friedman playing guitar, and it sounds something like a cross between Nightwish's choirs, Megadeth's guitar playing (as you'd expect), random Jpop, bit of Queen, Blind Guardian and some random Vis Kei with added syncopation in the chorus. If you click this within the next two weeks it might still be on youtube. So I'm guessing that despite the ever growing encroachments of Kpop and that generic "sound", Jpop's obsession with metal and general genre-fuckery isn't quite over yet.
Thank fuck.
I'm glad you made this post. I just heard this yesterday actually. It could be debated in the cases of all previous "metal in Jpop" lists thus far, "that ain't really metal!" or what have you... but no longer. This is... it's basically what we've been talking about all this time in a "what if" sense. Now someone finally went and did it, and it's every bit as metal as I could dare even hope for. In other words: fucking hell, man.
ReplyDeleteI just heard about Momoiro Clover appearing at a metal festival a while back and was thinking "what were they doing there? I wonder how that went over with the audience." It all makes sense now.
Who the hell is Momoclo's producer, anyway? I'm starting to really like the guy.
PS. Their next single sounds rocking!
Apparently a guy called Kawakami Akira acts as their manager and producer, but I don't think he has any input on their musical direction like Tsunku or lyrical direction like Akimoto Yasushi. Possibly his instructions to the composers are just "make it insane" and "make it more insane". Good article on their origins and shit here: http://patrickmacias.blogs.com/er/2011/11/on-momoiro-clover-z.html The guy who composed the remake of Santasan was NARASAKI, guy from the Shoegaze band Coalter of the Deepers. He also did Momoclo's Pinky Jones and Mirai Bowl, if that's any idea to how good a range of stuff he can do.
ReplyDeleteI suppose now that true metal has been obtained, now we've just got to hope for some established idols to actually pick up instruments and thrash out themselves.
My money's on NMB's Yamamoto Sayaka, seeing as she used to be in a rock band anyway :P
Or on Risako actually learning to deathgrowl and doing it on Berryz singles.
Really glad to see others loving this B-side remix as much as I do! I'd read some other reviews that called it "sloppy"... Sad that not everyone can appreciate how well the track really was done.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see them do more like this in the future, their next single is out of this world awesome, somehow the combo of metal and Momoclo works really well.
this would be good if it wasn't such a mess, it is not consistent in its pacing, I love what it tries with those insane blasts and what not, but it is let down by the lacking vocals of the girls themselves, extra points for the male death vox though. Falls short in my view though
ReplyDeleteThe PV for Mouretsu is out, and I had to make this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.majhost.com/gallery/Rayle/sgen/capsgifs/kanakofuckyeahposter.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8P2vr4J884&
Marty Friedman called it the "Bohemian Rhapsody" of girlgroup music, and I have to agree. Can't wait for the April Bluray release of their arena concert, because I saw a news clip of Mouretsu in it featuring a huge choir at the back of the stage.