entertainment

Wagakki Band’s newest video 'Strong Fate' might just be the most epic one yet

7 Comments
By Michelle Hughes, RocketNews24

Oh, Wagakki Band. You have yet to fail us when it comes to pairing gritty guitars and killer percussion with Japanese folk instruments and Yuuko Suzuhana’s otherworldly voice. And “Strong Fate” is no exception!

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with them, Wagakki Band was formed in 2013 and their first album “Vocalo Zanmai” debuted in April 2014. The lead singer Yuuko Suzuhana is a shigin singer. Shigin is basically traditional Japanese performance poetry. In addition to the typical rock band instruments, 4 of the 8 band members play Japanese folk instruments such as the shamisen (a Japanese lute) and the shakuhachi (a Japanese flute). This unorthodox pairing of sounds in combination with music videos full of fantasy have gained them a worldwide following.

While we’ve expressed our love of the band’s offerings in prior posts, it is this writer’s opinion that both this song and video take them to a whole new level. The first minute of the song is somewhat uncharacteristically sparse sonically compared to some of their other songs, but this actually allows Suzuhana’s voice to take on a shimmering quality in conjunction with the shamisen work and conjures up images of water rippling on an icy lake in the dead of winter along with the sense that a foundation is being laid for something greater to come. If you are looking for something dramatic and intense, this video doesn’t disappoint.

There’s also great news for Wagakki Band fans old and new on the West Coast: between July 12 and July 16, Wagakki Band will be performing four concerts in California on their “衝撃 (shogeki) Deep Impact” tour. You can find more information on dates, times, locations, and tickets here on their website.

For more on Wagakki Band, check out this post on their song “Valkyrie”, the opening to the anime Twin Star Exorcists.

Sources: Wagakki Band, Youtube/Avex, Wikipedia

Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Wagakki Band releases new video for Hangeki no Yaiba, theme song for Attack on Titan mini-series -- It’s a hard rock life: NINGEN ISU’s Shinji Wajima talks about songwriting, working with friends -- Japanese band robot-dances their way around London in latest music video

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7 Comments
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another reason why i love this band!!!!!

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Wagakki should be getting more press etc than say Babymetal imo.....

Although they seem to be getting a bit J-poppy shoganai I guess

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

The editing of this video makes it nearly unwatchable. Slow down the sequences a bit and give the viewer a chance to actually see the performance and effects instead of being overwhelmed into a dizzying headache. As far as the song goes, the composition suffers from the same problem as the video, too much of too many good things. Less would have been more by focusing on a single instrument and theme. It comes off as haphazardly constructed with no real unifying motif to all the various parts. They are obviously gifted musicians and entertainers, but no so much song writers. Get Kobametal to produce the next release!

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Could have gone but the show was last night,,,nice

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I agree with Baltan. Never heard of this band before, not interested in hearing anything else from them. this video/song is a confusing mess. Like it was created by a group of executives that all wanted to have a hand in the creation of it.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

its bs.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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