‘Ogon No Yoake’ is the album on which Ningen Isu matured. That may be a dirty word for some rock bands, but Ningen Isu finally realizes its full potential here. Their debut EP and first two albums contained plenty of excellent songs, but also showed that the band wasn’t quite sure what their strengths were. By contrast, Ningen Isu sounds confident and powerful throughout the full running time of ‘Ogon No Yoake’. It might just still be their best-produced album to date, which helps them sound more professional, while the increased bottom end increases the impact of their riffs and rhythms.

While most Japanese hardrock and metal bands stand out due to spotless songwriting, the musical interaction is what truly elevates Ningen Isu’s songs beyond their compositorical greatness. Ningen Isu is obviously influenced by the heavier end of seventies progressive rock and gladly injects the jam-heavy nature of the likes of Rush into their Sabbathian grooves. Guitarist Shinji Wajima, bassist Kenichi Suzuki and drummer Noriyoshi Kamidate are on fire when they need to be – just listen to the busy rhythms of ‘Wa, Gan De Nebega’ – but also are more than willing to show restraint when the music asks for it.

Ningen Isu is often classified as a doom metal band and while that classification is not unjustified, it fails to properly cover the amount of variation heard on ‘Ogon No Yoake’. There’s short, swift rockers like ‘Dokushaisa Saigo No Yume’ and the relatively accessible ‘Kyofuku No Neji’ and long tracks with extended jams, such as ‘Mugon Denwa’ and ‘Mandragora No Hana’, the latter of which even borrows from Black Sabbath’s namesake song in its middle section. There is even a short acoustic instrumental (‘Subarashiki Nichiyobi’) that works perfectly as a breather right after the middle of the record.

Closing track ‘Kyoki Sanmyaku’ is probably pointed to as the album’s highlight by most of the band’s fans. And for a good reason, as it is a dark, monstrous doom metal track capable of capturing the mood of the Lovecraft story it is based on (‘At The Mountains Of Madness’). It is hardly the only peak on ‘Ogon No Yoake’, however. ‘Shinpan No Hi’ is a surprisingly laid-back and melodic rocker with a thick, driving bottom end and a highly memorable chorus. The opening title track needed some time to make sense to me, but is easily one of the better songs. It builds up slowly, but steadily into a powerful heavy metal epic. I particularly love the semi-gallop underneath Wajima’s guitar solos.

Some hardrock and heavy metal is expertly written, but lifelessly recorded. Ningen Isu’s music always breathes and moves. It is remarkable that the increased focus on streamlining and production on ‘Ogon No Yoake’ has not ironed that out at all. In fact, it made the music all the more powerful and the spirited jams come across even better than on the previous releases. Today, Ningen Isu is still recording fantastic albums. One could even say they entered a new youth, which is what the title of their latest album ‘Shin Seinen’ translates to. Those who don’t know the band would be well off starting with ‘Ogon No Yoake’ or its more compact follow-up ‘Rashomon’ though.

Recommended tracks: ‘Ogon No Yoake’, ‘Shinpan No Hi’, ‘Kyoki Sanmyaku’, ‘Kyofuku No Neji’

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Ougon no Yoake [UHQCD]

Ningen Isu