In the nineties, Seikima-II basically released two types of albums: distinctly old school heavy metal albums and poppy hardrock albums with a glossy production. The former tend to be more to my liking, but both sides of the aisle have one notable exception. ‘Kyofu No Restaurant’ is easily the most aggressive Seikima-II album, but it also lacks memorable songwriting, whereas the much more poppy ‘News’ features some of the band’s best work. It’s not perfect – not every song has the intended impact and the experiments are hit and miss – but as far as poppy hardrock goes, this is excellent stuff.

Songwriting-wise, Sgt. Luke Takamura III’s signature is all over ‘News’. Ever since Takamura joined Seikima-II in the mid-eighties, his highly melodic songwriting and fleet-fingered lead guitar work have greatly expanded the band’s compositional scope. He is credited for all but two of the songs on ‘News’, which means you can expect a few returning elements: a strong, hooky lead guitar melody in the intro, a seemingly simple, but cleverly layered chorus and long guitar solo sections. Usually all in the same song. Stylistically, ‘News’ is similar to 1988’s ‘The Outer Mission’, but the songwriting is far more consistent and the production more organic.

Don’t let the first two tracks of the album fool you. Neither ‘Departure Time’ nor ‘Mahiru No Tsuki ~Moon At Mid Day~’ is a bad song, the former in particular is perfect for setting the mood of the album, but they feel a little lightweight compared to some of the cuts that follow. Not that there are huge stylistic differences between ‘Digitalian Rhapsody’, ‘Crimson Red’ and the excellent ‘Brand New Song’; all of them are energetic, riffy hardrockers with simple, but powerful rhythms and an atmosphere that is simultaneously hopeful and melancholic, only enhanced by their cathartic choruses.

Now, it may sound like we are dealing with the Japanese take on an AOR album here, but to be fair, the riffing by Takamura and Ace Shimizu is far too traditional heavy metal-inspired for that. Only the heavily keyboard-laden ‘Koku No Meikyu’ is fairly AOR-ish and quite successful at it. ‘No Good News Today’ is the most experimental track on the album with its heavy industrial metal vibe and while I think it kind of disrupts the atmosphere of ‘News’, it’s a really cool track on its own. ‘Save Your Soul ~Utsukushike Kurishe Ni Se Wo Mukete~’ closes off the album in style. Its melancholic chorus has excellent layered vocal arrangements and rivals that of ‘Brand New Song’ as the best on the album.

Though unequivocally starting out as a heavy metal band, Seikima-II gradually became harder to pin down stylistically as their career went on. Like much of their early fanbase, I tend to prefer them playing heavy metal, but albums like ‘News’ prove that there is value to their extremely melodic side. Especially because their metal background keeps the music rhythmically far more forward than similar melodic hardrock bands. It seems like Seikima-II was always doing exactly what they wanted and when the results are as good as on ‘News’, they deserve all the respect they can get for that.

Recommended tracks: ‘Brand New Song’, ‘Save Your Soul ~Utsukushike Kurishe Ni Se Wo Mukete~’, ‘Digitalian Rhapsody’

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News [Blu-spec CD2]

SEIKIMA-II