2021’s ‘Kuraku’ was as close to a median Ningen Isu album as we ever got. Solid, but unspectacular. Fortunately, the power trio from Aomori has a way of following lesser albums up with something amazing. The lackluster ‘Burai Hōjō’ was followed by the crusing masterpiece ‘Kaidan Soshite Shi to Eros‘, the eclectic, but also kind of messy ‘Ijigen Kara no Hōkō’ was followed by the spectacular ‘Shin Seinen’ and now, the follow-up to ‘Kuraku‘ is the incredibly dynamic ‘Shikisokuzekū’. Ningen Isu’s characteristic seventies hardrock meets early doom metal sound is firmly in place, but ‘Shikisokuzekū’ places slightly more emphasis on the former than usual.

At times, ‘Shikisokuzekū’ feels like Ningen Isu’s early masterpiece ‘Ōgon no Yoake‘ pushed through the filter of their notably heavier twenty-first century productions. It isn’t quite as heavy on the Black Sabbath worship as ‘Kuraku’, although their specter is never too far away from Ningen Isu’s riffs and Shinji Wajima’s guitar sound. There are doomy songs, but also occasional looser rock ‘n’ rollers, the folky ballad ‘Hoshizora no Michibiki’, uptempo hardrockers and galloping heavy metal riffs galore. The galloping riff in the fantastic opener ‘Saraba Sekai’ brought a smile to my face immediately.

Wajima appears to take on more lead vocals than on ‘Kuraku’ and I would say that the material in general suits his voice well. That doesn’t mean that all the highlights are sung by Wajima, however. Bassist Kenichi Suzuki wrote and sings on the brilliant ‘Namekuji Taisō’, a doomy monster of a track with an awesome ominous intro and almost tribal tom rhythms by Nobu Nakajima in its verses. The doom shuffle of ‘Kamidami no Kessem’ is prime Ningen Isu, while Suzuki’s vocal aggression elevates ‘Uchū no Hito Wanderer’. Nakajima sings on ‘Mirai Kara no Dasshutsu’ and as usual, it’s a fun, speedy hardrocker that fits his voice perfectly.

Highlighting the album for me is the epic closing track ‘Shide no Tabiji no Monogatari’. The main riff is one of my favorite riffs in Ningen Isu’s discography. It’s quite simple, but continues to give me goosebumps after repeated listens. The rest of the song is structured incredibly as well. The build-up to its fairly catchy chorus is brilliant and the crushing doom of the middle section is adorned with a fantastic guitar solo, while the intro and outro are simply monumental. Other highlights include the Sabbath meets ZZ Top swing of ‘Ikiru’ and the surprisingly uptempo ‘Uchū Dengekitai’.

‘Shikisokuzekū’ might not have the immediate impact that ‘Shin Seinen’ and ‘Kaidan Soshite Shi to Eros’ had, but make no mistake: this is Ningen Isu doing what they do best. The album sounds like they allowed themselves to have as much fun as possible within the parameters of their sound. The result is a highly dynamic album that stays entertaining throughout its 71 minutes. I do think one or two songs could have been sacrificed to maximize the material’s impact, but the fact that I don’t know which songs that would have been says enough about how good everything on ‘Shikisokukezū’ is.

Recommended tracks: ‘Shide no Tabiji no Monogatari’, ‘Saraba Sekai’, ‘Namekuji Taisō’, ‘Ikiru’

 

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