Album review : ILLUSION FORCE – Halfana
Frontiers [Release date : 13.12.24]
Five year veterans of the Japanese rock/metal scene, Illusion Force have now been recognised by Frontiers’ Music as indeed, a force to be reckoned with worldwide.
They cite Dragonforce and Helloween as being among their influences.
Accordingly, an intense sense of drama permeates all of the tracks, as the band deploy powerful images and memorable music in compact, episodic chunks. All of them armed with a cutting, power metal edge.
Band leader/ vocalist/ songwriter, Jinn Jeon: “it was a great challenge to properly utilize the elegance and versatility of Japanese music”.
He’s referring to Gagaku, a type of Japanese classical music that was historically used for imperial court music and dances.
Fused with the band’s bold power/prog metal, this innovative sound design courses through the music’s bloodstream, a carefully calculated plunge down a never ending helter skelter ride.
It begins with ‘Kaleidescope’ and continues with ‘Captan No.5’. Both are light footed and fast on their feet, and both switch quickly, almost imperceptibly, from ritualised Japanese music to full, shrill progmetal mode.
The transitions can appear clumsy, but the dazzling, twinned axework pieces (between the brothers Shiramoura) are utterly inspired, as the duo negotiate hairpin curves in the arrangements with skill and aplomb.
‘Halfana’, the title track rushes at breakneck speed, mixing and matching competing melodies in a fast dance to the finishing line.
Like so much of the album, ‘Miracle Superior’ can sound chaotic and frantic. But its combination of melodic abandon, agile guitars and Jeon’s crazy soprano is wildly entertaining.
A spiralling melody, undulating rhythms and impeccable harmonic textures single out ‘The Serene Valley’ as one of the album’s key tracks, as it moves with grace and agility from one spine tingling moment to another.
It comes as no surprise to learn that the multi-talented, classically trained musician, Matias (Stratovarius) Kupiainen had a hand in the making of the album.
We will hear more of Illusion Force. Halfana is just the start. ****1/2
Review by Brian McGowan
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