Concerto Moon — Norifumi Shima
Concerto Moon — Shigeharu Nakayasu
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AllMusic · 2.5 / 5 · · 2026-07-26 17:11:01
MiskamNiretet · 3.0 / 5 · · 2024-08-07 19:04:50
EveryDisc · 3.0 / 5 · · 2019-06-06 08:10:34
I cannot miss Japanese neoclassical metalists. I directly nurture a weight toward them. I try to follow the novelties of all the main movers of the style, and of course, Concerto Moon and personally guitarist Norifuma Shimi - this is one of the most important groups of the direction. Japanese neoclassicists don't seem to invent anything new, but at the same time, their scene remains unique year after year. Let critics scream that Japanese power metal is just a carbon copy of Western analogs, however, I believe that they have their own invariable face. And it lies not at all in the vocals, which even in English sound Japanese. The point is in the sound and delivery. As usual, the main skill of this people is to bring borrowing to perfection. At least perfection in their opinion. Here CM, like other founders of this school in the land of the rising sun, improve on the originals. Ideals of metal sound and shred are generally a debatable question, but in this case, we are talking about the fact that this is good and this is different. Japanese neoclassical metal pours like a stormy mountain river - loud, but incredibly melodic and beautiful. The compositions sound like absolutely complete works, in which everything is subordinated to higher logic. Well, enough laudatory speeches, now for the essence of the album. Why is it only a 6.5? And it is a matter of vocals and material. "Ouroboros" is a re-recorded best-of from the group's first albums. And it is re-recorded with a completely new vocalist Wataru Hagu. So this is one of the most predictable and banal vocalists of Japanese metal. He is not to be blamed for anything, but he is too correct, and therefore simply boring. But this is not the main thing. Like the snake Ouroboros itself, Concerto Moon bite their tail. Sorry, but the Japanese asked for this comparison themselves. I don't consider the group's first albums excellent, they sounded painfully straightforward. But they were quite aggressive and thus interesting. In 2019, these tracks turned into absolutely licked ones, because of which they lost almost all charm.
Independent review