Review Summary: The punk scene's future seems a bit brighter now.
When my favorite band broke up, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Japanese post-hardcore band FACT produced a unique style of punk that is very hard to describe in a brief manner. As an attempt to do so, I’ll simply say that the band loved to be hyper-melodic and thrived on the idea of finding ways to incorporate a recognizable punk sound with a sea of unorthodox influences. In 2015, FACT disbanded into two halves - Joy Opposites and SHADOWS.
The latter band, while perhaps generically named, is the member of the pair that is undoubtedly the continuation of the sound of its predecessor. As a longtime fan of guitarists Takahiro Onose, Kazuki Sakurai and vocalist Hironobu Onose - the only official members of SHADOWS - I have to say that Torches is an exceptionally satisfying and cohesive album, and arguably the best work of their careers.
The band’s first album, Illuminate, was certainly a great record in my mind. However, it felt like an album that had its moments of greatness (Fail) while at other times feeling simply passable or decent enough (Freedom Is Yours, Don’t Belong). What becomes clear after multiple listens of the band’s latest effort is its consistency. It really does feel like one of those albums that are difficult to turn off, almost forcing listeners to turn returns to their favorite track into full album playthroughs.
This aforementioned cohesion is something that really hasn’t been seen since FACT’s Burundanga, where every full-length song felt like they all served a purpose in creating a single atmosphere that the album established as a whole. After all, FACT’s renowned debut album was known for the amount of different styles it exuded (i.e. an ironically enjoyable lack of cohesion). As a band, SHADOWS has traded some of FACT’s diversity for a more consistent tone and style, and the result here is astounding.
The record begins with the relatively show, chugging instrumental intro “Flare”, which is really a great tease for the high-speed sonic assault that the rest of the album is. The second track, “Vices”, is an incredible introduction to the rest of the record and really a trademark SHADOWS song. It starts off with layered pairings of riffs from Kazuki and Takahiro, then the latter guitarist lets out his scream before the melodic chorus vocals come in. Next, it’s Kazuki’s turn to contribute his guttural vocals to the track before things wrap back around to the verse. The song’s greatest moment though, and an exemplar of the best moments on Torches, is the two-part outro that comes after the second chorus. Beautiful punk guitar melodies compliment dueling vocals between Takahiro and Hironobu before things slowdown for a slower, heavier ending to the song. There are so many things going on in this section it’s really hard to mention them all here in this review, and in fact I haven’t mentioned everything, but the expert layering of all these parts to create something so compositionally sound is truly amazing, and something that these guys take to a higher level than anyone else in punk.
I could talk on and on about the next track, lead single “Still Remember” as it too is easily one of the best songs on the record. The latter half of the song highlights the truly exceptional drumming on this album, where a sick, tom-focused drum part is combined with gang vocals that sound like they are emanating from some grand cosmic source. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the names of the members of the rhythm section of SHADOWS, so I can’t truly credit these two great musicians for their work here. Just know that they are easily capable of standing aside the guitars and vocals on this album, and I would even go so far as to say the SHADOWS drummer is on par with FACT’s drummer Eiji Matsumoto, who may have been one of the most creative and compositionally-minded drummers punk has ever seen. Somehow, SHADOWS has managed to find a worthy replacement.
As the album continues into it’s second half, fans of the Japanese punk scene will find that the album delivers on the two major characteristics of the scene - lots of speed and lots of melody - a bit more than it’s predecessor did. There really are a bunch of satisfying high-tempo tracks here, with “Hallucinate”, “Under My Skin”, and “Starting Over” immediately coming to mind. Some people have issues with Hironobu’s vocals, but the reason why I think he’s so great is because he is the one who really differentiates all of these faster songs from each other. Hironobu Onose knows how to write great vocal melodies - and no one in this style of music brings the emotions out of me during a high-speed chorus quite as he does.
Overall, Torches is a truly remarkable release. Almost every aspect of the record features composition that is simply at a higher level than any other punk band I can think of. The band perfectly balances tonality and dissonance in the guitars and vocals in a near-perfect manner. In other words, they do what FACT did during their best moments on nearly every song on the album. Even the album’s weakest link, “Sway”, feels like a nice change of pace in context and features some memorable melodies. It’s a shame I haven’t really talked about the production yet, but let that only serve as a reminder of how natural it feels - I mean, really this is how every punk album should sound. It’s safe to say that fans who have been following these three musicians will be extremely satisfied by the time that final outro on album closer “Candles” goes through it’s progressions and refrains. That tornado of Hironobu’s melodic vocals, screams, uplifting gang vocals, powerful guitars, and pounding drums is something that could only come from this unforgettable post-hardcore group.
