I first encountered Ryujin when they had a sadly very short opening set on the recent Pain tour. I have heard of a few “samurai metal” bands recently, and Ryujin definitely fit the bill. Without going completely to town with Japanese imagery, their sound did the talking for them with a great blend of very heavy metal with Japanese overtones. I’d been waiting for the new album for a while, and it looks like being my first review of 2024.
After a brief traditional intro. “Gekokoju” blasts into existence with full metal force. Throaty vocals, shredding and thrashy guitars and pounding drums take us through the faster moments. However, as becomes a theme throughout the album, it’s the little notes in the background and the occasional solo segue that often give that Japanese feel to each song. Lyrics on the album also flit between English and Japanese, sometimes in the same track. This is a truly international release.
Adding to that is work from Matthew Kiichi Heafy (vocals and production) and Japanese cellist Mukai Wataru. The song titles are based on the words of the Ainu people of Hokkaido (Ryujin’s home region), as well as famous Japanese paintings and idioms. Oh, and then there’s the appearance of instruments like shamisen, dragon flute, erhu, and taiko on various songs. Take one listen to “Dragon, Fly Free” and tell me you couldn’t tell where the band are from.
If you like what we do, consider joining us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!There are a few sub-genres chucked into the mix. Power metal, thrash/speed and traditional metal with some hard death-ish vocals. Parts do remind me of Trivium (perhaps for obvious reasons) while others make me think DragonForce. It’s almost like a compilation album due to the range of styles that make up individual songs. “The Rainbow Song”, for instance, is nothing like title track “Ryujin” which is nothing like “Scream of the Dragon”. Overall, though, it’s just mad brilliance played spectacularly well.
When they played Ivory Blacks the other week, the band did promise that they would be back. I sincerely hope they weren’t lying as I’d definitely like to see them again on the back of actually hearing some of their material first. This is a soaring start to 2024.
龍神さん、本当にありがとうございました！グラスゴーに戻ってきてください！Don’t fancy Patreon? Buy us a one-off beverage!
Ryujin is out on January 12th
Check out all the bands we review in 2024 on our Spotify and YouTube playlists!
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