Aldious - Dazed and Delight
Though they aren’t the longest running Japanese all-girl Metal band out there (Destrose has been around considerably longer), Aldious is among the most prolific. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that the band founder, Yoshi, was able to find a stable lineup early on, and for the most part the band roster has remained unchanged for the bulk of their history. The only major shakeup that they had was when their original vocalist, Rami, had to leave the band for health reasons. She was replaced by former Suitei Shujo vocalist Re:NO and the band soldiered on, releasing the District Zero LP and a subsequent live DVD (District Zero Tour - Live at Shibuya-O East) that showcased the new lineup in action. Just slightly over a year later, Aldious has unleashed their latest LP, Dazed and Delight. Picking up where District Zero left off, the band has diversified their sound a bit more. Of all of their albums, this is the most experimental. Where their previous works were solidly within the realm of standard Power Metal, Dazed and Delight goes places that they never went before. This isn’t to say that Aldious has suddenly become the Power Metal version of Sigh. They’ve just broadened their sound beyond basic Power Metal. I don’t know if this has to do with RE:No’s influence on the band or that they just felt that they could do different kinds of material with her as a vocalist, where Rami was more limited. On District Zero, they proved that RE:No could handle their old material because that LP was essentially in the same style as their previous stuff. You could have dropped Rami in on any one of those songs and she would have fit in perfectly. I don’t know that she could have done some of these new tracks like “Puffy Eyes” or “The Breeze at Dawn,” though. It’s definitely an evolutionary step forward, but the band is still firmly rooted in Metal. Face it, as long as Yoshi is in the band, she’s going to want to shred. It’s pretty easy to tell which songs she wrote because all of them are either heavy as fuck (“The Breeze at Dawn”) or there’s some seriously technical guitar work on them (“Butterfly Effect” and “Dominator”). I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t include “Dark” or “Suicide” on this LP, though. Both of those songs were on singles as B-sides and they are really good. I guess it’s an incentive to track down the singles, but I thought that those songs were album worthy. If you’re already a fan, or if you want to hear a really good Japanese all-girl Metal band, Aldious is probably the first one I’d recommend checking out.
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