Hamada Mari - Legenda (2012) (7,5/10)

HAMADA MARI is a female Japanese singer that had an incredible career and this is already her twenty-first full length release in almost thirty years. She started as a protégée of the well-known late LOUDNESS drummer Munetaka Higushi in the early eighties. She later collaborated with a high amount of well know musicians who would also come from the United States of America. Even though she never got a definite international breakthrough, she soon became one of the best-selling Japanese artists in the late eighties and early nineties. Her style became a little bit more commercial and J-Pop orientated. Recently, her style became a little bit heavier once again and her brand new record “Legend” definitely has enough Heavy and Power Metal influences to be worth mentioned.

If you listen to the warm and variable vocals and if you take a look on the beautiful and well-dressed lady on the album artwork you surely wouldn’t expect that Hamada Mari is already fifty years old but that’s the stunning truth. The record sounds as fresh as she looks but still doesn’t reinvent a genre. Another positive fact is that there is still enough space for the instruments as the song structures don’t only focus on the vocals as it is often the case when we don’t talk about a band but about a singer only.

The opening “Crisis Code” is an amazing Gothic Rock song with hard but overall simplistic riffs. A few modern electronic samples are added to this and you happen to be surprised when the vocals set in. They sound quite dark and mysterious. The vocals are filled with atmosphere and charisma. They definitely don’t sound childish as many other sweet female Asian singers happen to be. I would simply associate them to a way I would imagine a fallen angel could sing. The vocals are mostly performed in English but there are also some little Japanese bits and pieces here and there.

That’s also the case for the second track “Momentalia” that could come from a European Power Metal band. The angelic vocals are surely technically well performed but they don’t really fit to the music and that’s the main problem with some songs on this album. Variation is a good thing but there is in fact a little bit too much of it on this record. HAMADA MARI and her team try out different genres and have many good ideas but sometimes the record feels a little bit directionless. A clear guiding line and structure is somewhat missing and makes the listening experience a little bit flawed by confusion at some moments.

The record still contains a couple of highlights that put the unique vocals in quite unusual and never before explored song structures. Especially the middle part of this release is truly impressive. The epic “El Dorado” is amazing Power Metal ballad in the key of HELLOWEEN’s “A Tale That Wasn’t Right”. The song features touching electric guitar solos but also intimate acoustic guitar moments. The song has enough diversity and especially emotion to remain relevant from the beginning to the end in over seven minutes of running time. With the equally long “Forest”, HAMADA MARI moves on a more Neoclassical or Symphonic Metal terrain that makes me think of WITHIN TEMPTATION for example. This track is an epic dark Pop song that has almost a rock opera structures the further it progresses. The warm keyboard sounds as well as the tribal drums keep the musical variation on a very high level on this album highlight. “Ransei-Conscientia” is then one of the hardest songs on the entire disc. It starts with some majestic organ sounds before an energizing Power or even Speed Metal track kicks off. The guitar work on this song is outstanding and even the vocals perfectly adapt to this genre. The track is surprisingly hard but still remains melodic. It makes me think a little bit of STRATOVARIUS’ “Phoenix” from the legendary Infinite album.

In the end, this record is definitely worth your attention of you like more commercial and mostly European sounding Gothic, Power and Symphonic Metal with variable vocals. Some courageous pieces on here work quite well and make this record quite entertaining but some songs also feel a little bit misplaced and can be described as failed experiments. It’s still impressive that a Japanese pop star goes back to her old metal roots and even discovers new and quite modern genres after all these years and I have a lot of respect for this mostly succeeded attempt. I’m looking forward to discover the singer’s large discography even further in the future and can only recommend you to check this new release out if you happen to be intrigued by her career.

(Online October 16, 2012)