Amongst Japan’s music “doujin circles” – a group of independent artists who sell their self-published works at special “doujinshi” events and shops – collaborations are commonplace. Free from the constraint of record labels, who generally must approve guest appearances by artists from rival labels before a song’s release, “doujin” artists’ releases regularly feature multiple guest spots. Entire collaboration albums aren’t uncommon. And yet, even by “doujin” standards,
UNDEAD CORPORATION’s
Tsuwamono stands out. The band’s ninth album of reworkings of “Touhou Project” music, each of the album’s seven songs has been co-produced with another circle.
Opening number
Stargaze is in many ways a typical
UNDEAD CORPORATION song; propelled by a rampaging backbeat, and featuring the growls of
Kubota Dougen and clean vocals by
Akemi, singing in immaculate English. The one element out of place is a melodic guitar riff, provided by
low of rock band
Register6.
Through my veins is a heavier, more aggressive affair, sung solo by
Dougen. It benefits from the only appearance of drummer
Fumiya Morishita. Guitar work comes courtesy of
KOUTA (
Thousand Leaves,
LIGHTNING), although the snappy running time leaves little room for his usual guitar antics.
Just One Night features the album’s most unlikely guest appearance. As part of
A-One,
Koshida “Rute” Takahito usually lends his voice to his bandmates’ “Eurobeat” dance-pop compositions. Here, he tries his hand at melodic metalcore, and the experiment works. Next up,
Kasha no sakebu yoru ni will be a welcome reprieve for listeners not so fond of extreme metal.
Tenge Fuyuki, also known as
Fuki (
LIGHT BRINGER,
DOLL$BOXX), takes over lead vocal duties for this superb power metal number. Her
Unlucky Morpheus colleague, guitarist
Shiren, is on hand to lay down one of his intricate, ‘neoclassical’ solos.
Mie of genre-hoppers
GET IN THE RING accompanies
Fuki in the chorus, and performs the song’s stirring refrain: “Don’t fear this adventure! Show me your heart!”
After this brief interlude,
Tsuwamono reverts to extreme metal for the remainder of the album.
Akemi returns to the fold for metalcore offering
Phosphere, joining one-man band
yapan of
CLOCKWORKS TRACER. What follows is the album’s heaviest, most brutal track. In place of
Dougen’s earthy growls, we get the outright roars of
sawacy, backed by the twin lead guitars of
Wooming and
Kenkawa. This duo’s combined shredding during the bridge rivals
Shiren for best guitar solo. Then, it falls to
UNDEAD CORPORATION’s resident singers to close the album with
Bleak land II, a three-minute blast of melodic death metal co-arranged by
Mods Crisis ∞’s fittingly-named guitarist,
Boost.
First of all, one has to applaud
UNDEAD CORPORATION bandleader
Matsu “Pine Tree” Kensuke for successfully crafting a coherent album out of such an ambitious project. Whilst enjoyment of
Tsuwamono depends very much on the listener’s appetite for extreme metal, fans of
Sophia-era
BLOOD STAIN CHILD should find something to like in the vocal partnership of
Dougen and
Akemi. The fact
Akemi sings on only three tracks may mean
Tsuwamono isn't the best introduction to
UNDEAD CORPORATION, the sheer number of participating “doujin” artists makes the album a great introduction to the wider “doujin” metal scene.
Below you can listen to the crossfade preview of
Tsuwamono:
