Live Report Exclusive

Rie a.k.a. Suzaku at Metal Matsuri, London

27/12/2019 Author: ChrisN

You’ll believe a guitar can sing.

For those that have fallen down the Japanese music rabbit hole, one of the things that keeps them burrowing away is the quality of musicianship. Japan seems to have an endless supply of outrageously skillful guitarists and Orion Live snagged one for the Metal Matsuri line-up with Rie a.k.a. Suzaku. Along with her backing band, an interesting ensemble in their own right, she provided another surprise for the audience, putting on an entirely instrumental set.

The festival’s host, everyone’s favourite cross-dressing, bearded Australian wrestler Ladybeard, introduced Rie a.k.a. Suzaku as “an insane shred machine”. While there’s no doubting her metal credentials, her recent records have been in more of a melodic rock style, so we didn’t get to see her full on shredding from the off.

The opener, Urban Highway, took us on a drive back to the 80s with its AOR sound. There was a little burst of shred in it and bassist Juna Serita impressed with a slap solo. She’d already won a few admirers before she’d even played a note, thanks to her outfit’s plunging neckline and hot pants. The self-styled “Princess of Funk” is much in demand as a session and support player and she adds a funky groove to Rie a.k.a. Suzaku’s sound.

Next up was Top Runner, the title track of her latest album, from which most of the night’s set was drawn. It was another melodic rock number and the guitar phrasing, with its longer notes, gave Rie’s lead lines the qualities of a vocalist. Her extensive but subtle use of the tremolo arm had the effect of bending and wavering the sound of her scarlet flying V guitar, reminiscent of a human voice.

Rie took a moment to introduce the band, including 16 year old drum prodigy Kanade Sato and barefoot keyboard player Marie Fukai. Rie explained that they were an instrumental band by stating “there is no vocal here.” It hasn’t always been that way. Rie a.k.a. Suzaku has featured guest vocalists in the past. IBUKI, who appeared with FATE GEAR at Metal Matsuri, is someone who has sung with Rie before. There was a slight nagging feeling that something was missing, so attuned are we to bands having a vocalist, but Rie was the star of the show and without a singer to draw away attention, she was free to shine at centre stage.

Wangan Street could make listeners wonder if Rie a.k.a. Suzaku isn’t trying to invent a new genre of music, a kind of easy listening-jazz-funk-metal fusion. Every musician on the stage got an extended solo, showing off their individual style. Marie Fukada let loose with a lightning fingered prog jazz keyboard solo, Juna laid down some funky slap bass and Kanade crashed her way through an impressive workout on the drums. And of course, we got our first proper look at the shred monster in action.

The band took a dip into the Rie a.k.a. Suzaku back catalogue with Sunrise and Kingdom of the Sun, which built up the speed before they headed into the closing number, Furinkazan. The track shares its name with a historic Sengoku period battle standard, and it had a definite traditional Japanese twang to it. It might not have been quite what everyone was expecting, but the display of instrumental brilliance was well appreciated by the crowd, who saw the band off stage with deserved applause.