Jupiter - Classical Element

[sergeantkitty]

Thought I would post on this, since I didn't see a topic already, but seeing as the first album of Jupiter aka "Versailles 2.0" has just been released, I wanted to post my impressions and hear from those who've given it a listen!

First off, I didn't have very high expectations for this new album, because while I liked the new song Blessing of the Future, the other songs on the single were very lacking for me and just seemed to be very generic. I thought that the short amount of time they had to make a cd for the new band would be a detriment too. However, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised after giving Classical Element an initial listen! I won't go too in depth, but one of the fears I had was that a lot of the songs would be very generic VK type outings to fit with the new vocalist, but there are some surprisingly dark and intense sounding songs on the cd. I really liked Decadence and Rhythmos right away, but there are other notable songs too.

Anyway, what did everybody else think?? Has anyone else listened to it yet?

 

[Lem]

I loved it!

I think ZIN is a fantastic singer and the vocalist Versailles always needed. I was at first apprehensive when I first heard a preview of him back in April or whenever it was. Especially since HIZAKI has a habit of working with mostly terrible vocalist taken from the VK stock. Their first single also had me on the fence but now I see it's because those songs didn't really give him the opportunity to show us how much he can sing! After Decadence I definitely love ZIN. His performance and raw talent really helps carry Jupiter, perfectly complimenting all the guitar wankery quite well.

I won't do a track by track review but basically Jupiter really comes off as the metal band Versailles wanted to be. Since they've finally stepped away from the whole vampire concept they now have an opportunity to write music not confined to that theme. So I felt like we got great variety from every song and every member had their moment to shine one way or another.

Decadence is totally my favourite. This is what I love about these guys, this song is just so strong and powerful and why I have been listening to HIZAKI from his wee little days.

I love ZIN's singing in this song and it was immediately what won me over. It's definitely my favourite song on the album and am I getting some Rhapsody vibes up in this bitch!? ZIN's singing reminds me of some of the techniques you would hear from Alessandro Contri which makes me love it so much (becuz I luv Alessandro) and the symphonic wankery is definitely something I would imagine Luca would write. I love it and can't stop playing it over and over! The choir is a nice touch and well done, especially because some bands will overdo it and will drown everything out in bombastic choir choruses and so forth.

Scarlet is another that I really love. At first I didn't like the preview for it but after hearing the full thing, it really is an awesome song and everything I would expect from Teru. It's fast, catchy and definitely has some fun and interesting rifts and soloing. His style really does bring in some variety and color to whatever band he is in.

ALLEGORY CAVE caught me by surprise, I had expected this to be the typical instrumental classical guitar wankery song Teru and HIZAKI like to do. Yet it wasn't that at all! I am mixed about it though, ZIN's singing and gnarly harsh vocals are great but it's just so typical VKcore to do a heavy verse soft chorus format. I mean, it's definitely better than any of the fake metal bands VK fans love like OZ, BIOSPHIRA and Mejibray could ever do ever but it's still tad bit boring. I guess because every song on the album is so refreshing and then you get the lame generic VK "hard" song. I think either ditch the soft chorus and keep it harsh or make the harsh verses soft vocals instead? It's just a format I don't like that much. PERSONAL OPINION MMKAY!?

Other highlights, the swapping between acoustics and that other frilly stuff they do in Atmosphere is cool! I like the riftage in Symmetry Breaking and really liking what ZIN did for the chorus here. Classical Element is quite good and only 12 minutes? That's great because I felt like Versailles' attempt to do longer and longer songs each album was getting tiring. Especially songs like Faith & Decision which felt like they were just trying to push to do a long song for the sake of doing a long song.

I am super curious to hear what ZIN sounds like live and if all the amazing stuff I just heard is studio magic y'know?

Either way, I'm all up on the Jupiter bandwagon now. I'm looking forward to more from the band and I hope this world tour actually comes to the US because I would love to see them live.