As TuneCore Japan (On behalf of: Canned music) have claimed the monetisation for my video; if you enjoyed the video and would like to support me to make more content like this, you can do so via any of the links below: ☕ Coffee fund! - www.buymeacoffee.com/JWsoundworks 🎸 🎶 Original music & covers - jwsoundworks.bandcamp.com/ 🅿 Join me on PATREON - www.patreon.com/JWSoundworks 🎹 🎶 Piano Commissions - ko-fi.com/jwsoundworks 🎹 🎶 Piano Reductions Vol. 1- jwsoundworks.bandcamp.com/album/piano-reductions-vol-1 🎸 🎶 Original music & covers - jwsoundworks.bandcamp.com/ Thank you for your support, JW
Thanks John - a very safe bet you were going to enjoy this one with its neo-classical sound. As always I love to see you so easily pick out the chordal structure and riffs - that opening just on the piano sounds wonderful.
Thanks for the analysis, it was super entertaining to watch! Unlucky Morpheus (also known as Ankimo) has an extensive discography that ranges from jazz to melodic death metal. There's always something new to find as you listen to more of their music. They have a lot of side projects, to name a few: -> "QUADRATUM from Unlucky Morpheus" is an instrumental cover project made by some of the members, with focus on the violin (I highly recommend you check their cover of Far Beyond The Sun by Yngwie Malmsteen, even if by yourself without recording a reaction, it's crazy what Jill does with her violin): th-cam.com/video/E2hZDzJp9Pc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=DP7Q1ZI39DKN-vhY -> "Unholy Orpheus" is a symphonic death metal project with Shiren as the main singer, they'll release an album this month, but some songs were already released, you can listen to "Want to LIVE" here: th-cam.com/video/qXPUpsnrxcA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=9cyarhROM0ks_I1x
By the way, I just remembered that you already know Galneryus. The drummer Fumiya played for them during some time, and Syu (Galneryus' amazing guitarrist) has a great song with Fuki on the vocals in one of his solo albums. And as a last addendum, your own music also sounds like it's badass, I'll give it a listen. I'm an amateur pianist and guitarrist who loves instrumental music, so I'm sure I'll find it really interesting and inspiring
Interesting choice :) No wonder it sounds game-ish, it's pretty much a tribute to Saber from the Fate/stay franchise, so I'd say the video game references are completely intentional. This one was written entirely by Shiren, usually Fuki does the lyrics, and not to put too fine a point on it, but Shiren is pretty much a video game nerd :P Anyway, nice analysis, good song and an incredible band all around. And now that I'm actually through, just to say it, too: Yes, that Strandberg is on a stand. Shiren had quite some trouble with his wrist (i forget the medical term, tendo-syno-something-something), for some time he couldn't play at all, and then he got that lighter Strandberg on a stand so he could play again. That's one of the reasons a lot of their solos are now played (at least in parts) by Jill on the violin, when originally many were Shiren's guitar parts.
Jill typically uses her violin through a Line6 Helix live, usually with a Roland JC-120 for additional stage monitoring on top of her in-ears. Not sure if the additional layers in the backing track (usually within the arrangements her live parts are treated as a 1st violin and/or soloist alongside the guitars) have been pre-recorded by her or programmed synths/samples from Shiren, this concert is from December 2018 and as the band is fully independent, studio time was sometimes at a little bit of a premium. I know she now has an acoustically treated recording booth in her apartment for some of the remote studio/session work she does, so that's become far less of an issue.
Guitar player (and main composer/founder of the band together with Fuki) Shiren had (has?) tendonitis on his shoulder, which made it almost impossible for him to play guitar without intense pain, which is why he uses the stand and that Strandberg. I found this translated question (from an interview) on rddt: Why do you use this guitar as your main instrument? (talking about the Strandberg) Shiren: I actually got tendonitis a few years ago, and since then it's been difficult for me to play on a heavy guitar. So I was looking for a lighter guitar and found Strandberg. That's the model I used before this one. I used to play with a guitar stand because a heavy guitar would be a burden to play with it on my shoulder, but this one is very light, about 2.5 KG, as I recall, so I play with it on my shoulder more often. I am also surprised that your video got claimed by some company because Unlucky Morpheus is a completely independent band as far as I know, managing most things themselves. I am pretty sure Fuki made that outfit she wore in this video for example (I have read she has done so in the past for some of the bands costumes). They don't seem to mind people reacting to their stuff as long as it's off of their official channel and not some bootleg rip although this does come form a DVD/Blu-ray, so they might have partnered with some company for that one. They started out as a 2-piece doujin (basically hobbyist self-publishing) band making covers of music from the Touhou franchise (wiki Touhou Project), which is a video game and other media franchise. They did this for a long time (7 years or so?) before they finally made their own music after Fuki left an other band (Light Bringer) and they brought in other musicians (the ones that are still in the band), which is probably why they still seem to have that doujin mentality and that they like to do as much as they can themselves.
@@russellward4624 I thought it was something different when I posted this, but I got this out of a translated interview and I thought I misremembered. So apparently there was a mistake in the translated interview, but it was all I could find back then (either that or I misread). Thanks for the correction!
@@MaartenT yea it's either a mistaken translation or he just said te donitis because the person interviewing wouldnt know what that means and it's easier to just say tendinitis because there isn't much difference. The result is the same.
Next on your list should be "Eruption" violin cover (without Fuki) th-cam.com/video/eTb0TQtVT6k/w-d-xo.html or "For the Love of God" (Steve Vai cover) th-cam.com/video/l5AQvPCPjwc/w-d-xo.html by the same ensemble. Jill (Violin) is an absolute BEAST!! Check out their channel for more... Fuki has done a collab with Syu from Galneryus as well.
If we're going down the Quadratum sub-unit route, from the official channel I would've suggested either the "Scarified" or "Technical Difficulties" covers of said Racer X tunes (John mentions the band in this reaction and is definitely familiar with Paul Gilbert) or the club live performance video where it's "Eruption" into "The Dance of Eternity". Even if the band's in-joke about the Quadratum project was it's the 'Jill showing off album', it still highlights how proficient Jinya is also, as he can sometimes be visually overshadowed live by Shiren's more theatrical performance style.
I personally think the cover of "Far Beyond the Sun" by Yngwie Malmsteen is Jill's best performance from the Quadratum album, but really any song is a great choice, they're amazing
Unlucky Morpheus refer to themselves as a technial, melodic, speed metal band, and seeing as you talked about Dream Theater, try this one 【Live Cover】Eruption(Van Halen) ～ The Dance of Eternity(Dream Theater) th-cam.com/video/XC2A1hbuLmI/w-d-xo.html it was done by a sub unit of Unlucky Morpheus called QUADRATUM From Unlucky Morpheus, or QUADRATUM for short, and is missing Fuki and Shiren. And is a must see if you've never seen a violinist shred. Here is a bit of history about the band, and some you were really close to. In 2007 Shiren started a band called "Migic Ninja", with the idea of covering video game songs. One of the people that he invited to play, also play in a band called LightBringer, bought along their singer who was Fuki. The band only lasted a year, before it split up, but Fuki and Shiren had enjoyed working together so much, they wanted to do it again at some time. So in 2008 Shiren started Unlucky Morpheus, with just him and Fuki. Shiren playing all the instruments and Fuki singing, the band was a side project for them both, as they both had full time bands. The idea of the band was to do Touhou metal covers, Touhou is a platform video game series in Japan that is very popular. So yes you are correct about the video game sound in the music, as that is where the band started. After a while they started to become popular, in the Touhou music fandom, and people wanted to see them play live, but with only 2 of them, that was a problem. So Shiren asked some of his friends to help him out, and slow over time they started to stick to the same members playing each concert. The bassist Ogawa (2011), shiren want to college with and they used to Jam out together, Ogawa is really a jazz bassist, and is in a few jazz bands today. And at the same concert, drummer Fumiya, who also went to the same college, but 2 years below Shiren and Ogawa, but they did not know each other, when Shiren was introduced to Fumiya a few years later, Shirens reaction was, that's a lot of drum. Fuki found Jiniya at a concert she was playing at, and told Shiren to check him out, in around 2013. Jill (violin), Shiren just happened to be at a concert and heard her play, and just knew it was a sound that he had to have in the band, and she 1st appeared in 2014. Then in 2015 Fuki found her self with out a full time band as LightBringer had gone in to Hiatus (Japanese for, we've split up, but we could be back). So because Shiren did not want to lose his singer to a band that would not like her singing with side project, decided to take the band full time, and asked all the people that were helping them out live to join the band. The 1st original album they did was 2013, before then it had always been the Touhou covers, and they still do them. They also do either a show that is metal or a Touhou concert, and the Touhou songs can have very different styles, but there will be a hint of metal music in there. They are also one of those very rare bands you'll ever come across, and that is they are happy to be a small Japanese band, they have only ever played once outside Japan, and that was in London. They are not interessted in overseas fame, they are happy play their Japanese metal, that Japanese people can relate to. That is not to say they don't like overseas fans, it's just do not expect them to change what they are, to become popular overseas.
While they aren't strictly prog metal, they are definitely influenced by prog. They've actually done a really amazing cover of Dance of Eternity by Dream Theater.
Friedman + Becker = Cacophony. You make it look so easy. BLACK PENTAGRAM is the best UM song, with Metalcore riffing + Neoclassical shredding. I would be great to hear your take on the live video.
@@starlightmm he doesn't speak English. I speak Japanese. He has an inflammation of the covering around the tendons not tendinitis. The result is the same but it's different.
@@starlightmm youtube tends to auto-delete comments with external links so sourcing is pretty much impossible (I'll still try posting the links in a separate comment, sometimes it can slip through), but Shiren literally mentions it in the band's blog, as well as in an interview on YU-TO's blog. He clearly uses 腱鞘炎 which is the term for tenosynovitis. Tendonitis would be 腱炎 or 腱障害.
As TuneCore Japan (On behalf of: Canned music) have claimed the monetisation for my video; if you enjoyed the video and would like to support me to make more content like this, you can do so via any of the links below:
☕ Coffee fund! - www.buymeacoffee.com/JWsoundworks
🎸 🎶 Original music & covers - jwsoundworks.bandcamp.com/
🅿 Join me on PATREON - www.patreon.com/JWSoundworks
🎹 🎶 Piano Commissions - ko-fi.com/jwsoundworks
🎹 🎶 Piano Reductions Vol. 1- jwsoundworks.bandcamp.com/album/piano-reductions-vol-1
🎸 🎶 Original music & covers - jwsoundworks.bandcamp.com/
Thank you for your support,
JW
Thanks John - a very safe bet you were going to enjoy this one with its neo-classical sound. As always I love to see you so easily pick out the chordal structure and riffs - that opening just on the piano sounds wonderful.
Thanks for the analysis, it was super entertaining to watch!
Unlucky Morpheus (also known as Ankimo) has an extensive discography that ranges from jazz to melodic death metal. There's always something new to find as you listen to more of their music.
They have a lot of side projects, to name a few:
-> "QUADRATUM from Unlucky Morpheus" is an instrumental cover project made by some of the members, with focus on the violin (I highly recommend you check their cover of Far Beyond The Sun by Yngwie Malmsteen, even if by yourself without recording a reaction, it's crazy what Jill does with her violin): th-cam.com/video/E2hZDzJp9Pc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=DP7Q1ZI39DKN-vhY
-> "Unholy Orpheus" is a symphonic death metal project with Shiren as the main singer, they'll release an album this month, but some songs were already released, you can listen to "Want to LIVE" here: th-cam.com/video/qXPUpsnrxcA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=9cyarhROM0ks_I1x
By the way, I just remembered that you already know Galneryus. The drummer Fumiya played for them during some time, and Syu (Galneryus' amazing guitarrist) has a great song with Fuki on the vocals in one of his solo albums.
And as a last addendum, your own music also sounds like it's badass, I'll give it a listen. I'm an amateur pianist and guitarrist who loves instrumental music, so I'm sure I'll find it really interesting and inspiring
Interesting choice :)
No wonder it sounds game-ish, it's pretty much a tribute to Saber from the Fate/stay franchise, so I'd say the video game references are completely intentional. This one was written entirely by Shiren, usually Fuki does the lyrics, and not to put too fine a point on it, but Shiren is pretty much a video game nerd :P
Anyway, nice analysis, good song and an incredible band all around.
And now that I'm actually through, just to say it, too:
Yes, that Strandberg is on a stand. Shiren had quite some trouble with his wrist (i forget the medical term, tendo-syno-something-something), for some time he couldn't play at all, and then he got that lighter Strandberg on a stand so he could play again. That's one of the reasons a lot of their solos are now played (at least in parts) by Jill on the violin, when originally many were Shiren's guitar parts.
Jill typically uses her violin through a Line6 Helix live, usually with a Roland JC-120 for additional stage monitoring on top of her in-ears. Not sure if the additional layers in the backing track (usually within the arrangements her live parts are treated as a 1st violin and/or soloist alongside the guitars) have been pre-recorded by her or programmed synths/samples from Shiren, this concert is from December 2018 and as the band is fully independent, studio time was sometimes at a little bit of a premium. I know she now has an acoustically treated recording booth in her apartment for some of the remote studio/session work she does, so that's become far less of an issue.
very interesting, thanks for all the explanations !
Guitar player (and main composer/founder of the band together with Fuki) Shiren had (has?) tendonitis on his shoulder, which made it almost impossible for him to play guitar without intense pain, which is why he uses the stand and that Strandberg. I found this translated question (from an interview) on rddt:
Why do you use this guitar as your main instrument? (talking about the Strandberg)
Shiren: I actually got tendonitis a few years ago, and since then it's been difficult for me to play on a heavy guitar.
So I was looking for a lighter guitar and found Strandberg.
That's the model I used before this one.
I used to play with a guitar stand because a heavy guitar would be a burden to play with it on my shoulder, but this one is very light, about 2.5 KG, as I recall, so I play with it on my shoulder more often.
I am also surprised that your video got claimed by some company because Unlucky Morpheus is a completely independent band as far as I know, managing most things themselves. I am pretty sure Fuki made that outfit she wore in this video for example (I have read she has done so in the past for some of the bands costumes). They don't seem to mind people reacting to their stuff as long as it's off of their official channel and not some bootleg rip although this does come form a DVD/Blu-ray, so they might have partnered with some company for that one. They started out as a 2-piece doujin (basically hobbyist self-publishing) band making covers of music from the Touhou franchise (wiki Touhou Project), which is a video game and other media franchise. They did this for a long time (7 years or so?) before they finally made their own music after Fuki left an other band (Light Bringer) and they brought in other musicians (the ones that are still in the band), which is probably why they still seem to have that doujin mentality and that they like to do as much as they can themselves.
Not tendinitis but tenosynovitis which is an inflation of the synovial membrane which covers the tendons and that constructs the tendons.
@@russellward4624 I thought it was something different when I posted this, but I got this out of a translated interview and I thought I misremembered. So apparently there was a mistake in the translated interview, but it was all I could find back then (either that or I misread). Thanks for the correction!
@@MaartenT yea it's either a mistaken translation or he just said te donitis because the person interviewing wouldnt know what that means and it's easier to just say tendinitis because there isn't much difference. The result is the same.
Next on your list should be "Eruption" violin cover (without Fuki) th-cam.com/video/eTb0TQtVT6k/w-d-xo.html or "For the Love of God" (Steve Vai cover) th-cam.com/video/l5AQvPCPjwc/w-d-xo.html by the same ensemble. Jill (Violin) is an absolute BEAST!! Check out their channel for more...
Fuki has done a collab with Syu from Galneryus as well.
If we're going down the Quadratum sub-unit route, from the official channel I would've suggested either the "Scarified" or "Technical Difficulties" covers of said Racer X tunes (John mentions the band in this reaction and is definitely familiar with Paul Gilbert) or the club live performance video where it's "Eruption" into "The Dance of Eternity".
Even if the band's in-joke about the Quadratum project was it's the 'Jill showing off album', it still highlights how proficient Jinya is also, as he can sometimes be visually overshadowed live by Shiren's more theatrical performance style.
@@guitarandy2406 Yep - Good calls!
I personally think the cover of "Far Beyond the Sun" by Yngwie Malmsteen is Jill's best performance from the Quadratum album, but really any song is a great choice, they're amazing
Unlucky Morpheus refer to themselves as a technial, melodic, speed metal band, and seeing as you talked about Dream Theater, try this one 【Live Cover】Eruption(Van Halen) ～ The Dance of Eternity(Dream Theater) th-cam.com/video/XC2A1hbuLmI/w-d-xo.html it was done by a sub unit of Unlucky Morpheus called QUADRATUM From Unlucky Morpheus, or QUADRATUM for short, and is missing Fuki and Shiren. And is a must see if you've never seen a violinist shred.
Here is a bit of history about the band, and some you were really close to.
In 2007 Shiren started a band called "Migic Ninja", with the idea of covering video game songs. One of the people that he invited to play, also play in a band called LightBringer, bought along their singer who was Fuki. The band only lasted a year, before it split up, but Fuki and Shiren had enjoyed working together so much, they wanted to do it again at some time.
So in 2008 Shiren started Unlucky Morpheus, with just him and Fuki. Shiren playing all the instruments and Fuki singing, the band was a side project for them both, as they both had full time bands. The idea of the band was to do Touhou metal covers, Touhou is a platform video game series in Japan that is very popular. So yes you are correct about the video game sound in the music, as that is where the band started. After a while they started to become popular, in the Touhou music fandom, and people wanted to see them play live, but with only 2 of them, that was a problem. So Shiren asked some of his friends to help him out, and slow over time they started to stick to the same members playing each concert. The bassist Ogawa (2011), shiren want to college with and they used to Jam out together, Ogawa is really a jazz bassist, and is in a few jazz bands today. And at the same concert, drummer Fumiya, who also went to the same college, but 2 years below Shiren and Ogawa, but they did not know each other, when Shiren was introduced to Fumiya a few years later, Shirens reaction was, that's a lot of drum. Fuki found Jiniya at a concert she was playing at, and told Shiren to check him out, in around 2013. Jill (violin), Shiren just happened to be at a concert and heard her play, and just knew it was a sound that he had to have in the band, and she 1st appeared in 2014.
Then in 2015 Fuki found her self with out a full time band as LightBringer had gone in to Hiatus (Japanese for, we've split up, but we could be back). So because Shiren did not want to lose his singer to a band that would not like her singing with side project, decided to take the band full time, and asked all the people that were helping them out live to join the band.
The 1st original album they did was 2013, before then it had always been the Touhou covers, and they still do them. They also do either a show that is metal or a Touhou concert, and the Touhou songs can have very different styles, but there will be a hint of metal music in there.
They are also one of those very rare bands you'll ever come across, and that is they are happy to be a small Japanese band, they have only ever played once outside Japan, and that was in London. They are not interessted in overseas fame, they are happy play their Japanese metal, that Japanese people can relate to. That is not to say they don't like overseas fans, it's just do not expect them to change what they are, to become popular overseas.
While they aren't strictly prog metal, they are definitely influenced by prog. They've actually done a really amazing cover of Dance of Eternity by Dream Theater.
Friedman + Becker = Cacophony.
You make it look so easy.
BLACK PENTAGRAM is the best UM song, with Metalcore riffing + Neoclassical shredding. I would be great to hear your take on the live video.
🎸Please react more🎸Babymetal, Lovebites, Unlucky Morpheus, Wagakki band, Dragon Force, Crossfaith, Sokoninaru, Asterism, Versailes, Galneryus, Gacharic Spin,Deviloof, Mana Diagram, Dih, Bridear, Ichika Nito, Tatsuya Amano, Shuhei Kamada, Daisuke Kurosawa, Senri Kawaguchi, Anthony Barone
🎸If possible react to their live performance🎸
tendonitis
Not tendinitis but tenosynovitis.
@@russellward4624 hope you find the source first literally shiren homself told that
@@starlightmm he doesn't speak English. I speak Japanese. He has an inflammation of the covering around the tendons not tendinitis. The result is the same but it's different.
@@starlightmm youtube tends to auto-delete comments with external links so sourcing is pretty much impossible (I'll still try posting the links in a separate comment, sometimes it can slip through), but Shiren literally mentions it in the band's blog, as well as in an interview on YU-TO's blog. He clearly uses 腱鞘炎 which is the term for tenosynovitis. Tendonitis would be 腱炎 or 腱障害.
this is from live DVD from 2018 "Change of Generation" tour finale, this whole concert was dope, aswell as 2019 "Lunatic East" DVD, can recommend both