NINGEN ISU — Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita (review)

NINGEN ISU — Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita album cover

Album · 1991 · Heavy Metal

4/5 · 2019-12-23
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'Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita' (In the Woods Beneath the Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom) is the second full-length album by the Japanese heavy rock/heavy metal power trio, Ningen Isu. Though the band's style is still very much rooted the early years of heavy rock, the sound of the guitars is a little more updated from the debut.

The opening track, 'Bakudan Shinkohkyoku' (Bomb March) is simply a straight up heavy rocker that charges furiously. The opening riff alone convinced me that this was a band I would love. There is a breakdown in the middle that emulates a rudimentary marching song but it seems to be executed in an intentionally exaggerated way in order to fit the intensity of the rest of the song.

'Yuutsu Jidai' (Melancholic Era) features a really groovy bass and guitar riff and a bluesy acoustic guitar solo. There's also that retro call and response between the bass and drums and the lead guitar.

'Tokyo Bondage' is yet another grooving, heavy rock number. In a rare English interview I read on The Metal Observer, band members Shinji Wajima and Ken'ichi Suzuki stated that they usually try to find the groove in the riff. As such, many of their songs really capture that essence of Black Sabbath, Budgie and even early Pentagram or Bang.

The songs on this album go a bit further into metal territory than the debut, something you'll notice on 'Yuigonjoh Hohsoh' (Testament Broadcast) which is quite a speedy hard rocker or 'Kokoro no Kaji' (Fires of the Heart), which is speedy and heavy enough to sound like Anvil or early Anthrax. It does have a cool middle part that resembles something from a Wolfmother album. The closing track, 'Taiyoh Kuroten' (Sunspots) crosses slow and heavy Black Sabbath-like riffs with a speedy, almost thrash middle part.

Songs that stand out for offering something not totally in the heavy metal camp are 'Sumo no Uta' (The Sumo Song) because it begins with a traditional Japanese hand drum that is played like one might hear in the sumo ring (?) maybe (?); 'Kohjohsenjoh no Maria' (Maria of the Thyroid Gland? I'm not sure what that song is about!) because it is picked clean electric guitar and vocals only; and 'Yasha ga Ike' (Pond of the Yaksha, them being Buddhist guardian deities according to Weblio). This track features acoustic guitar and I think shakuhachi (a traditional Japanese flute) or some kind of flute and is played more like an old traditional Japanese ditty for the first 2:20 before a strummed acoustic guitar makes the song more uplifting and positive. Drums and clean electric guitar come in and add colour. Then from 3:30, from the left channel, the heavy band fades in and soon it becomes like an early-eighties metal- inspired track, similar to early eighties Loudness, I think.

Initially, I liked this album more than the debut, and one other Ningen Isu album reviewer out in Internet land also prefers this one just a bit more. The music often gets speedier and edgier than the very groovy debut. But I have since come to prefer the debut. Who knows. Maybe after listening to this one more I'll change my mind again.