Why does a bullet hell game from the late 90s still have a large dedicated following 20 years later? Why do thousands of people create all sorts of derivative works based on this franchise? Yeah, I know that ZUN put very few restrictions on the characters, music, and so on, but you'd think people would get sick of it after a while. And yes, someone savvy will point out that Fate Grand Order has been taking over Comiket lately, but the power of Touhou is still very strong and still very much alive. Iron Attack, stylized as IRON ATTACK!, has been a major, notable player in this world for over 10 years now.
The mastermind behind the power metal group, guitarist Iron-Chino, doesn't restrict himself to only Touhou. There are 2-3 original albums, some Kancolle stuff, and other kinds of albums as well. However, Touhou arrange albums definitely make up the bulk of Iron Attack's ludicrous output. And of course, Japonism is yet another Touhou arrange work (that's Reimu on the album art for you casuals). So after 10+ years of covering and arranging the same damn songs over and over again, can you still find a way to make it sound fresh and exciting? With Iron Attack's latest release, the answer is a resounding "yes."
To be honest, Iron Attack never really registered much on the radar for me. I had a pretty neutral opinion on them overall. Sure, Iron-Chino is an extremely talented guitarist and can shred up his guitar, but the insane discography is just way too intimidating. No offense to the guy at all (clearly he's a hard worker), but there is no way every single one of those albums are worth hearing. How do you even go about parsing through a massive list of albums like that? Discovering Japonism was purely a fluke. I happen to follow Yu-ta (from Gauntlet) on Twitter, and he did vocals for one of the tracks here and retweeted the trailer. I checked it out on a whim and was instantly impressed. Later, I bought the album and was still impressed after a full listen.
I'm not familiar with Iron Attack's discography, so I couldn't tell you where Japonism ranks. It's quite possible there is plenty of quality material buried in there that I have missed. But just judging by random Iron Attack songs I've heard off and on throughout the years, what is on Japonism is easily the best collection of songs I have ever heard from the band. Everything from the vocals, the guitar leads, and the keyboards/synths work excellently. The album has a superb sense of melody and atmosphere that is retained throughout its entire runtime.
The perplexing thing about Japonism is that it's not any different than what Iron Chino usually does. It's still super fast, lightning-speed power metal. It still has the usual, large variety of vocalists (male and female). It still has a ton of different guitar solos and guitar riffs. Yeah, it's still the neoclassical-influenced style of power metal that the guy has been playing his entire career. So what makes Japonism so special and so different? Why does it catch my ear so much more strongly than past works from the band? After many listens, I think I've boiled it down to one basic thing: the atmosphere.
Power metal is not really a genre that is often thought of as "atmospheric." There are tons of songs that feel "epic" or "heroic" or other things along that line, but in general it's not a style that is thought to express a huge wide arrange of emotions like some other subgenres of metal. What struck me while listening to Japonism is that it's often very melancholic and perhaps even nostalgic. "Sad-sounding" power metal does exist, but it's not too common. I've never heard anyone put a spin on these old Touhou melodies quite like this before. It's not outright depressing or anything that extreme, but many of the guitar leads and solos utilize some minor scales and sound more somber as opposed to triumphant.
There are still some uplifting moments (particularly in the chorus), but much of the album uses a surprising amount of minor scales and chords in a fairly powerful, emotional way. For example, the guitar solo in Sturm und Drang 虚無の嵐 that kicks in right after the chorus always gives me such a pure, cathartic feeling every time I hear it. As the title of the album suggests, there's also a strong folk element/background courtesy of the synths/keyboards. It could just be my dumb gaijin brain, but hearing those elements mixed in all of this enhances the unique sense of atmosphere. Even though these are the same, old Touhou melodies, they feel completely new and different in this context.
The individual songs aren't too dissimilar from each other. They are all pretty short and to the point with little deviation in style. 妖式美Perfect 5th Below and Japonism are instrumentals (technically the latter has words but barely any), but even then it's not too much of a departure from the rest. For me, the biggest standout is Beyond the Time 夢は時空を越えて for its extremely strong vocals (courtesy of 勇舞) and Iron-Chino going completely ballistic on the guitars here. Add in some really nice folky keyboard stuff, and it walks away as my personal favorite of the bunch fairly easily.
Longtime Iron Attack fans will certainly be pleased by this. It's not like this is a dramatic change from what Iron-Chino did before. However, people that are more neutral/lukewarm on the band should at least give the album trailer a peek. I didn't become a diehard fan or anything, but I'm definitely paying closer to Iron Attack now after hearing this. It's probably a high point for them in their career. At the very least, I've found this short album to be extremely addictive and very catchy lately. It scratches a totally different kind of itch than the rest of my power metal collection, and for that I can only give it extremely high marks. Hopefully (although it would be quite bad for my wallet), this kind of quality can be repeated often.
Rating: 95/100