The Furies of Greek mythology were inexorable, but just, pursuers of sinners on Earth. They punished men for their crimes against the natural order or crimes against the gods. They were the daughters of the Earth and Sky. Their eyes wept tears of blood.

The Furies were relentless in their pursuit of justice. They could appear as indominable storm clouds or impregnable swarms of insects. As long as sin persisted in the world, the Furies could not be vanquished.

There were at least three Furies. Tisiphone punished those who murdered. Alecto punished those who committed moral crimes by sowing discord and madness. Megaera, “the jealous one,” punished crimes of those who broke oaths or committed infidelity against a spouse or lover.

「1」

One can’t help but think of the Furies when listening to the new BAND-MAID album Unseen World. BAND-MAID have dispensed with the conventions of varying the mood of an album and the inclusion of radio-friendly ballads. Instead, they have created an absolutely furious and unabating assault of aggressive hard rock.

In addition, the Furies would surely recognize the tormented emotions that are often expressed in BAND-MAID songs. They would also approve of the implacable responses of the narrator of the songs. BAND-MAID often address their songs to an unfaithful or irresolute lover. But the man or woman who disappoints the narrator of the songs on Unseen World will also soon feel the wrath of a lover scorned.

The narrator of a classic song such as the single “Choose Me,” which was, strangely, never released on an album, is clearly willing to give the lover another chance, but she will do so only on her terms – “This will be the last one,” “let’s carry on, but more deeply,” “I’ll disappear if you keep wavering.” The person represented by the fierce vocalist Saiki may forgive, but she sure as hell will never forget.

Unseen World is filled with similar excoriations of unnamed lovers. In the blistering “H-G-K,” Saiki sings, “I’ll cross my fingers/go to hell” and “Almost isn’t enough.” But the narrator of the song concludes that her methods are justified:

ああ生命が爆(は)ぜるんだ。

もうどうかしてる位でいい

Ah, life is exploding.

It’s okay if I’m doing something wrong

The song “Honkai,” is interrupted by a hard stop in the music during which Saiki utters the contemptuous spoken word admonition “You will forget about me someday.” That cold-eyed observation may sum up the BAND-MAID philosophy of love.

「2」

The evolution of BAND-MAID over time can be described as “Slipknot in Reverse.” BAND-MAID have released as much music in seven years as Slipknot has released in twenty years. And while Slipknot has mellowed and become more melodic over time, BAND-MAID has become increasingly more anarchic and unpredictable. The 2019 Slipknot album We Are Not Your Kind, as great as it is, was full of catchy, almost poppy, riffs, choruses and melodies. BAND-MAID, on the other hand, has evolved from the innocuous power-pop of MAID IN JAPAN (2014) to the scorching brutality that informs Unseen World.

Unseen World kicks off with a carnival-like introduction to the song “Warning!” This is just another fake-out, albeit a much shorter one than the fake-out of “Page,” the gorgeous ballad that surprisingly opened the 2019 album Conqueror. After about 15 seconds of pizzicato strings playing the eerie circus tune, ”Warning!” erupts into a bone-crunching guitar riff played at approximately one zillion beats per minute. From that point onward Unseen World embarks on a relentless onslaught of unforgiving hard rock.

「3」

Guitarist Kanami is the primary songwriter and riff-monster of BAND-MAID. Kanami has a particular genius in writing compelling guitar hooks. But Kanami never settles for the easy solution. In Western music, including rock music, there is an irresistible pull to an inevitable resolution, an ending that gets to the tonic as economically as possible. Think about the riff that begins Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water.” This four-note minor key riff has a flatted fifth that introduces tension. But the tension is quickly resolved without any hesitation. It is easy to imagine Kanami adding the fifth and second notes of the scale to take a slightly more convoluted – and interesting – route to the tonic.

The soul-crushing riff that begins “Warning!” is an example how Kanami creates such an element of surprise. The last phrase of the four-part riff takes an unexpected detour, with a few extra notes, before reaching its logical conclusion. The opening riffs in “Manners” and “Honkai,” which are also four-part riffs, take a similar approach. Little things like these are important in creating sonic variety.

But there are more important structural elements on Unseen World that result in the songs grabbing the listener by the throat and forcing him or her to listen in awe. The architecture of the songs is as innovative and surprising as Frank Lloyd Wright’s brilliant “Falling Water” house in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. The introductions, verses, pre-choruses, choruses, refrains, bridges, spoken interjections, background “whoa-oh-oh’s,” guitar solos and random instrumental breaks are woven together in a staggering tapestry that cannot help but inspire awe. The listener never knows what is going to come next.

That uncertainty of not knowing where a composer is going to take you is the essential ideal of great music, from Erik Satie to Anton Bruckner to Paul Hindemith and to BAND-MAID. And, hell yeah, one can find this aspiration in rock music. Do you have any idea what is going to follow Saiki’s spoken “This is due to what is called a black hole, you know?” in the song “Black Hole” which closes Unseen World?  I have listened to the song many times, and I still don’t know. That is what makes “Black Hole” and BAND-MAID great.

「4」

But rock music is about more than the music, as Nobel laureate Bob Dylan proved over fifty years ago. BAND-MAID’s Miku Kobatu is one of today’s most gifted rock music lyricists. Let’s face the truth, many rock lyrics – and most current pop lyrics – are exercises in trite banalities.

Miku, on the other hand, traffics in more obscure and elliptical observations of the modern world. She is a bit like Julian Casablancas of the Strokes in this respect. But where the Strokes’ response to the challenges of 21^st century life and love was bemusement and ennui, Miku fights back with frustration and rage. She demands answers to her questions.

Unseen World continues Miku’s exploration of the frustrations of love and her requirement, like the Furies, that faithless or disappointing lovers suffer retribution. When Miku screams “Don’t say you love me!” during Saiki’s last chorus of “After Life,” you are hearing the frustration of a woman who is tired of the “endless merry-go-round,” the “dizziness,” the “waste of time,” that love entails. Each of those images is one that Miku evokes in the song. Is there be any more despairing sentiment than Miku’s observation, “どんな理想も　吐き出す冗談だ” (“any ideal is a joke to spit out”).

Miku continually proves herself to be an incisive and implacable observer of human foibles. What is one to make of these lines from “No God:”

“愛し続けてる　夢の先まで”

I keep loving you to the end of my dreams

and

愛は万人に、信頼少数に

Love is for everyone; trust is for a few.

Are dreams the only place where love can truly flourish? Is trust virtually impossible in the context of love? The pessimism that informs Unseen World could be soul-crushing in its weight.

And yet, Miku’s lyrics contain enough moments of overwhelming pleasure to cancel out the pains of love.  For example, in “I Still Seek Revenge,” (and there is perhaps the archetypal BAND-MAID song title) Saiki sings:

心蝕んだ快楽に溺れては

ああ　嫌気がさす

Drowning in heart-rending pleasures

I feel ill…

So, unlike Slipknot, which concluded in 2008 that “All Hope Is Gone,” BAND-MAID leaves room for hope.

「5」

Unseen World is not entirely without moments of tenderness. One of the few truly gentle moments of the album is the bridge that follows the second chorus of “H G K.” The beat slows, and a lovely melody emerges. But what is Saiki singing during this seemingly compassionate moment?

嘘の気持ち飲み込んで

本当の気持ちに釘を刺した

ねえ　本当にそれでいいの？って

無垢な凶器で見つめないでよ

Swallow the feelings of lies

I stabbed a nail in my true feelings

Hey, is that really okay? What?

Don’t stare at me with an innocent weapon…

Therefore, even in what might appear to be a warm moment, there is an undercurrent of menace.

「6」

Saiki continues to be one of the most aggressive and merciless vocalists in Japanese rock music. There may not be another singer who is as intimidating as Saiki is in her vocal delivery and stage presence.

The song “Giovanni” contains an encyclopedia of Saiki’s go-to moves. She practically spits out the first verse. In the refrain, her anger is obvious as she sings, “I’m afraid you know you can’t hold me / Time never goes backwards.” Yet she calms down in the pre-chorus as she sings, “So what is right?” Her voice becomes gentle as she calmy advises the object of her disdain to “keep yourself alive-live-live-live.” Of course, this calm mood doesn’t last. At the end of the bridge, when she sings, “There’s nothing I can do to help you,” you can almost hear the scorn dripping from her voice.

The song “Why Why Why” begins with tentative bass from Misa and smacking of the drum heads by Akane. Miku then appears, coughing as if she is troubled by a mild influenza.  She clears her throat by embarking on a ten-second-long octave leap “Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh!” The lyrics that follow – sung almost entirely in English – give little sense to what is happening. We hear Saiki sing phrases such as “Maybe you’re right,” “Tell me why,” “The world is changing/Nobody’s fault/So somebody is crying/Somebody is laughing.” The music is frantic and filled with mayhem. The key to the song’s meaning may be in some of the lyrics sung in Japanese:

善も悪になって笑ってる

悪が善に変わる時代

Good becomes evil and laughs

A time when evil turns into good

Perhaps lyricist Miku is commenting on the turmoil of the modern world. Such a sentiment would fit with the chaotic music of “Why Why Why.” Kanami’s guitar break after the bridge isn’t so much of a solo as it is a searching exploration for solid ground. “Why Why Why” finishes with another great moment from Miku as she rips off another long but exultant “Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh!”

Unseen World contains a very welcome vocal surprise. Miku sings lead vocals on the song “Sayonakidori.” Fans rarely get the opportunity to hear Miku take the lead on songs, with the notable exception of “Rock In Me” from World Domination. Miku brings a sense of vulnerability to “Sayonakidori,” where Saiki likely would have brought a furious sense of recrimination to this song – another frustrated “cry of love,” to use Jimi Hendrix’ phrase. But Saiki does get her say on “Sayonakidori,” with the spoken word bridge:

My bounty is as boundless as the sea

My love as deep, the more I give to thee

The more I have, for both are infinite

She recites these words coldly, without any emotion. Nevertheless, the words contain a plaintive and melancholy message. “Sayonakidori” may be the only true change of pace on the album, given the fact that Miku sings lead vocals. But the sentiments expressed in it are as rueful and pensive as any other song on the album.

「7」

From an instrumental standpoint, BAND-MAID are more cohesive on Unseen World than in any previous release. To a certain extent, this means that each of the instrumentalists subsume their individual genius to the greater whole that is the sum of their parts. That may be true on first or second listens of Unseen World, but on closer listening, moments of individual genius emerge.

For example, Misa’s bass can be a prisoner of the mix, especially in a set of such aggressive songs as those on Unseen World. But Misa, the funkiest hard rock/metal bassist in the world (along with the wildly talented F-Chopper Koga of Gacharic Spin), is endlessly creative. She has plenty of great moments. Her solo following Miku’s “Get down!” during the instrumental break of “No God” is an obvious highlight. But careful listening will reveal hidden moments that are equally impressive, such as the thumb and finger octave slapping during the bridge of “Honkai” or during first verse of “Black Hole.”

Drummer Hirose Akane continues to sow as much mayhem as she can dream up in every song. “After Life” contains many of her trademark tricks, including laying back when necessary in order to accentuate transitions to more critical moments. She continues to use subtle rolls introduce shifts in mood, as in “Manners.” The tempo of the songs may be in 4/4 time. But Kanami has an uncanny ability to convince the rock music fan that something else is going on, as if they are actually listening to the Dave Brubeck Quartet playing “Blue Rondo A La Turk.”

But the most important instrumental change is in the lead guitar work performed by Kanami. Kanami seems to have embraced a chaotic vision of the world. Her solos no longer have clear structures. Instead, her solos drop in out of nowhere, as in “I Still Seek Revenge.” This change in approach contributes to the overall vibe of Unseen World as a cold-hearted observation of the Modern World.

「8」

If there is anything to criticize about Unseen World, it is that the album does not contain any songs as instantly spectacular as Conqueror’s “Liberal,” “Dilemma,” “Blooming” or “Reincarnation.” It is true that those songs are more accessible than anything on Unseen World. It is also true that Conqueror was less cohesive than Unseen World, particularly with respect to the previously released radio-friendly singles “Glory,” “Bubble” and “Endless Story.” As a result, the stylistic diversity of Conqueror made it a more disjointed listening experience than Unseen World, which is persistent and unabating in its rage.

If there are any breaks in the overall mood of Unseen World, they are in songs such as “Manners” and “Chemical Reaction.” In these two songs, manic intensity is replaced by more fundamentally brutal rhythms. The tempo may be slower, but there is absolutely no drop-off in power and ferocity. Unseen World is unabating in its fury.

「9」

To return to the Furies of Greek mythology, it is interesting to note that the Furies are sometimes described as being clothed either in the long black robes of mourners, just like the garments that Saiki and Misa wear on stage, or in the short-length skirts and boots of huntress-maidens, just like Miku, Kanami, and Akane. But clothing is the least of the analogies between the Furies and BAND-MAID. The most important correlation between the Furies and BAND-MAID is the sense of relentless justice, the knowledge that right is right and wrong is wrong. This sense of confidence, of surety, pervades Unseen World.

Yes, the aesthetic of Japanese rock bands is very important. This aesthetic is also something that non-Japanese will find difficult, if not impossible, to understand. From a visual point of view, BAND-MAID is not just non-threatening, but positively welcoming. They call fans “masters and princesses.” Miku has bizarrely adopted the persona of a pigeon.

Yet this visual aesthetic of BAND-MAID is completely contradictory to the band’s brutal and unforgiving aural aesthetic. The “impossibly hard-rocking” musical idiom of BAND-MAID combined with the incisive lyrical observations of the modern world and relationships offered by Miku result in a world view that is challenging, if not threatening.

「10」

There are other Japanese rock bands that are currently at the top of their game. Unlucky Morpheus continues to forge new ground with each release. Lovebites is consistently and overwhelmingly spectacular in release after release. Marina Hebiishi of Mardelas pursues her singular vision with clarity and certainty. Remi Matsuo of GLIM SPANKY is a genius, full stop. There is no question that Japan is the rock music capital of the world.

But BAND-MAID may be in a class by themselves. They have been on an amazing winning streak from the 2017 album Just Bring It to 2018’s World Domination to 2019’s Conqueror through to Unseen World. And, yes, that is four full albums in four years. And, no, that doesn’t include singles and EPs.

But the most important aspect of BAND-MAID’s remarkable career is not the quantity of their output, but the sheer quality. They are kicking ass, single after single, EP after EP, album after album. And I don’t mean that they are simply kicking the ass of the feckless lover depicted in many of their songs.  BAND-MAID is truly firing on all cylinders – musical, lyrical, instrumental, vocal. We are in the presence of greatness. Let me say that again: We are in the presence of greatness.

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