A Singer in the Tradition of Past Greats

Kimi, the vocalist of power metal band BRIDEAR, seems to inherently understand that the human voice is mankind’s original and most powerful emotive instrument. She sits firmly in the tradition of extremely talented vocalists who have an uncanny gift of drawing the listener into their most intimate thoughts. Throughout history, the greatest singers have used their voices to enthrall audiences with their ability to convey a wide range of emotions. For example, Shirley Verrett’s voice was the perfect instrument for illustrating a multitude of emotions – passion, desire and deception – in “Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix” from Saint-Saens’ opera Samson et Dalila. Sarah Vaughan, a different kind of singer entirely, could rip your heart right out of your chest on “Vanity,” in which she expressed the narrator’s feelings of hopelessness and regret.

Rock music, with its brevity, energy, and, above all, chaos, upped the ante for singers by removing the shackles of traditional song form. Rock music reflected the confusion, the messiness of the real world. A singer could pull out all the stops. In a great rock lyric like “It’s a town full of losers; I’m pulling out of here to win,” one hears, in Bruce Springsteen’s masterful performance, not just bravado and desire, but a healthy measure of doubt. It is these same intense layers of meaning that Kimi brings to her singing.

Rebirth

BRIDEAR has been active since around 2011. At the time, the band consisted of Kimi, guitarists Misa and Mitsuki, bassist Haru and drummer Kai. Kimi, Misa and Mitsuru were the primary songwriters. Their first EP, Overturn the Doom (2013), introduced the band as a force to be reckoned with. Almost unrelentingly high octane and heavy, every song married virtuoso playing to memorable melodies and choruses. The songs often used modulation from minor metal modes to the relative major to create a sense of emerging triumph. “Wing of Hope,” the closing song, is a truly remarkable anthem, worth every second of its plus seven-minute length.

Baryte (2016), BRIDEAR’s first full-length album, continued in this vein, although the band engaged in several sonic experiments. For example, Misa added harsh vocals to several songs, which increased the overall sense of heaviness. Two Eps, Rise and Helix, followed in 2017 and 2018, with further experimentation on songs such as Misa’s Remedy and Mitsuru’s Dear Bride.

At that point, BRIDEAR began to fracture. Misa, Mitsuru and Kai departed in a period of little over a year, from late 2017 to early 2019. It is to Kimi’s and Haru’s credit that they carried on, adding guitarists/songwriters Misaki and Ayumi and drummer Natsumi. The reconstituted BRIDEAR released a new full-length LP, Expose Your Emotions, in December, 2019. Expose Your Emotions is certainly different from its predecessors. It is more direct in its approach to song structure and a bit less flashy. Yet despite the fact that four members contribute songs, the album is coherent in every respect. The songs and chops of new members Misaki, Ayumi and Natsumi ensure that the power and excitement of BRIDEAR remain undiminished.

misery machine

In many ways, Kimi’s voice is the glue that holds BRIDEAR together. It isn’t necessary to understand Japanese or the at times awkward English used in a few BRIDEAR songs. Kimi’s expressive voice, with its mellow timbre and subtle mannerisms, does the trick. Her voice is one of the most compelling in rock music – anywhere in the world. She can communicate a wide variety of emotions with her voice, often in the same lyric.

The narrator of many BRIDEAR songs often appears to feel a mixture of desperation, urgency and hope – much like the narrator of “Thunder Road.” She needs something, and she’s afraid she can’t get it. She expresses her desire, fear and optimism, her sense of obstacles to overcome. Moreover, the characters in BRIDEAR songs often make it clear that they have to get where they’re going really fast. But the car Kimi is driving is usually careening along the edge of a cliff. She doesn’t know how she’s going to reach her destination without catastrophe along the way, but she’s damn sure going to try.

In The Labyrinth

An example of Kimi’s emotive range is “In the Labyrinth,” from the 2018 EP Helix. The song begins with the song’s narrator singing the chorus “Kowarete shimaeba kudakete shimaeba” (“Once broken, it will crumble”). Guitars join in with a series of minor key chords. As she begins to sing, you can hear the tension in Kimi’s voice. The minor chords serve to heighten the sense that Kimi is straining forward with all her might.

The dynamic drum work of Kai in “In the Labyrinth” maintains the forward motion, urging Kimi onwards. Kai employs a series of fast decaying cymbal crashes (ksshhh, ksshhh, ksshhh, rest, ksshhh) at several points to accent the torment in Kimi’s voice. Before the reentry of the chorus, the band pauses to allow Kimi’s voice to dominate. Finally, the last words Kimi sings are an anguished “ato dorekurai?” (“how much longer?”), indicating that the misery has yet to end.

My Heart Sigh

Many BRIDEAR songs evoke the tempestuous nature of love and the multitude of emotions it provokes – desire, ecstasy, frustration, anger. “Thread of the Light,” from Overturn the Doom, gives Kimi the opportunity to express the latter two emotions with lyrics like, “Inside of darkness/I begin to walk by groping…” The nasty, doom-laden guitar riff adds to the inescapable sense of confusion. While the English language lyrics may be cumbersome, Kimi is able to convey, in her charmingly accented vocals, the sense of a woman striving to attain a goal that is unclear even to her.

The subject matter of “Traces of Tears,” from the album Baryte, recalls Sarah Vaughan’s “Till you forgive again, I’ll never live again.” Like the first-person character singing “Vanity,” the narrator of “Traces of Tears” is haunted by the memories of past love. She sings in English of “the places we once were…the scenes we saw together.” The lyrics are bleak throughout. “I’ve lost all the things I need to live.” “I curse the fate that I can’t make my wish come true.” And Kimi infuses every line with a searing pain. There’s nothing subtle or ambiguous about the emotions Kimi expresses in this work. The yearning in her voice during the dramatic chorus is heartfelt and moving.

Another Name

Kimi can do much more than express angst. “Dear Bride,” a driving and upbeat hard rocker from the Helix EP, is a full-throated celebration of optimism. Unusually for BRIDEAR, the song is in a major key from start to finish. It is still a long, long way from J-Pop. The song opens with lyrics that declaim “Begin, write a new story/Don’t be afraid; take my hand.” In “Dear Bride,” Kimi’s vocals are impassioned from the start. Singing “standing at the crossroads in my life,” her voice has a joyful sheen as she acknowledges past pain. She expresses a burning desire to move forward. Despite the overall optimism of the song, Kimi gets across the point that the narrator’s story is not yet complete. Nevertheless, she’s ready and willing to write the next chapter.

BRIDEAR songs are filled with such striking moments, moments in which Kimi’s voice establishes an imperative. During an a capella section towards the end of “cluster amaryllis,” from the EP Helix, Kimi sings about putting past mistakes behind her and believing in the future. Even with the vocal effects used on her voice, you hear the desperation, urgency and hope that are hallmarks of her vocal style. Above all, there is a tenacious quality to her voice that simply insists that you listen to her.

Skew Lines

It is always instructive to see a great singer work in a live setting. Fortunately, the live DVD Marcasite, filmed in 2018, allows one to watch Kimi as she injects her personality and emotion into each song. Throughout this concert, there is a tautness to Kimi’s delivery that is like a leopard preparing for attack. She leans forward towards the audience, eyes intent and hand pounding her chest. She convinces the listener with her straining physicality as well as her starkly expressive voice that her emotions are real.

Watch her during the encore of the majestic “Wing of Hope.” Holding her mic in her right hand, Kimi uses the gestures of her left hand to emphasize each lyric. She means every word she’s singing, just like her great predecessors in different genres, Shirley Verrett and Sarah Vaughan.

Like Shirley and Sarah, Kimi invests the songs of BRIDEAR with her personality, her motives, her desires. Kimi is a soul singer telling stories that insist on being heard. In song after song, Kimi takes the listener on a fascinating emotional journey. Her characters often start from a place of despair. She doesn’t always achieve a hopeful resolution. But Kimi is in control – always – of that high-speed car hurtling along the cliff and is confident in her ability to arrive at her destination.