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| Ryuichi vocal |
Sugizo guitar |
Inoran guitar |
J bass |
Shinya drums |
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If there's one visual rock mega-band that could have one day equaled the legendary status of X Japan it would be Luna Sea. Luna Sea is uncompromising hard rock with mystical melody, powerful rhythms and ingenious guitar riffs. As a band who consistently release rock music with power and beauty they're highly revered among Japanese rock fans. Continuously evolving, every album they've released has had distinctively different styles from one another. Each CD is a new experience with its own unique flavor. Luna Sea is made up of a crew of tremendously skillful musicians. There is no clear leader to the band as all of the members are equally important to the Luna Sea sound. There's vocalist Ryuichi Kawamura who's a rather princely looking fellow who writes the poetic lyrics. Out of all of the members, Ryuichi has undergone the most noticeable changes from the early days of Luna Sea. He's changed from a dark and demonic lead singer to a a natural look with a more optomistic singing style. He's also become a romantic idol star singing love songs and even doing acting and modeling on the side. He's a known playboy and his private life is often publicized. Ryuichi has a fantastic voice that can lend itself to any kind of music style. Even music buyers who aren't fans of Luna Sea seem to regard Ryuichi as one of the best male vocalists in Japan. J the tall, slim bassist is co-founder of the band along with Inoran. He's seen mostly as the bad boy of the band. His musical style and sense of fashion is closer to that of California rock than the rest of the band (motorbikes, body peircings and everything that goes with it). Although listening to his solo work, he obviously has a knack for grunge music as well. He writes songs that are full of energy like classic heavy metal. His bad boy image epitomizes the old industry view of "sex, drugs and rock n' roll". In fact J had been dealing with an alcoholism problem for much of the band's career and only in recent years has he been able to come clean and emerge more grounded and better than ever. He's my favorite member by the way. Inoran is the rhythmic guitarist who is the other co-founder of Luna Sea with J back in high school when they called themselves Lunacy. His sound is very destinctive in Luna Sea songs with their powerful sense of rhythm. He's an excellent songwriter and most of his songs bear a darker and more moody atmosphere. Although I feel he's a pretty outgoing in his own way, he is often seen as the shy and gentle one of the group, allowing the others to get more of the spotlight. Sugizo is by far the most flamboyant and dynamic of the group. As lead guitarist and overall interesting visual musician, he's often the favorite among hardcore fans, especially women. Sometimes known as "The Walking Porn", his seductive persona and visual kei look has won him many female fans. He's a bit narcisistic so he really enjoys dressing up and putting on makeup as more than just an attention grabber. So even after most of the other members began to lose their visual kei image, Sugizo has stuck with it to some extent. He writes a lot of the songs as well and even plays violin in many songs such as Providence and Shade. His musical style is quite eclectic, incorporating many different styles into rock n' roll. He used to be a somber and a bit of a delinquient loner, but as he matured (and become a father) he's become an all around nice guy. Let's not forget the drummer Shinya who can be a deceptively bright and witty person. He often plays on a larger-than-life drum set that looks more like some monstrous machine than aninstrument. It's on these drums that he really goes all-out. In my opinion, Shinya's one of the best and most versatile drummers I've ever come across. Being a person who usually focuses on drums last, I didn't see it at first but when I gave him a chance it didn't take me long to figure that this guy is really good. His incredible drumming really makes you want to move and is a dominating factor in so many Luna Sea songs. He is also quite talented with traditional taiko drums as well. Like I mentioned, Luna Sea was initially a high school band called "Lunacy" started by J and Inoran. Similarily Sugizo and Shinya were in a band together called Pinocchio. Lunacy and Pinocchio were actually rival bands. But strangely after Pinocchio fell apart in 1989, Lunacy recruited their old rival Sugizo. Sugizo requested that Shinya be part of the band too. A few months later Ryuichi, who was vocalist for another band called Slaughter was recruited and the band was therefore complete. They changed the spelling of their name to Luna Sea and after gaining some popularity as an independant visual rock band, they were scouted by Hide (of X Japan) and signed to Extasy records releasing their indie album. By 1991 Luna Sea had signed with MCA Victor and released their first major CD. They quickly rose to the ranks of one of the hottest Japanese rock bands ever. Like most visual rock
bands who become successful, Luna Sea started out with the androgenous
visual look but toned down to a more normal appearence over time. They've
been consistently pumping out killer hits together until 1996 when they
announced they'd split up temporarily to persue their solo careers. 1997
was a very interesting year for fans since they really got to gain a
greater appreciation for each members' musical style on an individual
basis. After the vacation, almost a year after the date of their hiatus,
Luna Sea returned early 1998 as promised. Now that they're back and each
member has a renewed musical vision they're intent on making Luna Sea the
greatest band ever. 
Luna Sea '1999'However after last year's
comeback, their sound has been critisized by many longtime fans as becoming
more and more pop influenced and has ultimately lost its edge. For one
thing, the lyrics and musical style are much more light and optomistic
than their older music which was usually filled with dark imagery and
gritty sound. Ryuichi's singing style has really changed after coming
back from his solo work. So much so that he's almost become an entirely
different person. He now often sounds more like a gushy romantic pop
idol than a hard rock vocalist. It is this fact that most dissatisfied
fans blame for the change. But all in all it's the entire group that
has changed. Even though it's still rock, the music has much less edgy
mysticism than before. I do prefer their older albums, which produced
far more memorable songs that had a real impact, but make no mistake
that this new stuff is good too. In some respects the new sound has
made improvements. Now Luna Sea has improved technical skill and have
become a tighter group with a unified vision. And overall their music
still remains among the best rock music around.
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