Siam Shade isn't too terribly popular over here in the West, but for those of you who are interested, their new single came out about 3 days ago. And for those of you who aren't too interested in Siam Shade, it might be time for you to check them out.

Here's the description on CD Japan: "Siam Shade is doing a concert at the Budokan at the end of 2001. They wrote this song for their 16th single for their Budokan concert in gratitude and love they feel toward fans. It's also their first single with an A-side ballad. Kazuma (guitar & vocals) is singing the lead vocals for the first time in the other song conatined." (I haven't heard the c/w yet, btw, so if anyone else has, comments on it would be much appreciated! ^_^)

Love isn't anything like a normal Siam Shade song, at least on the surface. For one thing, it's a ballad. Siam Shade hasn't, to my extensive knowledge, done any true ballads before, so this can probably count as their first one. The introduction sounds like a vague mixing together of the opening chords of Luna Sea's Forever and Ever and the Pachabel Canon. Sound odd? The sound is actually very warm, combined with a soft choir-like accompaniment in the background of synthesizer. So far, so good. A little bland, maybe.

When Hideki comes in after the intro, this is where it hit me that this song is very un-Siam Shade. For one thing, Kazuma [lead gtr]and Daita [rhythm gtr] do hardly anything in the background but some short guitar riffs. The rest of the time it's quiet accompaniment by the drums and bass. Now if you know anything about Siam Shade, their guitars are their signature: very hard, very fast, very showy. For such a subdued guitar line in this song speaks a lot. I on one hand am pretty pleased. Their singles were all starting to sound alike, and it's a mark that Siam Shade has started to venture into the other parts of jrock.

The chorus comes in after a (usually required short dramatic) pause and Hideki doesn't sound too bad here. I usually don't like his voice in slower songs (granted, they haven't done too many of them, but he's just way too scratchy for me on songs like Tears I Cried.) It's a regular dramatic ballad chorus, but the part that startled me was at the very end of the chorus, when Hideki sings "For love!" For one thing, he goes up to a B. I've never heard him sing that high, and he hits the pitch quite well, though he's obviously straining. For another thing, it's just an unexpected addition to the chorus. More that later.

The song repeats itself, with Hideki's "For LOVE!" getting very melodramatic at the end of the second chorus just before he goes into a semi-bridge part, which is where Kazuma's guitar solo kicks off.

For a ballad guitar solo, it's very nice. I'm the kind of person who will be constantly comparing every jrock ballad guitar solo to X Japan's Hide/Pata ballad duets, so of course Kazuma's solo doesn't nearly stand up to that. It's very melodic in traditional Siam Shade style. Besides Mayu's [Lareine] solos, I believe that Kazuma's solos are probably the most melodic guitar solos I've ever heard. Which is probably just because of their style of music. The Siam Shade guitars are definitely more tecnical than Mayu, however, but as this is a ballad, it's just Kazuma playing some very pretty melody lines.

And that's it. Kazuma's guitar solo starts at the 4:26 minute mark and continues for the rest of the song until it fades out at 5:32. No more vocal, just guitar solo, synth accompaniment, bass, and drums. One thing I did think about when I was listening to this is that Daita must be REALLY bored.

Now, as to the unexpected addition of "LOVE!", The lyrics in this song are worth mentioning. At first it might strike you as utterly sappy that Siam Shade, a hard rock band by all standards, is singing about LOOOOOOOOOOVE! like some sappy soft rock artist. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that most of their other lyrics are pretty sappy too. Even the hard rock songs. As Moonsong put it, "Siam Shade is a jpop band hiding behind their guitars." *grin* And I do admit, Siam Shade has some awesome guitars.

My verdict? Hmm...not bad. A little sappy, but most Siam Shade stuff is, if you take out the guitars. Hideki performs very nicely here, and even his voice didn't really bother me. The "For LOOOOVE!" inserts might startle you at first, but I got to be quite fond of them after a while. *snicker* The background acccompaniment (yes, it IS background, which is surprising, since Siam Shade is definitely an instrumental and not vocal carried band) is very nice as well, but they do fade enough into the background to give room for the vocal. This is a Hideki song. Definitely so.

I think the thing that most endears me to this song is that this is their first ballad. Making a ballad, I think, is a kind of "rite of passage" for a jrock band. Ever since X Japan pioneered the tactic with Endless Rain, every jrock band who wants to be a name of any sort has had a ballad. Glay has had too many to count: Zutto Futari de, However, Together, etc. Their first single Rain is even a semi-ballad (well, of course...Yoshiki wrote it). L'Arc~en~Ciel has Pieces, which is wildly popular. Luna Sea's Forever and Ever, B'z's One and Gold (which is, I think, their best song to date), Lareine's Ano Hito no Aishita nara, Dir en Grey's Ain't Afraid to Die, Gackt's Saikai ~Story~...and the list goes on and on. Many jrock fans I've talked to have wondered why Siam Shade isn't nearly as popular as any of the above bands, though their music certainly isn't lacking. I think that their lack of ballads explains partly why.

So look at this how you will. Perhaps Love is a marketing tactic, to draw in the fans. Maybe they just felt like writing a ballad. Maybe they, like some of us fans, thought it was about time that they started "playing with the big boys." Siam Shade definitely isn't a band that's suited for ballads, and I hope they don't decide to go that direction. But Love is a good song for their first effort, and it's worth listening to. In my opinion, anyway, Siam Shade is one of those bands that is definitely worthy to add their names to the list of great jrock bands, and perhaps this is the next step.

In fact, I've uploaded it for you, so why not download it and give it a try? ^_^

Download it HERE