Alice Nine Saga Blog Translation [21.02.2012]

Blog Entry: Saga,〝9〟 

Just like when [GEMINI] was released, Saga updated his blog and talked about the new songs on their new album,〝9〟. He's going to split it up into two entries. So far, he's done the first part, which covers the first four songs on the album.

2012/2/21

I think I'll talk about the new album in two parts and update when I feel like it.
I probably won't be talking about the songs that were on singles. lol

When we were working on our 5th album,"9", I got the slight feeling that it would be different from [GEMINI].
We started writing songs for the album during Summer of last year.
At that time, we had gotten used to doing the grandiose songs you would find on [GEMINI].
I think that around that time, we were juggling between the two options of whether we should make our songs even more grandiose; or if we should tone it down a bit.
Again, we won't know just what kind of album this will be for us until we go on tour and share these songs with everyone.
What I want to say right now
is that the title of "9" is the closest thing to having a self-titled album,
it doesn't mean that this will be our last album. lol

1. Heavenly Tale
This is the oldest song on the album; we had it when we were choosing songs to put on [GEMINI].
It was supposed to be the first song on [GEMINI], but had its position stolen by "I.", which is a song that came in later.
It's a grandiose song, but it's a little different from the other grandiose songs we've had.
It has a vast feeling, but the kind of vast that you find on Earth, not in outer space.
This song is just like "the beautiful name" or "Subaru", it's gospel -- Alice Nine style.
Even if I do say so myself, the bass for this song is hard,
but the guitars get to play much cooler phrases. It's a little unfair.

2. the Arc
In the past, we probably would have tried to avoid this kind of song the most.
Metal songs are metal songs,
but only men can do melodic speed metal with regular tuning in this day and age.
If you only play the raw sounds, the melody has the feeling of what things were like during the good old days.
If we had played this song to our past selves around when we formed,
they surely would have said "Why did it turn out like this?".
You'd be surprised as to how much we collaborated on the lyrics for such an erratic song.
If we were to shoot a PV for this song,
I'd get Tora to play the part of a devil king and get Shou to play the longsword-wielding hero.
I'd get Hiroto to play a summoned beast, and I'd be the one summoning.
I'd make Nao play a demonic being who was born from an egg that Tora coughed out.
Wait, this storyline has nothing to do with the lyrics.
It'd okay to headbang along to this song.

3. GALLOWS
This song, which Tora composed, has the kind of phrases that Tora would come up with everywhere in the song.
This song happened to follow on from "the Arc" when we were choosing which songs to put on the album.
Having these songs follow on from each other fired things up,
so that's why the songs follow on from each other on the album too.
Someone from a certain senior band complimented how Shou stretched out the B note in the chorus.
By the way, this senior band isn't a part of PSC.
This song gave us the most trouble during recording.
The melody is extremely catchy, so it could have also been put on a single.
Our producer, Okano,
imagined the entire album to have a pop feel to it.
This is definitely the kind of song you'd have on a single.
And it's as if "GALLOWS" is aiming to be a perfect mix of pop and rock.
Apart from that, personally, I agree that rock bands have pop elements to them, and that they can't fight against the world's trends.
So thanks to that, both children and adults can be poisoned by rock music without even knowing it.
I would have completely lost interest if there weren't any poison in rock music. lol

04. Kasumi
A up tempo yet slow tempo song loaded with Hiroto's style.
Within this song is the view of the world that he's been painting for a while now.
His view of the world hides his musical roots.
It's hard to explain,
but the guitars that keep resounding from start to finish is the telling of a tale.
Because of that, the bass has been completely reduced to a supporting role. lol
Hiroto has always been a passionate guy, but his guitar playing changes over time.
This song was originally around 8 minutes long.
I personally have no objections to long songs, so I had no problem with a song over 8 minutes.
But in terms of how the album flows and the song's place on the album,
it seems like an 8 minute song feels really long.
It's a bit heartbreaking to shorten a long song.
I think that performing the longer version at lives is still a possibility.
If we could, I'd want to perform it at an open air venue.

Credit: jaeho_x3@lj