Since I did it last year might as well do it this year. So this is what new music GC was spinning in 2019 (part 1).
25) The Heana Cat - Adrenaline
2019 was a year when The Heana Cat dropped the gothic trappings that had defined their musical and visual style to a more straight ahead rock look and sound. The keyboard still features in their music but it is more bass and guitar forward than before. Adrenaline is a great example of Hi-Chan(guitar/vocal/keyboard) and Chino's (bass/vocal) new style as Chino has grown in her contributions to the duo.
24) Demons & Wizards - Diabolic
It has been 15 years since Hansi Kursch (Blind Guardian) and Jon Schaffer (Iced Earth) had released material for their side project Demons and Wizards. With the 20 year remastering of the original Demons & Wizards release and a main stage performance at Wacken a new Demons & Wizards album was announced and Diabolic was the lead single proving that the combination of Schaffer's riff centric based metal and Hansi's vocal range is still sounds as good as it did 20 years ago.
23) Band-Maid - Bubble
In their short life of primarily writing their own music, lead guitarist Kanami Tono has shown herself to being endlessly adept at adapting different styles and putting a bend on them that fits Band-Maid's rock style. With a video clearly inspired by the Bohemian Rhapsody movie and sound reminiscent of 70s arena rock it was not Band-Maid's softest release of the year nor was it the hardest but it is good.
22) BiS - Are You Ready?
Also inspired by Bohemian Rhapsody, it was the 2nd version of BiS most ambitious song but it was also their swan song as most of the group got tired of producer Watanabe's shit, who gets murdered about 3 mins into the music video, and quit en masse. It is too bad that the 2nd group was finally stepping out of the shadow of the original BiS and forging their own path of pushing musical experimentation and what an idol could be before it crashed down.
21)Ningen Isu - Life For Sale
Until 2019 no one had heard of Ningen Isu outside of Japan. The veteran metal trio had their video for Heartless Scat pushed out to the the recommendations of lots of youtubers interested in Japanese or metal music and they took off. Ningen Isu is clearly inspired by Black Sabbath with just a touch of speed metal here and there to quicken the pace. Life for Sale is a faster paced song then their breakout Heartless Scat but shows there is more to Ningen Isu than just Black Sabbathesque doom metal.
20) Kaqriyo Terror - lilithpride
The former Kaqriyo Terror Architect , which at the beginning of the year lost the three original members was rebranded simply Kaqriyo Terror with the remaining three members and an addition of two others. The group had large shoes to fill as KTA was Codomomental's most experimental group under the leadership of the departed Nonamera. Kaqriyo Terror continues that legacy with their first single throwing multiple styles into a blender and somehow coming out with something that works. [Reply]
