Unseen World

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Unseen World
Studio album by
Band-Maid
ReleasedJanuary 13, 2021 (2021-01-13)
Recorded2020
GenreHard rock[1]
LanguageJapanese
LabelPony Canyon
Band-Maid chronology
Conqueror
(2019) 		Unseen World
(2021) 		Unleash
(2022)
Music videos
"Warning!" on
YouTube

Unseen World is the seventh

studio album by the Japanese all-female rock band Band-Maid. It was released digitally on January 13, 2021, with physical formats released one week later.[2] It is the band's first album for Pony Canyon.[3]

The cover is a collage of the band members' fingers.[4] The album reached the top 20 on the rock music charts in thirteen countries,[5] and reached no. 1 on the Oricon Rock Albums chart in Japan.[6]

Composition and lyrics

The lyrics for "After Life" are about the future and being born again.[7] Bassist Misa wrote the guitar solo for "No God".[8] The lyrics for "Manners" are about Band-Maid.[7][8][9][10] Rhythm guitarist/vocalist Miku Kobato wanted to call it "Rule", but lead vocalist Saiki Atsumi felt that it was too pushy.[7] It was the last song written for the album.[8] Lead guitarist Kanami Tōno wanted "Manners" to have a Western feel to it, so she analyzed all the songs that were nominated for Grammy Awards.[7]

The working title for "I Still Seek Revenge." was "Revenge".[7] The title of "H-G-K" is a reference to a Turkish military guided bomb, HGK, as has been confirmed by lyricist Kobato in an interview.[7][8][11] It took Tōno two to three months to be able to play it.[8] For this song, Tōno was asked to make a song in the style of "Choose Me", but it didn’t turn out that way.[7] She tried again with "After Life", but that ended up being different as well.[7]

"Nightingale" was written by Tōno as a request by Kobato, who wanted a solo song on the album, because she didn’t have one on their previous album, Conqueror.[10] It was originally supposed to have a simpler ending.[8] The title and the English spoken words[a] are from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.[11]

"Chemical Reaction" was based on a riff Misa wrote.[8] The demo Tōno sent drummer Akane Hirose featured a cowbell, which Hirose wanted to replace with a ride cymbal cup, but Tōno said to keep the cowbell.[7] The lyrics for "Giovanni" are based on Kenji Miyazawa’s novel Night on the Galactic Railroad.[7][11]

"Ambition" is a love song.

BPM of 220.[7] Hirose prepared seven different patterns of kick drum variations to show to her band members, with the level of difficulty ranging from "easy-peasy" to "hell".[12] They all chose "hell", without listening to any of the others.[12]

Critical reception

The album received generally positive reviews from music journalists familiar with the J-rock scene. Carlos Vélez-Cancel at Everything Is Noise noted that the album is heavier than its predecessors, and praised the band's "ability to craft anthemic songs without being afraid to delve into the unconventional."[13] Raijin Rock also noted the album's lack of ballads when compared to the band's previous albums and its "absolutely furious and unabating assault of aggressive hard rock", along with guitarist Kanami Tōno's ability to write memorable riffs, concluding that the band "are more cohesive on Unseen World than in any previous release."[14] JaME called it "a vivid, powerful album that can easily be called Band-Maid’s best work to date."[15] The album also received a positive review from Exclaim! which described the album's music as more adventurous and displaying more character than albums by other current J-Rock bands.[16]

Koichi Inoue of Gekirock listed the album as the tenth best album of 2021 and listed "Nightingale" as the second best song of the year.[17]

Accolades

Publication Accolade Rank
4ZZZ Garry Williams top ten albums of 2021
9[18]
MetalSucks Ryan Dyer's Best Metal Albums of 2021...So Far
—[19]
Raijin Rock Album of the Year
1[20]
Rice Digital Album of the Year
1[21]
Tricky-Kid.com Best Metal Albums
5[22]
Wall of Sound Simon Valentine's Top 5 Albums of 2021
1[23]

Track listing

All lyrics written by Miku Kobato, all music written by Band-Maid.

CD (Normal Edition)
No.TitleLength
1."Warning!"4:20
2."No God"4:10
3."After Life"3:23
4."Manners"3:50
5."I Still Seek Revenge."3:02
6."H-G-K"3:07
7."Nightingale (Sayonakidori, サヨナキドリ)"4:33
8."Why Why Why"3:37
9."Chemical Reaction"4:09
10."Giovanni"4:17
11."Ambition (Honkai, 本懐)"3:16
12."Black Hole"3:05
13."Without Holding Back (Instrumental)"3:33
Total length:48:33
CD (First Press Limited Edition)
No.TitleLength
1."Warning!"4:20
2."No God"4:10
3."After Life"3:23
4."Manners"3:50
5."I Still Seek Revenge."3:02
6."H-G-K"3:07
7."Nightingale (Sayonakidori, サヨナキドリ)"4:33
8."Why Why Why"3:37
9."Chemical Reaction"4:09
10."Giovanni"4:17
11."Ambition (Honkai, 本懐)"3:16
12."Black Hole"3:05
Total length:45:00

Limited Edition

Disc 1 (Roots, 原点回帰盤)
No.TitleLength
1."After Life"3:23
2."Why Why Why"3:37
3."Youth"3:41
4."Nightingale (Sayonakidori, サヨナキドリ)"4:33
5."Chemical Reaction"4:09
6."Manners"3:50
7."I Still Seek Revenge."3:02
Total length:26:18
Disc 2 (Progress, 現点進化盤）
No.TitleLength
1."Giovanni"4:17
2."H-G-K"3:07
3."Manners"3:50
4."Black Hole"3:05
5."Ambition (Honkai, 本懐)"3:16
6."No God"4:10
7."Warning!"4:20
Total length:26:08

DVD/Blu-ray (First Press Limited Edition)

No.TitleLength
1."After Life" (Instrumental video) 
2."No God" (Instrumental video) 
3."Giovanni" (Instrumental video) 
4."Without Holding Back" (Instrumental video) 

Personnel

Band-Maid
  • Saiki Atsumi – lead vocals (except track 7)
  • Miku Kobato – rhythm guitar, vocals, lead vocals on track 7
  • Kanami Tōno – lead guitar
  • Misa – bass
  • Akane Hirose – drums

Charts

Chart (2021) Peak
position
Japan Hot Albums (Billboard)[24] 6
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[25] 8
Japanese Rock Albums (Oricon)[6] 1

Notes

  1. ^ My bounty is as boundless as the sea... My love as deep... The more I give to thee... The more I have, for both are infinite.

References

  1. ^ "Best J-Pop/J-Rock Album Covers 2021". J-Generation. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  2. ^ "Band-Maid Post Teaser For New Album 'Unseen World'". Moshi Moshi Nippon. January 8, 2021. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  3. ^ "Band-Maid、ニューアルバム「Unseen World」を1月20日に発売！12月発売シングル楽曲は、アニメ「ログ・ホライズン 円卓崩壊」オープニングテーマに決定！". Pony Canyon (in Japanese). November 3, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  4. ^ "Band-Maid to Release New Album 'Unseen World' On January 20". Moshi Moshi Nippon. November 25, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  5. ^ "Band-Maid、ニューアルバム『Unseen World』が世界2位にランクイン！ハリウッドデビューに先駆け、全世界のチャートを席巻！". Pony Canyon (in Japanese). January 25, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  6. ^ a b "オリコン週間 Rockアルバムランキング 2021年01月18日～2021年01月24日". Oricon (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 6, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "[インタビュー] Band-Maid「まだ見ぬ世界へ連れて行きたい」"現点進化"で示したアティチュード" (in Japanese). musicvoice.jp. January 22, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "Band-Maid『Unseen World』インタビュー＆「Band-Maid Online Okyu-ji（Dec. 13, 2020）」ライブレポ" (in Japanese). Usen. January 21, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  9. ^ Tsuchiya (January 19, 2021). "Band-Maid VanityMix Web Limited Interview". VanityMix (in Japanese). p. 1. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  10. ^ a b "【インタビュー】Band-Maidの"原点"と"現点"" (in Japanese). barks.jp. February 4, 2021. p. 3. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  11. ^ a b c d e Tsuchiya (January 19, 2021). "Band-Maid VanityMix Web Limited Interview". VanityMix (in Japanese). p. 2. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  12. ^ a b "Band-Maid『Unseen World』インタビュー完全版――〈原点回帰〉と〈現点進化〉、2つのテーマを1枚にまとめたら、結果的にこうなりましたっぽ". mikiki.tokyo.jp. January 1, 2020. p. 3. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  13. ^ Vélez-Cancel, Carlos (February 2, 2021). "Band-Maid - "Unseen World"". Everything Is Noise. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  14. ^ "Band-Maid: The Furies Unleashed. Review of "Unseen World"". Raijin Rock. January 28, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  15. ^ "Band-Maid - Unseen World". JaME. March 7, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  16. ^ Juergensen, Rhys (January 26, 2021). "Band-Maid Begin Their Evolution into Japanese Rock Breakouts on 'Unseen World'". Exclaim!. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  17. ^ "Geki-Rock Ranking 2021 |激ロック". Gekirock. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  18. ^ Williams, Garry. "Zed Announcers' Top Tens For 2021 Garry Williams: Film Club". 4ZZZ. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
  19. ^ Dyer, Ryan (July 23, 2021). "Too Soon? Ryan Dyer's Best Metal Albums of 2021… So Far". MetalSucks. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  20. ^ "The Year 2021 in Review". Raijin Rock. December 21, 2021. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  21. ^ Cannon, Trent (December 21, 2021). "The best JRock of 2021". Rice Digital. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  22. ^ "Top 25 Lps of 2021". Tricky-Kid.com. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  23. ^ Valentine, Simon (December 20, 2021). "Wall Of Sound presents: "2021 Year In Review" – by WoS Writer Simon Valentine". Wall of Sound. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  24. ^ "Billboard Japan Hot Albums: 2021/02/01 付け". Billboard Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  25. ^ "Unseen World(完全生産限定盤) | Band-Maid" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
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