?Classics? of power metal #14: LOVEBITES - Awakening From Abyss (2017), upon further review

Now that I've had some time to sit with Awakening From Abyss, you know what I notice more than any individual element?  Well, in other entries in this series, I've frequently brought up the vaguely described feeling that some songs' disparate elements don't come together.  I don't always have the right words to "prove" anything, but I frequently try to evaluate whether or not something has that coherence that makes the difference between a great song and a song that has a bunch of cool elements haphazardly mixed together.   Artists with grand musical visions, musical virtuosity, or both, are prone to the latter.  I've even floated my little unfounded pet theories that certain bands with multiple hands in the songwriting had different members trying to write different albums and were thus, musically speaking, at war with each other, whether they knew it or not.  

Lovebites' debut stands out to me as the antithesis of that.  Whether I like any individual song or not, Lovebites' songs here always feel like they were composed as a piece of music, whose components serve a purpose.  Both guitarists can go hard, but are happy to settle into a repetitive riff if that's what's needed to give the song some necessary heft; lots of notes, very few excessive ones.  The song is sometimes going to drop out to let us hear how many cool flares Miho is throwing in, but only when it makes sense for the song to do so - otherwise she's in the background providing pulsating energy for the others to feed off, despite being something of the bandleader.  

In the last post I rambled a little about the crafting of the band's image.  That deliberateness applies to the music too.  "Calculated" sounds like too clinical an adjective to use when describing music, but I mean it in a complimentary way in this: Lovebites have a musical agenda that's clear.  On early listens I wondered whether the deemphasis of the keys in the early going of the record, the leaning into the more bass-focused first few tracks including the guttural choruses on the first few tracks* maybe represented any discomfort with the idea that Lovebites might be dismissed as a girly, flowery band, if they didn't lead with the heavier stuff.  Well, if they planned the tracklist that way, it was to make a statement, not out of the slightest insecurity.  This is a very comfortable band that knows exactly what they are and what they're doing.

The unity is particularly impressive given their aforementioned fondness for mixing and matching classic metal elements.  Bands like Lovebites deliberately make it difficult to pigeonhole them into a subtype of metal.  One could try to make the case that they're more indebted to thrash-adjacent USPM, or at least that they're paralleling the USPM acts by performing a similar derivation of [name your favorite touchstone early-'80s** metal act from before PM was a thing].  Then they'll hit you with "Inspire," a track that's so EUPM that one would think that it comes from a universe where the Allies annexed Japan after WWII.  Speaking of the band's native land, the one thing that seems uniquely Japanese about Awakening to me is some of the vocal melodies, particularly on the back half of the record.  There's something about a singer in a higher register with a vaguely '80s sounding melody throwing a lot of words in a chant-sing style that sort of strikes me as common to a lot of music out of Japan.  Lovebites lean into what I'll call their J-pop side more as the record goes on.  Always making sure to underlie it with their heaviest, most clearly metal-coded guitar parts and their fastest drumming of course.  Maybe to make sure no gatekeepers can question their bona fides?  Honestly, probably mostly because it makes for a pleasing combination, and they're interested in playing music that sounds good.

The swagger and confidence is rather stunning for a debut.  Learning that multiple key members had spent the preceding decade or so tooling around in other bands before finally hitting it big with Lovebites restored my sense in the order of the universe.  So, I probably shouldn't be thinking of Lovebites as a new-new act in 2017 so much as representing the generation right before the 2010s power metal generation shift and realignment.  However they got there, I was surprised at just how much these songs grew on me.  For the record, even though my initial impressions were mixed, I was always clear that I would've been intrigued enough after listen #1 to give it a second listen even if I weren't thinking of the blog, and to give it a third after the second, and so on - it helps to make an overwhelming first impression of "we're heavy and we're catchy."  Repeat listening definitely paid off, though, as the record kept revealing additional levels of craftsmanship with each spin.  Awakening is absolutely an accomplishment, one that's every bit as singular and cool as anything else I've covered for the series.

Other thoughts:

I haven't changed my stance either that Asami is a pretty limited vocalist - far from one of the stars of PM - nor that the songs are written in a way that don't really need a particularly good singer.

I started to jot down a list of a few particular moments that I especially liked, before deciding that too much of that makes for boring writing.  I do want to briefly highlight the choral prechorus of "Hammer Of Wrath" leading into the riff leading into the bass drop.  And the use of keyboards to subtly augment the riffs the way I always like - "Shadowmaker" is a good example.   And the way the backing vocals introduce the chorus of "Burden Of Time" with short phrases that end with "time" so Asami can take over on the down-beat.  And Haruna's cymbal work, just in general.

And I want to highlight "The Apocalypse."  Especially the successful use of the formula of big low pitched pre-chorus (gods, do I love the pulsating feel of the "warning, warning" part) as the lead in to even bigger soaring chorus.  Oh, and the fact that it feels slightly off kilter; even with the limited English proficiency, I'm getting the less than reassuring nature of what the speaker of the chorus isoffering.  And the simultaneously creepy and sweet outro riff.  I like that track a lot, is my point.

I think on the whole I prefer the sugar-tinged poppier tracks on the record's back half, but I wouldn't like the whole package quite as much if sequenced differently.  "Inspire" and "Don't Bite The Dust" just lightly brush against the edge of cheesy, so it helps that they feel earned after so many songs that have a much darker tone, musically and lyrically speaking.

"Bravehearts" doesn't sound all that different in the two different languages.  I interpret that as evidence that they pretty much write all of their songs that way, wherein the English lyrics are made to fit into something that had been sketched out with Japanese phrasing in mind.  I could see that becoming something that could anchor Lovebites firmly in "great but not top-tier" territory for me...

Favorite track:  "The Apocalypse"

Runner up:  "Hammer Of Wrath"

Least favorite track:  "Warning Shot"

Rating:  4/5

 

Will I come back to Lovebites?

Sure, why not?

Things I learned about power metal:

- There are different ways to get to that sweet spot of catchy and heavy that makes me happy; just turn up both

- PM has enough inherent diversity that twenty-first century artists can create something that sounds fresh just by combining classic sounds in a different mix

Next:  I decided to do at least one more unscheduled entry - probably only one for now, although I have a half-baked idea or something else, too - before moving on to the last record from the original ?Classics? Of Power Metal plan.  So!  Early impressions Paladin's Ascension, whenever I get around to it!    

*I do think early tracks like "Warning Shot" colored my early view of the record such that I was seeing more deemphasis of vocal melody throughout than is actually there.  So that's something from my first post that I don't really stand by.  

 

**Or even earlier.  "Don't Bite The Dust" starts with basically the riff from Cream's "Crossroads" played a little faster, before shifting it into something more overtly metal