Versailles -The Revenant Choir

Versailles, the new band of Kamijo and HIZAKI, harkens back to a time of lavish gothicism and, in typical Kamijo style, French baroque. The look and feel of the band is epic grandiosity and their first single, Revenant Choir, is testament to this.

Clocking in at an impressive 9 minutes, Revenant Choir is speed metal with a definite X-Japan sound to it and feels epic at times. In typical pretentious style, Revenant Choir opens with a melancholy orchestrated melody and an American lady telling a story about two clans of dreamers. Versailles is one of these clans, remembering the day their ancestors decided to live forever in loneliness. It is rather nonsensical, but the sense of grandeur it lends to the song fits perfectly when the frantic guitars and drums kick in. The guitars are incredible throughout, HIZAKI and Teru showing off some impressive skills at creating a stunning melody that manages to keep pace with the thundering drum machine. The song calms down at the correct points and Kamijo's vocals provide a velvety counterbalance to the harsher instruments. Add a little bit of Engrish and Versailles' debut seems pretty damn impressive.

Revenant Choir includes a further four songs, all 'lesson' versions for the various instruments that enables listeners to play along to the part of Revenant Choir if they so choose.