Zoro - GOLD CARD

Formed by ex-Soroban members, Zoro is a bright, extravagant mix of colour in both their costumes and genre of music.

The first six and a half seconds of GOLD CARD begin with a rough trance-like beat, moving on immediately to a pop backing track with auto-tuned vocals. But to be honest, GOLD CARD is a bit of a mess. Too much auto-tune overwhelms listeners and strips them of a few moments of rest. About halfway into the track, the trance beat from the intro creeps into the song and makes you think that the song is at a climax and preparing to end soon. However, extensively auto-tuned vocals coat the intense trance beat, though it manages to sound interesting at the few higher notes. Shockingly, Taizo’s passionate guitar solo rushes atop the mess of auto-tune and synthesizer. With a multitude of sound coming at you simultaneously, it can be hard to pick the vocalist out from the mishmash of everything else.

Immediately afterward, the jovial second track FIGHTER FIGHTER rushes into motion. Seemingly an extension of GOLD CARD, the only difference between the two songs is that the second is transposed up a key - and of course, there are different lyrics. The similarity of tracks makes it a little difficult to notice the exact ending of GOLD CARD, but overall FIGHTER FIGHTER is a nice pop track.

Finally in GAGA, the listener gets to hear the band! The opening guitar riffs are classified as rock, but the sound morphs as a cosmic rush of synthesizer hits listeners' ears and bombards them in subliminal bliss. Available only on the regular edition of the single, GAGA lets up on the heavy use of synthesizer found in the first two tracks and allows the rest of the members of Zoro to shine through.

An alternate third track, Assassin is very similar to GAGA and is available only on the limited edition. Since GOLD CARD, Zoro has released another single, HOUSE・OF・MADPEAK. Also, Zoro will be releasing a full album at the end of this year on December 1, 2010.