A Band That I Truly Believe Can Save the World

Let me start off this post with a bit of personal rant on music and people's fascination towards it. We've been partaking in an era of music that needs to be categorized or "genre-fied" if you will. There exists a large plethora of sub-genres in music that almost any style and sound is able to be pigeonholed in our current musical climate. While it is cool that we've come so far in how we are able to describe, categorize, and talk about music, it certainly lends to a larger conversation about how a lot of people inevitably become "stuck."

What I mean by this is that there seems to be a large trend of people who will only follow one particular genre or style of music. Now it is cool to like what you like and I by no means am saying that people are wrong for having those likes that they do. That's not what I'm saying here. However, I do believe that the issue at the heart of genre is limitation. The metal heads are not able to give punk or indie a shot. The alternative, indie, folk, or hip hop enthusiast is not able to listen to heavier music (maybe with some screamed vocals). Why can't we see past certain elements or learn to appreciate a wider variety of music? Why can't we actively search for more artists out there who deserve your attention? Well a lot of it is simply exposure and if that's the style they've been exposed to and resonated with then most people are content with staying there, and that's okay. But the overall point I'm trying to communicate simply lies in the fact that I wish more people were able to traverse genres and maybe give other types of music a chance. The communities built around genres are awesome! But perhaps we should learn to be more inviting within those communities to promote a bigger appreciation and love for music as a whole? Food for thought; but this topic is very much relevant to the band I'm going to talk about today! This is the one band I will always go back to as the band that I truly believe can save the world and maybe this conversation of genre. This is Japan's Vampillia.

When talking about the style of music Vampillia plays, I've seen it described as "schizophrenic music." That is a pretty good description considering their music spans a crap ton of genres you wouldn't think to hear mixed. Vampillia's music is kind of like that of  a "brutal orchestra." They are a 11+  member band that has a lot of shit going on at once. The music sounds like a successful blend of a classical approach to music (via piano and violin based melodic sounds) fused with genuine metal instrumentation. At any point they tend to employ two guitarists, a bassist, dual drummers, a lead singer, an opera singer, an electronic board, a keyboard, a violin, etc. With a piano and a violin operating the forefront of their songs classical music is the norm; but at any point they can barrage the listener with harsh black metal. And the crazy thing is that the music really isn't limited just to that! They also somehow weave in pop elements, post rock, and even elements of noise, electronic, and folk. The list goes on and it truly seems like the band is capable of anything! With such a chaotic sonic layout for their songs and a large number of members, their live shows are equally chaotic, noisy, and invigorating. Costumes, funny gimmicks, and interacting with the crowd in unique ways is commonplace for Vampillia (how many bands you see randomly bring out a ladder half way through the set just for the lead singer to climb it and start screaming his head off up there). You literally never know what can happen! But the two things that truly bind it all together and make this chaos so successful lies in the facts that: every member of Vampillia is an actual musical genius and they are so goddamn passionate that it bleeds through 150% in their performances. 

Normally with these posts on my blog, I like to cover the history of the bands I discuss and really flesh out a story to understand how they came to be. Well truth be told, this may be one of the few times that I sadly cannot give you one. Vampillia and it's members really are a big mystery. They all go by code names (minus a few of them who have known identities) and the few interviews that do exist with them seem to be taken as a joke (revealing little to nothing about how they came to be, what they like, and what their true opinions on things really are). As such, I really only have bits and pieces but I'll try my best to highlight some of the more interesting things I know about them.

History/Interesting Facts

Vampillia formed in Osaka, Japan in 2005. The band began as a vision by their unnamed leader to create a musical project creating a type of music that nobody has heard before. As such, the band's origins were spearheaded by the notion of creating challenging, interesting, and new music. Their unnamed leader wished to fuse metal elements with elements of classical music. However, this unnamed leader has no background in music, does not play any instruments, and never performs on stage with the band. Despite all of this, he wished to create this challenging musical idea by gathering people whom he truly believed could come together to make his vision a reality. The only member of the band that I'm aware of with a known identity is one of the band's two drummers: Tatsuya Yoshida (of the band Ruins). Beyond that the lead singer goes by the name: Mongo, Mongoloid, or Muscle Mongoloid, and the other members have a slue of code names such as: Japan Slash, Talow the Torando, Nessy the Mistake, The Piano, etc

From the very beginning Vampillia's compositional process has been described as controlled (by them) due to the fact that they let all final decisions be made by their leader (in all matters regarding the band). This interests the hell out of me as I initially believed the creative process for a band of this size would be immensely chaotic. To think that these musical geniuses put their trust and decision making in the hands of a man with no musical talent fascinates me profoundly. He must be doing a great job considering how brilliant the music sounds. To this end, Vampillia has gone on to create multiple records, EPs, mini LPs, and a slue of collaborative records. Vampillia must be well adored in the musical world as the list of artists and bands that have collaborated with them is cool as all hell! To date they have worked with (to name a few):

-Merzbow (legendary Japanese artists who's essentially the godfather of noise music)

-members of the band Swans

-Atilla Csihar (lead singer of Mayhem, and singer in Sunn O)))

-World's End Girlfriend 

-The Body

-Nadja

-U-Ziq (famous English electronic musician)

-Tsujiko Noriko (famous Japanese pop artist)

--AND THE LIST GOES ON--

Hell if the fact that many notable musicians throughout diverse genres working with them wasn't enough, Vampillia in 2011 had the honor of being selected as the showcasing artist to close out SXSW. The band is doing something remarkable and very different. This frantic chaos is also very much heard throughout their records. A Vampillia record is a fun record if only for the fact that you literally never know what the hell you are gonna get. Sometimes it's only melodic, sometimes it's only instrumental, and other times it's ear crushing metal. It's the ability to manipulate and masterfully combine genre after genre that makes this band so frankly beautiful.  

Funny enough, a group of five of the musicians of Vampillia also have a side project/band called Violent Magic Orchestra (also referred to as V.M.O.) that like to perform when Vampillia performs (I mean it makes sense since they are all already there). Violent Magic Orchestra (a funny enough great description of Vampillia) is what happens when you cross black metal and straight electronic/harsh noise. It's very challenging music to listen to but I encourage anyone who's brave to give it a try. Under all the filth and heaviness is a smudge of the beautiful melodic Vampillia timbre. What's cool about V.M.O's sole record to date "Catastrophic Anonymous" is that the record is a collaboration between the five members of Vampillia and two westerners. American Pete Swanson (formerly of Yellow Swans) and French electronic music composer Paul Regimbeau (aka Mondkopf) lend their talents to the harsh noise and electronic elements on the record. The record even sees guest vocals by Chip King of The Body and Atilla from Mayhem (cause you know they already didn't have enough amazing collaborators). Anyways I thought it was appropriate to mention this while I was talking about Vampillia  just to highlight how amazing their creative output is (don't forget they are all musical geniuses). Anyways I'll leave a link here if anyone is brave enough to give this a try! 

Back to Vampillia! What more can I say about a band that I honestly wouldn't hesitate to call my favorite band of all time (if only for the fact that Deftones so lovingly occupies that spot)? I won't lie...they are kind of hard to get into. Being from Japan, the fact that a lot of people don't know who they are, and the strange fact that their music is sort of hard to access all definitely lends to this. Vampillia has a bandcamp page, but for whatever reasons chooses to not allow you to stream or purchase all their records that are on full display on the page. As such, you sort of have to do some digging. So here's what I am going to do for you lucky readers who are still reading up to this point! Here are all my recommended records and videos for you to check out! OH YEA! Did I mention that on top of being musical geniuses they have members that are well versed in animation! Seriously some of their music videos contain original animations from the band to accompany the music! Is there anything these people can't do? So here are the records you should check out with links to purchase them (if you wish):

-My Beautiful Twisted Nightmare in Aurora Rainbow : (link)

-The Divine Move (link)

-White Silence (link)

-My Heart Will Go On (link)

But! If you want to get a feel for just how amazing they truly are I highly recommend checking out these videos and their live sets! I promise you will be blown away. 

 

As always thank you so much for reading! Vampillia is a band I truly believe shatters the grounds of the issues of genre. Maybe just maybe, more bands like this can arise to truly allow for more open minded listeners to adopt new sounds into their existing musical catalogs. Here's to hoping Vampillia returns to the U.S. some day to tour. Cheers and Happy Holidays.

-Nights Off.