Original: Excite
Translator: Erin Grace

--“Sudden Death Game” takes the bands edginess to a new level; it’s a new kind of song.  The riffs come to an end in a cool way.  How long have you been working on it?

Mitsumura: We actually came up with the intro in May or June of last year at the end of a retreat.  We were inspired by some drumming Tsushima did, and from there we gradually layered the guitar over it.  But we played around with just the intro for half a year. (laugh)  At first we weren’t even going to put it on a single, and we thought we’d just write it for fun, and thought up a lot of weird parts for the arrangement.

--And when did it come to its current form?

M: We came up with the hook around March or April of this year.  While at first it seemed like post-rock, we thought about creating it with a “human electronic” feeling, but the melody kept getting harder and harder.  So when we went to our retreat this year, I really felt that Black Sabbath was a boon to us.  We’d only listened to “Paranoid,” the second album, and I thought that we’d created a great song for sure.

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Original: Uta-Net
Translator: Erin Grace

The 4-girl group SCANDAL will be releasing their long-awaited 2^nd album “TEMPTATION BOX!”  SCANDAL, the band that was nominated for the Best New Artist award at the 51^st Japan Record Awards and whose single release shortly afterward became a huge hit. 

In the temptation box that you can’t help but peek into are the thoughts you want to see at any cost.  With cute, poppy songs, hard rock, and ballads, this album is chock full of everything SCANDAL has to offer!  

--It’s been 10 months since you released your last album, “BEST SCANDAL.”  What do you see, looking back on those 10 months?

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Many music videos are released every month in Japan to promote the latest single or album coming out. Though we often talk about the music videos that accompany the music we review, some PVs slip through the cracks. This week we task our lovely writer with the difficult job of reviewing some of the recent vids to make their way all the way from Japan to our computer screens in the US.

Written by Erin Grace

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Original: Oricon
Translator: Erin Grace

Her newest album, in which she makes her resolution to keep singing! 

“I can freely say that the place I’m at now is an endless heaven!” That’s Miliyah Kato’s 5^th album, “HEAVEN.” This is a serious album, in which she asks herself, “Why do I sing?” and makes her resolution to keep singing. 

I'm always facing music passionately  

--[With this album] you’ve been able to free yourself, haven’t you?

Miliyah: Precisely.  I feel like I’ve been able to truly express myself. 

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Original: Excite
Translator: Erin Grace

Excite: Your most recent album, “SPARK,” is your second mini album along with “Refrain,” which was released this past March.  Is there any relevance to this?

Yuka: Honestly, a lot of the songs on “Refrain” and “SPARK” were rather unexpectedly created around the same time.

Masaki: I can say with confidence, from all of the songs that we’ve created, the ones we really wanted to release in the spring went onto “Refrain,” and the ones we really wanted to release in the summer went onto “SPARK.”

E: Do you have a “grading scale” to determine which are best for spring, and which are best for summer?

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