PREVIEW: I only recently became a fan of Sound Horizon, really stumbling across them by accident. I saw a picture of their upcoming album Moira on a website and on a whim decided to google them knowing nothing about the band (artist, singer? ... I had no idea at that point). I believe the first song I heard of theirs was Mahoutsukai Sarabanto and I was pretty much hooked straight away. I fell completely in love with their songs, the diverse sounds, the story telling and the beautiful, (at times) haunting vocals.
Sound Horizon is the brainchild of composer Revo who describes Sound Horizon as a fantasy band. Their songs are stories with albums being omnibus styled; a collection of various songs/stories linked with common themes in a larger, overall story. Their lyrics are often metaphorical and mysterious with various fantasy styled themes (legends, curses, war, dreams etc).
They don't have a set group of vocalists, currently REMI, KAORI and YUUKI have been participating but each album also incorporates other vocal talents or anime seiyu for singing and narration. Revo sings as well as composes the music, while vocalist Jimang sings and narrates in various songs.
Sound Horizon has an extensive backlog of albums. Moira will be their 6th Story album while they have quite a few other works.
Sound Horizon's album covers are always beautiful animated works
I'm really looking forward to Moira as the album was my initial introduction to the band (despite seeing just the covers). Moira refers to the Moirae or Moerae, the Greek Fates who in Greek mythology controlled the thread of life, the life and death of mortals. The Moirae are Clotho, who spins the thread of life; Lacheis, who measures the thread and assigns each mortals destiny; and Atropos, who cuts the thread of life with abhorred shears, ending life. This theme is further incorporated with the first track Thanatos, the daemon of Death and Mortality. The Official Website has a PV preview of the opening track.
I have to say that it is definitely much darker than I had expected (Thanatos, the God of Death ... I'm not sure exactly what it was I was expecting ^_^ ) but I'm looking extremely forward to the darkness and light which will no doubt resonate throughout the entire album. Thankfully we have some more previews of the tracks from both the official site and Frost Moon Cafe's interview with Revo.
01. 冥王 / Θανατος (God of Death / Thanatos)
source: Frost Moon Cafe
02. 人生は入れ子人形 / Матршка (Matryoshka Doll / Matryoshka)
03. 神話 / Μυθος (Myth / Mythos)
04. 運命の双子 / Διδυμοι (Twins of Fate / Didumoi)
05. 奴隷市場 / Δουλοι (Slave Market / Douloi)
source: Frost Moon Cafe
06. 雷神域の英雄 / Λεωντιυς (Hero of the Lightening God / Leontius)
source: Sound Horizon Official Website
07. 死と嘆きと風の都 / Ιλιον (City of the Wind of Death / Ilion)
08. 聖なる詩人の島 / Λεσβος (Island of the Holy Poet / Lesbos)
source: Sound Horizon Official Website
09. 遥か地平線の彼方へ / Οριζοντας (To the Far Horizon / Horizon)
10. 死せる者達の物語 / Ιστορια (Story of the Dead / Istoria)
11. 星女神の巫女 / Αρτεμισια (Star Goddess / Artemisia)
source: Sound Horizon Official Website
12. 死せる乙女その手には水月 / Παρθενος (In the Dead Maiden's Hand, the Shadow Reflection of the Moon / Parthenos)
13. 奴隷達の英雄 / Ελευσευς (Slaves' Hero / Eleuseus)
14. 死せる英雄達の戦い / Ηρωμαχια (The Dead Horoes' Battle / Iromachia)
15. 神話の終焉 / Τελος (The End of the Myth / Telos)
Thanatos of course sounds completely haunting, I'm definitely going to enjoy that. The song is apparently over 8 min long. Epic!
Douloi I also really love. I just love Sound Horizon's various tempo changes and vocal harmonies. It's the style that is perhaps my favourite of Sanhora's so I'm sure to enjoy this one.
Leontius sounds really great so far, we don't get too much of a preview of the actual male vocals but they sounds really good so far.
Lesbos is very beautiful. The vocals are very moving even from this small preview. It definitely suits the idea of Lesbos, the island of the poet, most likely about the legendary Sappho.
Finally Artemisia once again is very beautiful. The harmonies and the vocals... wow. I can't explain how much I enjoy Sound Horizon's music. It's beautiful on so many levels.
You can still purchase the first press limited from Yesasia. I can't wait for my copy to arrive! I'll do a full review soon after, I'm sure.
Regular Limited
Thanatos and the Twins of Fate?
Moira Tracklist:01. 冥王 / Θανατος (God of Death / Thanatos)
source: Frost Moon Cafe
02. 人生は入れ子人形 / Матршка (Matryoshka Doll / Matryoshka)
03. 神話 / Μυθος (Myth / Mythos)
04. 運命の双子 / Διδυμοι (Twins of Fate / Didumoi)
05. 奴隷市場 / Δουλοι (Slave Market / Douloi)
source: Frost Moon Cafe
06. 雷神域の英雄 / Λεωντιυς (Hero of the Lightening God / Leontius)
source: Sound Horizon Official Website
07. 死と嘆きと風の都 / Ιλιον (City of the Wind of Death / Ilion)
08. 聖なる詩人の島 / Λεσβος (Island of the Holy Poet / Lesbos)
source: Sound Horizon Official Website
09. 遥か地平線の彼方へ / Οριζοντας (To the Far Horizon / Horizon)
10. 死せる者達の物語 / Ιστορια (Story of the Dead / Istoria)
11. 星女神の巫女 / Αρτεμισια (Star Goddess / Artemisia)
source: Sound Horizon Official Website
12. 死せる乙女その手には水月 / Παρθενος (In the Dead Maiden's Hand, the Shadow Reflection of the Moon / Parthenos)
13. 奴隷達の英雄 / Ελευσευς (Slaves' Hero / Eleuseus)
14. 死せる英雄達の戦い / Ηρωμαχια (The Dead Horoes' Battle / Iromachia)
15. 神話の終焉 / Τελος (The End of the Myth / Telos)
Thanatos of course sounds completely haunting, I'm definitely going to enjoy that. The song is apparently over 8 min long. Epic!
Douloi I also really love. I just love Sound Horizon's various tempo changes and vocal harmonies. It's the style that is perhaps my favourite of Sanhora's so I'm sure to enjoy this one.
Leontius sounds really great so far, we don't get too much of a preview of the actual male vocals but they sounds really good so far.
Lesbos is very beautiful. The vocals are very moving even from this small preview. It definitely suits the idea of Lesbos, the island of the poet, most likely about the legendary Sappho.
Finally Artemisia once again is very beautiful. The harmonies and the vocals... wow. I can't explain how much I enjoy Sound Horizon's music. It's beautiful on so many levels.
You can still purchase the first press limited from Yesasia. I can't wait for my copy to arrive! I'll do a full review soon after, I'm sure.
Regular Limited
Moira is released on the 3rd of September. Thanks so much to animesuki's Sound Horizon thread where I got a lot of the info from.
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5 comments - Join the discussion!:
So... what nationality are you from? I know its hard for an outsider to know about SH...
and yes, they are cool. Don't miss on Chronicle 2nd Album! as well as secret tracks..
I'm Australian. You're right, there isn't much English info on SH, thankfully there are a couple of forums where some English fans chat about them and it helped me learn a bit more.
I'll definitely check out your recommendation. I can't wait till Moira arrives (I cheated and d/l'd it and it's amazing) I'll do a full review with pics of my copy when it gets delivered. Early next week it should be :)
would be good if there were official forum or something huh.
Most of the SH 'forum' I know in English doesn't go over 10 pages.
and since you kinda just started.. do you know where you can find translated lyrics? if not it would be really bad..
p.s SH's songs can be quite cruel at some times. Maybe that's why they aren't really advertised..?
Yeah, I just rely on a few threads on random websites where a small handful of English fans chat about SH. Thankfully some people do translations of certain songs which are nice and I've read some of the Roman manga translations. If you know any good sites for translations let me know.
I think Moira has had some good advertising. I saw on a few Japanese blogs large display stands in stores and big posters in store windows. So that's good. Moira is doing pretty well so far, it debuted at #1 and should probably chart in the top 3 for weekly sales.
Well , this is going to be really random , but I enjoied their songs and I wanted to comment . ( Yes , I got them through hacking and bribing , but I am greek , live in Geeece and searched everywhere , for I could not find the songs lehitimately ... ) The thing that charmed me - and was the reason I stumbled upon them - was the title " Moirae " , who are my ... role models .
That was my random rant ...
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