Guardian Hacker - Flare in Reverberation 30 June 2009
The early 2000’s feels like a period where a lot of Japanese rock bands featuring female leads/vocalists broke onto the scene. Guardian Hacker is one of those groups, first appearing in 2002. Guardian Hacker was successful in drawing an early fan-base but, in my opinion, was not as impressive as some of their peers like Dazzle Vision and Head Phones President. theless, their first album, On One’s Own Authority, was an indie success and garnered Guardian Hacker more attention.This is when—to my surprise—the band went through a significant change in their line-up. Mere months after their first album Guardian Hacker brought in new musicians to take the rolls of guitarist, bassist, and drummer. Only Takashi guitar and Asami vocals remained from the original 2002 group. This new five-member line-up, which has remained stable, soon release an EP in 2006, A New Scenery. Personally I do not think it was all that great. However, Guardian Hacker had practically hit the reset button on their line-up, so I am not going to heavily criticize a mini-album released less than a year after the band replaced over half their members.A couple of tracks from that album make it onto this one, Flare in Reverberation. The same is true of the single released just prior to the album, Burn Me Away. Guardian Hacker re-recorded the tracks though, the obvious change being Asami’s reliance on more guttural vocals than before. It benefits some songs, and others not so much; the track ‘Burn Me Away’ is a lot better on the single, which I thought I owned and was going to upload, but I looked around and couldn’t find the damned thing….This write-up almost sounds like I am bashing Guardian Hacker. Of the female-lead rock bands that sprung up in the early 2000’s I would absolutely not say that they are one of the best. So why upload an album from a band I am criticizing? Because Flare in Reverberation is their first release that I thought was cohesive, impressive, and indicative of the talent which you could see hints of during the previous seven years. But I don’t feel it fully blossomed until they made this album. I sometimes question Asami’s vocals, especially when previous releases have shown she can sing smoothly and clearly when she wants. But I’m a fan of Moon Kana, so for me to seriously criticize a female vocalist would be asinine, heh.Despite everything I’ve sound which may sound negative, I honestly think of Flare in Reverberation as a solid and enjoyable rock album, one from a band who spent seven years getting to a point where they finally looked comfortable with their own sound.