RAMPANT - Choice of Life 16 September 2008
Yesterday I wrote about the female-lead Japanese rock bands of the 2000’s. RAMPANT is another group that falls into that category. The five members came together in 2005:* Vocalist: Hiroko* Lead Guitar: Atsushi* Rhythm Guitar: Tomoya* Bass: Hajime* Drums: KA+URAMPANT started out playing in the Osaka area. Their hard rock supported by Hiroko’s vocals gained them a fan-base that quickly grew with each energetic live performance. In less than two years RAMPANT was head-lining performances and caught the attention of JSA Records. Under that label RAMPANT recorded and released their first mini-album, Chain, in the fall of 2007. It was a rough and unpolished EP, but it made the band’s potential easy to recognize. Like their contemporary peers—Dazzle Vision, Guardian Hacker, exist†trace, and others—RAMPANT was still experimenting and trying to carve out a distinct style of their own, which I feel is clear if you hear Chain.Today I am uploading their first album, Choice of Life. As with their mini-album, you can hear RAMPANT’s potential, but they still lacked that special something to truly distinguish themselves. My personal opinion is that Hiroko’s vocals was the missing link. It was that she could not sing, but when placed against RAMPANT’s peers she was not as impressive as people like Maiko from Dazzle Vision. Atsushi and Hajime in particular were also pushing the band’s music more towards the ‘screamo’ genre. But Hiroko was inconsistent with the actual screaming.Their second mini-album, Blossom, was their turning-point release in my opinion. It was on that album that Hiroko improved the range and control of her vocals, completing RAMPANT as entire package of entertaining, talented, and skillful screamo. So why, then, am I not uploading that album today? I chose Choice of Life because I want to provide their older music so that you can compare it to their more recent releases. And in general I focus more on older Japanese albums because there are already users here at NyaaTorrents who do a great job of uploading new releases.If you are a RAMPANT fan then obviously you ought to enjoy Choice of Life if you have not already heard it. For those of you who are unfamiliar with RAMPANT but enjoys Japanese rock with female vocalists, you will find a great sample of music to enjoy from this album. Keep in mind that in my opinion of course it does not represent RAMPANT at their best. But that does not mean it is a bad album by any means. Choice of Life is a great, older album that is a snapshot of RAMPANT during their transition to the great screamo band they are today.I hope you enjoy the album! And as I often say, please feel free to request older albums.P.S.: A friend of mine currently has my copy of Chain. When I get it back I will upload RAMPANT’s discography. But said friend lives far away at the moment, so I am not sure when I will get it back.