BAND-MAID recently had their first US performance at Sakuracon in late March. The audience seemed to be a decent size which is good to see. It’ll probably be one of my biggest musical regrets not seeing them when they came here, but hopefully I can make it right at some point by seeing them at another convention or in Japan. Preferably the latter. In any case, a new PV of theirs is finally out, and for me, they’re continuing on with their consistently amazing releases.
Oh, and it seems they’ve dropped the “®” from their name. Cool?
The first thing you’ll notice about the PV is it’s shot in a nice, outdoor setting. This PV definitely has an edge over the previously released “Alone” for not feeling as cramped on set, however we trade off most of the awesome dark edge “Alone” had in exchange. It’s really hard to be edgy on a beach in daylight, after all. There are a few night shots but the lighting is ample, as it needs to be for the distant shots we get in this video. However, they do make use of fire as a prop for the night shots, which actually looks really damn cool.
In the group shots, the members are spread quite a bit apart. It would be distracting if they weren’t so on point. As always, the musicianship shines through and makes every shot totally gorgeous. I guess technically speaking I’d call BAND-MAID pretty formulaic, but for once a female band is sticking to what makes them great and it’s awesome! So many of these acts start trying to be experimental and lose themselves. I’m not going to name any names though, because I wouldn’t want to make a scandal of it.
The outfits are pretty much the exact same ones from the previous PV with some very minor alterations. Why mess with awesome, though? One unique thing I dig about this PV is the girls’ make-up. I’m not sure the correct term for it as it’s a world I know nothing about, but the girls look more natural. It feels like the make-up is pretty light. It looks great. These girls are ridiculously gorgeous. Incredibly so. I can’t say that enough.
As for the song, BAND-MAID continues to deliver the hits. The vocals are back to their normal octave for this song, which is really nothing to complain about. The instrumentals also return back to a more upbeat tone than “Alone”, but keep up the fast pace from before. It’s a totally kickass rock song. As I’ve said before, BAND-MAID doesn’t sound watered down in the slightest. This group knows what they’re good at and they go for it every time. I’ve yet to be even slightly disappointed by this group.
“The Non-Fiction Days” is part of the upcoming mini-album, “Brand New MAID”, scheduled to drop May 18th.
Watch: YouTube (Official)
Buy on Amazon JP: Type A [CD+DVD]
| Type B
Buy on CDJapan: Type A [CD+DVD] | Type B
