Review: the brilliant green - Ash Like Snow

I hesitated before doing another exist trace review and then realized that for the last two months I haven’t done anything by the brilliant green. Sure, they haven’t put out anything in a year and a half but now that I know the reason why I’m a bit more willing to wait for them to produce some quality work. In an effort to keep the flow and the sound similar I took the ONE song out of their discography I actually like and crafted a review out of that single. Ash Like Snow, here we come.

01. Ash Like Snow
02. goodbye and good luck ★Piano arrange version★
03. Ash Like Snow ★original instrumental★

Ash Like Snow	I swear this song will remain stuck in your head long after the song is over. Its simple construction in the minor key is effective in supporting Tommy’s voice all over the place, and the solo halfway through followed by the breakdown is both sad and awesome. The wailing high notes supported by Ryo’s bass are what spring to mind for me first. As for Tommy herself, I have to give her props for managing to enunciate her English properly and with perfect grammar and everything. It’s truly a rarity in the Japanese Rock scene so it’s refreshing to see. The lyrics in this song also express this band’s central theme of love in a more mature and expressive way. All of this together would make Ash Like Snow the perfect theme song for a Gundam anime, and guess what? It is. The music video is as bland as fapcakes and doesn’t expound upon the lyrics of the song any, so all you will get are explosions and Tommy magically switching the color of her cap. Bad video, good song, a must download for me.	10/10
goodbye and good luck ★Piano arrange version★	An acoustic rendition of one of their earliest songs from their indies era. It all sounds pretty and once again Tommy’s English is very impressive (especially since the entire song is in English). Where the song fails for me is in the passion. There is no passion in the lyrics and when you do an acoustic rendition of a song passion is what you bank on the most. Some acoustic guitar would also have been nice to fill out the weak parts of this song but since it’s “piano arranged” there won’t be any -_-. Pretty but bland.	6/10
Ash Like Snow ★original instrumental★	The instrumental to the title track. Unlike many instrumentals I think this one actually works out being an instrumental because of the amount of passion that the guitars play with. If you just want to hear some melancholic riffs, get the music video out of your head, karaoke to his song, or just splice it up for your own MIDI usage, this is what it’s here for. Otherwise, the exclusion of Tommy’s vocals makes this song feel empty.	8/10

Sure, the cover may be very fucking bland and the music video even more so with all the superfluous references to Gundam and the band doing nothing more than sitting there rocking out (does anyone else but me notice that there is no drummer in the background?) but the song is so damn catchy you’ll be listening to this over and over again long after you’ve grown tired of sniper pandas and CGI explosions. Congrats to tommy for creating quite possibly the most boring music video to go with one of the best minor key ballads this band has ever done.

Other than that, the five years they took off seems to have instilled some sense of musical diversity into them. I just don’t think this band’s earlier work is for me but I can stand this.

Recommended:

Ash Like Snow

Score: 80%