Charley Verlaine – Komorebi Review

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When I receive a promo e-mail I always like like to read it carefully and eventually take a look at the labeling of the band. I do that because I receive too many promos and most of the bands I’ve never heard of or have any idea of what they are all about. It saves me some precious time as some labels I can’t just review – I guess you my fan knows them all as I’ve said a lot of times. One thing I learned in the process is that there is no limit for PRs creativity in that matter. It’s incredible the names they make it up out of the blue. Besides that sometimes wear out names pop up. Yeah, my child of the night, there’s some labeling that nobody uses anymore or not that often. It’s the case here of Charley Verlaine “Komorebi” which was labeled as Metal Rock. The term was pretty well used in the early 1980s referring to Metal music in the transition from Heavy Rock to Heavy Metal. By the way, there is an interesting Brazilian compilation called “Metal Rock,” the recording is not that good, but the songs are great. So, here we have Charley Verlaine “Komorebi” that fits perfectly to the label and goes back to that golden years of Metal music.

Metal Rock in “Komorebi” means here easily traces back to bands as Bon Jovi, early 1980’s Kiss – especially in albums as “Dinasty” and “Creatures of the Night,” a bit of Ratt and Mötley Crüe, bands that were labeled as Heavy Metal though later changed to hard Rock. “Komorebi” sounds as a mix of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal with some more melodic moments as in “Inner Sinners” where the image and the aesthetic resembles to Metal, but the music sounds not to Metal as desired. If you ask me I’d say they are really heavy, yes. Some may say not that heavy. That’s exactly what happens here. The aesthetic of the songs are perfectly Metal, but the sonancy is not too heavy. Even though the music is great. The guitar solo of afomentioned “Inner Sinners” is fantastic. The main riffing of “Wild Child” is exciting with pretty amazing bass lines. The song takes the fan back in time with no effort and at the same time pleases a lot. Metal Rock is meant to be fun after all. I really liked the cadenced lines in “Fire!”. They’re really heavy and incendiary – no pun intended. Again the guitar solo burned the ground – no pun intended. There were times in “Komorebi” that I swear I thought it was Kiss Paul Stanley on vocals. Hey, that’s a honnor, guys!

well, from where I’m standing this kind of album enlights my dark days. There’s no problem in having some fun once in a while with some shiny Metal Rock music.

Charley Verlaine “Komorebi” was reelased on May 1st via Raviens.

Track Listing:

  1. Skull & Bones
  2. Inner Sinners
  3. Wild Child
  4. Fire!
  5. Sonny (You Need Somebody)
  6. What I Say
  7. Down
  8. All the Faces
  9. Alison’s House of Glass
  10. Komorebi

Watch “Komorebi” official video here: