Short Reviews [Lua Azure (Accept JP) - 2021 - "Apogee"]

This is the second album I have heard from Japanese band Accept, who have apparently now finally bowed to the inevitable and after more than 10 years have since release have changed their name to Lua Azure to avoid confusion with a certain German metal act. This is their seventh album in fourteen years, and as with the last one, 2019’s ‘Dream of Tree’, everything is provided by Hisao although Akihiro Fujii does get credited with snare drum on one track. Once again, we hear that Hisao is a master at making the listener believe we are listening to a full band as opposed a single player, as there is nothing here which makes one think any different. We are again deep in the world of Nineties neo prog, a style which I for one have always enjoyed as I lived through the scene at the time, although some may feel it has not dated as well as it might have done. Here Hisao gives us nicely constructed songs, with English which only occasionally has a slight bit of accent, but even if one did not think he was a native English speaker one would still not imagine he was Japanese as there is nothing in the intonation or music which would lead to that conclusion. I was not massively impressed with the last release but for me this is a step in the right direction as there is a decisiveness throughout, and one can understand the rationale. He allows the music to ebb and flow, with nice contrasts, allowing space to come in and often is quite reflective, allowing the guitars to take second place to piano but brings them back when the time is right. I am sure his location combined with the name of the band has been working against him, but this is something which progheads would do well to listen out for (available on Bandcamp).