Made In Japan

The Flower Travellin Band are pretty hard to pin down as to what genre they are. Are the Progressive Rock? Well they have Progressive Rock songs and elements, but not always. Are they Heavy Psych? Sometimes. Well are they Hard Rock? They can be. Are they Proto-Metal? Pretty close at times. Well, doom is what is between the covers of this album. Pure musical Doom. Gorgeous Doom. Life changing Doom. Utter Doom. Flower Travellin Band aren't sometimes known as the Japanese Black Sabbath for nothing. The Guitars are thick yet stinging. The Bass and Drums don't have Sabbath's power but that's ok cause they swing and flow a bit more freely. And Flower Travellin Band's Frontman/Vocalist Joe Yamanaka puts even more passion into his Vocals than Ozzy Osbourne does. What makes this album a total masterpiece, are the songs. Uppermost of which is Hiroshima, a vivid description of the events of August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima when the city was destroyed by a nuclear weapon. Joe's Vocals in this song are bone chilling in the depth of their passion. But it doesn't stop there. Next You have the song Kamikaze which is nothing less than a Progressive Rock slash Doom Metal epic. The song is complex, multilayered, and heavy as hell. The lyrics are a trip through history, and the effect is stunning. if that double punch wasn't enough they hit you with Spasms, another heavy as hell Doom epic sung from the viewpoint of a man dying of a high fever. Then they finally send you crashing blissfully back to earth with the gorgeous ballad Unaware. This album is the very definition of the word masterpiece. If Rock had a Louvre this album would belong in the center hall.