By Jase Walker
It’s no secret to anyone that knows me even a bit that I’m a huge weeaboo and fan of J-rock and frequently mention Man With A Mission as one of my go-to bands that had provided several songs for well known series ranging from ‘My Hero Academia’ to ‘Naruto’. To keep things moving along while they proceed with a constantly packed schedule of touring around the world, they’ve dropped a mixed EP, ‘XV’, with four brand new original tracks and eight live tracks from their tour stop in Mexico.
Looking through the track listing there’s solid favourites of mine with ‘INTO THE DEEP’ and ‘My Hero’ which would no doubt satisfy any MWAM fans appetite for some of their biggest bangers in a live style.
But what about these new ones they’ve added in for this? Opening with ‘Vertigo’ that immediately feels like a warm familiar blanket but mixed in with some early 2000s nu-metal vibes. It seems that the nu-metal revival we’re seeing has reached Japan too!
MWAM are fascinating with their mixed language approach to song-writing that often leaves big singalong choruses in English and definitely does a lot to help boost their popularity overseas and ‘Vertigo’ is no different. That bridge moment with some DJ scratching mixed in for good measure is sure to get the blood pumping before one final reprise of the chorus.
‘Circles’ gives me an immediate feeling that this is going to end up as the closing theme for something huge in the near future. The sort of melancholic hopefulness it has is a surefire candidate for one of those epic hero Shonen type series. I can picture it now, lights are put low, everyone around the venue immediately pulls out their phones and puts the flashlight on and sways back and forth in unison, many misty eyed people screaming the vocal melody while MWAM absolutely crush it.
Back to the more bouncy side of MWAM, ‘REACHING FOR THE SKY’, feels like it’s all for the sake of a big chorus that drives people nuts. This sort of thing epitomizes MWAM for me, a tight, energetic and busy verse that builds into a chorus that you want to scream from the top of your lungs. God damn is it catchy though. If anything you’ll remember the melody for the “whoa whoa whooaaaaoooh” parts – but that breakdown towards the end is going to cause an absolute riot.
And finally, ‘whispers of the fake’ to wrap up the new material switches gears massively to an acoustic driven song with big American country music vibes. This feels to me like some experimentation with their sound compared to their often frenetic and epic rock anthems, MWAM continue to be a band that are hard to pin down to a particular style and play a key part of why I love Japanese rock bands, there’s no real rules, anything goes.
So for the original songs, this EP contains four very strong offerings that will no doubt be mainstays of their live sets for a while at least and i’m really hoping ‘REACHING FOR THE SKY’ gets a solid place in that as it stands out to me as my favourite.
But what of the live performances? What’s not to like about kicking off this run with easily one of MWAM’s biggest anthems, ‘INTO THE DEEP’. Getting to hear the massive screams of the audience throughout gives me shives and shows that the band may have their golden standard with it’s recorded version but put everything they can into really driving this song to dizzying heights of epicness.
Speaking from experience of having seen them before a while ago, MWAM put so, so much into their performances where each song in the set almost feels like the recording is just a reference point rather than something to stick to. There’s nothing missing but so much added to make it feel like you’re part of an incredible experience. The moment ‘Merry-go-round’ starts and I can hear the crowd matching their singer for volume singing the first verse lines genuinely throws me straight back into my memory of being stood there in Manchester’s Rebellion doing the exact same thing.
This is a band that frequently records a lot of their live performances from around the world and with good reason, they know they’re fucking excellent live and can say their live performances are even better than their already pretty incredible recorded catalogue.
Even ‘blaze’ in it’s acoustic form sounds fantastic too, the crowd largely staying quiet out of respect except for the few odd moments of cheering for the more intense parts, well, as far as you can get with an acoustic performance anyway!
The quality of the recording of these live tracks is pretty stunning as well considering that you get the full feeling of every part of the band from the bass to the keys and still get to hear the crowd losing their minds as well and somehow not be muddy.
And closing off the selection of live tracks with ‘Dead End In Tokyo’, ‘My Hero’ and ‘Kizuna no Kiseki’ is a true chef’s kiss. If you want a run through some of the biggest singalong choruses that MWAM have ever written as a sort of introduction to this band then these last three are probably it.
Usually I find EPs to often be a bit of a flash in the pan as far as listening experiences go, preferring to spend my time getting stuck into something a bit more meaty but this EP has a lot on offer that keeps the new material coming but also treating new and longtime fans to something special with the live track additions.
If you’re looking for a good touching point to begin your journey getting familiar with this half-man, half-wolf, all killer, no filler band then the XV EP is definitely it, you’ll be kicking yourself for missing a band like this.
- ‘XV’ will be released next Wednesday (12 March).
- Man With A MIssion bring their 15th anniversary ‘Howling Across The World’ tour to the ÜK and Europe in October:
- All content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written of Über Rock.