A neo-classical/
Power Metal band from Osaka, Japan formed in 2001. Galneryus shares a similar style to bands such as Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force and Stratovarius. Though their appearance started as the standard Visual Kei flare, they quickly dropped the look in favor of a more ordinary casual look, though they continue to almost universally use stage names (with the exception of drummer Junichi Satoh). Despite their talent, 6 album discography and the presence of ex-
Animetal guitarist Syu, they don't have much popularity outside of Japanese metal circles. They also seem to have a thing for flags with at least one song with a title referring to flags on four of their eight albums with the songs "United Flag," "Rebel Flag," "Struggle for the Freedom Flag," "Braving Flag," "The Flag of Reincarnation," and "The Promised Flag."
They have worked on three compilations with other Japanese metal bands, the first contributing a cover Stratovarius's "Black Diamond," the second contributing a cover of Loudness's "Soldier of Fortune," and the third contributing their own song "Struggle for the Freedom Flag." They also recorded the soundtrack of
Death Note:
The Movie.
The album art of their first three albums were drawn by legendary
Final Fantasy artist
Yoshitaka Amano.
Galneryus's future was in question after the departure of vocalist Yama-B. Yama-B quit due to creative differences and disagreeing with the direction the band was taking.
Sometime in 2009, it was revealed that Yama-B's replacement would be Masatoshi Ono and that Yu-To was replaced by Taka.
Members:
- Lead Vocals: Masatoshi "SHO" Ono
- Guitar/Backing Vocals: Syu
- Bass/Backing Vocals: Taka
- Keyboard/Backing Vocals: Yuhki
- Drums: Junichi Satoh
Former Members:
- Vocals: Masahiro "Yama-B" Yamaguchi
- Bass: Shogo Himuro, Yusuke, Ryousuke "Tsui" Matsui, Yu-To
- Keyboard: A, Yoshinori Kataoka
- Drums: Toshihiro "Tossan" Yui
Discography:
- The Flag of Punishment (2003)
- Advance to the Fall (2005)
- Beyond the End of Dispair (2006)
- One For All - All For One (2007)
- Reincarnation (2008)
- Resurrection (2010)
- Phoenix Rising (2011)
- Angel of Salvation (2012)
This band may exhibit the following tropes:- Album Title Drop: "The Flag of Reincarnation" in Reincarnation, and more recently "Angel of Salvation" from Angel of Salvation.
- The Band Minus the Face: After Yama-B left due to creative differences with Syu.
- Concept Album: Their debut album The Flag of Punishment.
- Cover Version: "Black Diamond" originally by Stratovarius and "Soldier of Fortune" originally by Loudness. Thay also covered many other songs in their Voices from the Past cover albums and a few from Syu and Ono's solo albums.
- Heavy Mithril: Where to begin?
- It Is Pronounced Tropay: Syu's name is pronounced as "Shuu".
- One Hit Wonder: Sort of as the songs "Alsatia" and "Cause Disarray" are popular amongst anime fans due to their use as the opener and closer respectively for Mnemosyne.
- Protest Song: "Stardust" from Reincarnation is a protest of nuclear war. The "stardust" is radioactive fallout.
- Special Guest: Yuhki was recently featured at Guilty Gear x BlazBlue Music Live 2011.
- And now he's doing a joint collaboration with Daisuke Ishiwatari himself to remix and rearrange the already killer soundtrack of BlazBlue for the latest installment: Chrono Phantasma.
- Leda from Deluhi (now of his solo project Undivide) was featured as a guest guitarist in one of the band's tours which was included in the Phoenix Rising album. He was the bassist Yu-To when he was still in the band.
- Akane Liv from Liv Moon was a guest vocalist in the title track in Angel of Salvation.
- Stage Names: Only five members in their history used their real names.
- What Could Have Been: The band was actually getting notice overseas as of 2009. Had they stayed neoclassical metal and had Yama-B stayed in the band, they could have likely broken into the US market and/or had major success what with the return of neoclassical and thrash as popular styles among metalheads. Instead, their change managed to not only alienate much of their fanbase but fall so far short of what they seemed to be trying for (an attempt at cloning X Japan's formula for success including a Toshi impersonator for a vocalist) that they pretty much fell back to square one as a band. In what seems to be an extreme case of irony, they've been pretty much overshadowed by the band they took inspiration from. X Japan has been internationally successful as of late.
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