NEMOPHILA’s re-releases as a 4-piece deliver mixed results, but LOUDNESS cover shows potential

After the roster shake up that NEMOPHILA went through a few months ago, they have released a few songs on their re-release of Evolve, titled Evolution. These versions of the songs are with the new four-piece lineup — sans the dual guitar setup of Hazuki and Saki — and they’ve left me with a surprisingly bitter taste in the mouth.

NEMOPHILA is no stranger to releasing their English songs and changing a bit of the mixing here and there, such as they did with Revive, however this is more akin to LE SSERAFIM‘s recent 2024 versions of their debut songs and the scrubbing of Kim Garam‘s vocals from the track along with worse instrumentals.

While now we get to hear Haraguchi‘s bass parts more clearly along with giving her fun little bass solo near the end of “RISE“, we’re missing out on that great original dual guitar solo that slowly feeds into the final breakdown that crescendos into the songs melodic reprise, which builds back into that strong chorus to lead us to the end of the song. Now, instead of that slow build up into the insanity we have this fun bass solo that ends and abruptly jumps to the breakdown, and thus the sequence is the same.

Honestly this is the worst offender of the two tracks they released, it reminded of when Megadeth released the Japanese exclusive “Black Swan” on United Abominations and then giving it a official release with Thirteen and how extremely disappointing it was.

“Back Into The Wild” is a bit softer of a rock sound compared to the original, and the solo changed to go for a more Steve Vai type of vibe and removing tremolo picking into the fade out might actually blend better honestly.

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This leads into the newest video they released, a cover of the LOUDNESS classic banger “CRAZY NIGHTS“. As every metal fan should be, I’m also a huge LOUDNESS fan. Their guitarist Akira Takasaki is actually the co-owner of Killer Guitars, which is the brand that sponsors NEMOPHILA’s ex-guitarist Saki, and that link was the first thing I thought of when I saw this pop up in my subscription feed on YouTube.

NEMOPHILA absolutely kill this cover, as a wonderful tone from Hazuki, and Mayu‘s commanding voice echo throughout the track. Her English pronunciation has heavily improved, and her extra guttural vocal flair that she can add to each phrase makes for an iconic “M-Z-A” chant. Tamu‘s drumming is solid all throughout, and she’s that constant member that’s on point in every version of NEMOPHILA.

This four-piece covering one of the most prominent four-piece bands out of Japan really gives me hope that they can carry this type of sound into their newer album, and can give us a more iconic and unique sound to define their roster change.

Overall, I do enjoy their more rock-centered sound of the new four-piece on songs like “Back Into The Wild”, as well as the tone used in “Rise” — while not as heavy as I would hope for them on a thrashier song — I hope their next album will be able to play toward having the single seven-string guitar and bring back that monstrous sound that I love from NEMOPHILA’s heavier tracks, with the LOUDNESS cover serving as a perfect example.

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Seriously though, if you haven’t listened to Loudness before do yourself and favor and check out Soldier Of Fortune or Thunder In The East, from front to back both albums are nothing but amazing metal tracks that could rival any band from that era. Yes, part of this was just an excuse to post about LOUDNESS.