ALBUM REVIEW: Clockwork Immortality – Lovebites

The new wave of Japanese heavy metal is upon us, and LOVEBITES’ second album Clockwork Immortality is just the beginning. An all-female metal outfit is hard to come by these days, least of all one with as much astonishing instrumental skill as LOVEBITES. Weaving intricate tall tales with some incredible guitar solos, it seems this quintet turn everything they touch into heavy metal, er, gold. A mere year after their debut effort Awakening From Abyss hit the shelves, this year’s follow-up is a far more complex beast – the fact that a band can conjure up an album this instrumentally tricky in just over twelve months is astounding, a testament mostly to the fact that this band know their onions.

From the first note of opener Addicted, it’s clear LOVEBITES have set their sights on IRON MAIDEN’s towering riffmasters title. If the riff in Empty Daydream sounds painfully familiar, you’re not alone. Regardless, axeladies Midori and Miyako deserve medals for their relentless shows of sheer talent, particularly through the furious solos of M.D.O. that throw back to almost Black Album-era METALLICA – the sheer talent of these two demonstrates that the LOVEBITES machine works, ironically, like clockwork.

The punchy Pledge Of The Saviour and humongous The Final Collision put front lady Asami’s range to the test in a phenomenal manner – if there’s any Japanese lady with a real set of lungs, it’s Asami. From eye-watering high notes, her menacing tones in Mastermind 01 are a breath of fresh air amid a seemingly endless onslaught of battle cries. Bruce Dickinson can hit some shattering highs when the need arises, but Asami’s feminine flair adds a unique and glistening aspect to an approach that would otherwise seem like a carbon copy of their Leyton peers. Eddie’s got a fight on his hands with these lasses.

“Across the River Styx / Within the half eclipse / This is the beginning of your final judgement days,” cries the epic odyssey of Journey To The Other Side – it’s been done before but these ladies do it in style. The rousing We The United and larger-than-life Rising pile more predictable yet still enjoyable content into the furnace, leading into the soft lighter-waving Epilogue that we all saw coming. The narrative twists and turns these ladies present are, while not consistently groundbreaking, feel like a nice addition to the current wave of heavy metal that can still find itself tailing off into heartbroken ballads. LOVEBITES have no time for such widespread human emotions, and Clockwork Immortality is certainly no home for mortal trivialities.

As cookie-cutting as it may be, LOVEBITES’ sophomore effort channels their potential with legendary production and a glittering flashback to the golden days of heavy metal. The question stands that we may not necessarily need another band lurking in IRON MAIDEN‘s tremendous shadow, but if the occasion ever calls for a woman’s touch and a ferocious amount of instrumental gumption, this Tokyo quintet have proved that metal does not run solely on manpower.

Rating: 7/10

Clockwork Immortality is out now via JPU Records.

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