Unlucky Morpheus - Vampir: Fuki's Vampire Facet

Hello my dears. I am the Raven who speaks to you.

On my channel, themes related to Japanese culture and other more European ones, such as vampirism, are quite recurrent. And making this brief communication about a little Unlucky Morpheus album called Vampyr is something more than natural and expected here in my domain. At almost 27 minutes long, if we also consider the cover track “Vampire” in the tracklist, Vampyr is a short work. However, it is completely dedicated lyrically, musically and visually to vampirism, both in terms of the classical and literary musical roots from the European continent, as well as the more oriental side, characteristic of Japanese pop culture and present in anime and manga. We can certainly consider Vampyr a small concept EP, since vampirism is its only topic of interest and this realization makes it a distinct album within the Unlucky Morpheus discography.

Before we talk a little bit about it in lyrical and melodic terms, I think it's assertive to remember what the professional situation of vocalist Fuki and guitarist Yukimura Hirano (better known as Shiren) was like at that moment. As you may already be aware, Fuki and Shiren had a long-standing partnership, for several years, publishing mini-albums under the name of Unlucky Morpheus, within what we call “doujin” and “doujinshi”. Refreshing the memory of the most forgotten, the term “doujin” does not necessarily refer to musical characteristics; doujin refers to any type of practice in pairs or groups of friends who share a common interest. Any creation that features joint work between friends who share a common passion can be called a doujin. The term “doujinshi” is used to classify publications originating from doujin, it is the final product, completely independent, made with its own resources and launched by a doujin duo or group.

Fuki and Shiren worked like this for years on end, publishing several music albums under the name of Unlucky Morpheus, but completely geared towards Touhou (very different from what they do today). However, they never considered the partnership as their main breadwinner: it was just a leisure activity. Fuki was the lead singer of the band Lightbringer and Shiren worked in several other lesser bands, without the same visibility as Fuki's band, which, let's face it, wasn't very famous either.

However, everything would change with the release of Lightbringer's “Monument” album, in 2014. At that moment, its members decided to go on hiatus (which I now believe is permanent given the success that Unlucky Morpheus has achieved). With no chance of Lightbringer ever being reunited, I highly doubt it. But, returning to the central subject, so it was from 2014 that Fuki was literally without a job. However, this was not the same as Shiren's reality. At that time, he was working on two projects with vocalist Yui Itsuki: the main and most important was the band Yousei Teikoku and the second, which was more experimental and without much commitment, was called Denkishiki Karen Ongaku Shuudan. The bonus song we find in Vampyr, called Vampire, by the way is a song from this side project by Yui and Shiren, where the guitarist wrote the music while the vocalist took care of the lyrics. As an additional curiosity, know that Yukimura Hirano did not use the stage name Shiren in Unlucky Morpheus at that time: the first time he used this nickname was with Yousei Teikoku and, in Unlucky Morpheus, he would only adopt it from Vampyr.

Returning to Fuki, she was running out of time and in need of work. With Lightbringer's hiatus and Doll$box showing no sign of continuity, as the other girls in the band were busy with their main project, Gacharic Spin, for the first time in many years Fuki was in hot water. That said, Yousei Teikoku has not achieved the expected success either. And combining the useful with the pleasant, Fuki and Shiren then decided to make Unlucky Morpheus a more authorial and professional work, releasing for the first time an album entirely made up of original songs. This album was Affected, released in 2014; it is the work that we can really consider, in fact, as the starting point for Unlucky Morpheus as an authorial band, as we know it today.

But I need to make some important caveats: Affected was a trio effort only. Shiren has always had the guitar as his main instrument and, secondarily, the keyboard. But he was also the one who played bass on the album and the drums were artificially programmed, by software. In other words, it was Shiren who did all the instrumentation, just like he did on Touhou's albums. The only real difference we have with Affected is that, from that moment on, Unlucky Morpheus was going professional, working only with original material and opening up a wider range of musical themes as well. Fuki took vocal responsibility and continued writing the lyrical part. And as the third member, they invited vocalist Tsuyoshi Denshirenji (better known as Kasumi) to work with them again; Kasumi was a constant presence on Touhou's Unlucky Morpheus albums and it is precisely in Vampyr that he makes his last appearance.

Vampyr is musically an evolution compared to Affected in that Unlucky Morpheus invited more musicians to join them. Ogawa and Jinya (who in the future would join the band as a full-time bassist and guitarist) are not yet present on Vampyr, but this album symbolizes drummer Fumiya Morishita's debut as an official member. Jill and her adorable violin are also present in Vampyr, but she is referred to here only as a guest musician. Takahisa Sato (who along with Kasumi also contributed backing vocals) also receives a mention as a guest musician.

In Jill's specific case, I imagine that Fuki and Shiren still didn't fully know her musical abilities and her level of professionalism, although Jill's work at Rose Noire, in my humble opinion, was already more than enough to ensure her level as a violinist, making perfect transcriptions of progressive and neoclassical music for the instrument. But as the Japanese tend to be a little more methodical and systematic than the Westerners, I appreciate that Vampyr served as a probationary stage for Jill, which becomes somewhat ironic when we realize the musical level change that the violinist brought to Unlucky. Morpheus later. I've mentioned this more than once and I say it again, categorically: if Unlucky Morpheus has reached the level of musicianship that it has today, much is due to Jill's absurd talent; among the band members, she is by far the most talented, daring and technically capable of extracting virtuosity from her instrument. And although she is more shy on Vampyr (which was expected and natural for being a contracted instrumentalist, working to specifications and with no room for improvisation), still Jill considerably enriches the musicality of the work, placing it a notch above Affected.

But now let's talk a little about music itself, its structure and constitution. The lyrical part was entirely in charge of Fuki, as I mentioned previously. The only exception was the cover song Vampire, written by Yui Itsuki and which, personally, I consider a little out of place in this EP. I imagine that Shiren, having worked with a vampire song before, suggested to Fuki to insert it as a bonus in the work. Musically speaking, that's exactly what it is: something additional, as it doesn't dialogue so well with the sound of the other tracks written for Vampyr, although it's not a throwaway song. It's just a matter of concept that I make this point, largely because of the organic and fluid way that Vampyr's songs dialogue with each other.

In terms of music, Vampyr presents a fusion of various genres to effectively deliver what Fuki wanted. This album is her concept, although it was Shiren who wrote all the instrumental parts. The starting point for conceiving Vampyr was Fuki's love for a shounen anime with supernatural elements called JoJo no Kimyo na Boken, better known in the West as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Fuki, always a nerd and a card-carrying otaku, loves this anime with passion and it was the one who inserted her a little in the vampire universe, starting to consult other western references as well. Fuki wanted to make an album about vampires and no one would get that idea out of her head.

And to achieve this goal, it would take much more than musical lyrics compatible with the theme: as it is historical and traditional, vampirism also has a particular aesthetic in the field of music, it demands a type of characteristic sound that allows the listener to associate the instrumental melody with the visual and behavioral aspect of a vampire. And that forced Shiren to listen and revisit a particular and secular musical tradition, which is romantic music, a classic style that was widely spread between 1800 and 1910. Basically, any work that adapts vampires, whether in music, film or TV, incorporates a little bit of the main technical and aesthetic elements of romantic music. This is the classic style of composition that explores melodies with a more closed and nocturnal mood, with a ghostly atmosphere, with an accentuated fascination with the past, the mystical and the supernatural. That expresses a desire for immortality and whose expression and narrative tends to focus, instrumentally, on a more autobiographical and individualistic footprint. If you read the books by Le Fanu, Bram Stoker and Anne Rice, as well as watch the film adaptations of their works, it is the elements of classical romantic music that you will find in these works; such vampires are a very specific period cut.

With Fuki's guidance, Shiren needed some inspiration from this style and it will show up in Vampyr. But, as you may be aware, Fuki and Shiren from the beginning have always been Power Metal musicians. It was this genre that really inspired them and the one they approach most competently. Due to the need to incorporate elements of romantic music, Fuki and Shiren ended up being forced to overcome their limitations and expand their scope and this was great, because it is common knowledge that there is hardly a genre more stereotyped than Power Metal. Researching romantic music led Fuki and Shiren to also get in touch with Gothic music, in order to better characterize the vampire atmosphere needed in Vampyr, which portrays a dark world, of ruined castles and claustrophobic monasteries. The Gothic style carries in its aesthetic elements that belong to the ancient world, a constant aura of morbidity (of something that lies dead or is asleep). The vampiric evokes such concepts, demands them strongly and the music will have to communicate this aspect.

In order to achieve the goal, Fuki and Shiren incorporate to Power Metal the elements that I am mentioning, making Vampyr's sound more dramatic, using dark arrangements and melancholic melodies, mixing romanticism, existentialism, sadness and bestial aggression. Vampire music is always a song of tension, whether in the most extreme and strident part, or in the light and sweet. And this encounter of Power Metal (which is a more modern and contemporary style) with classical romantic music was the factor that made it possible to characterize as neoclassical what Unlucky Morpheus did in Vampyr. Everything was done out of necessity, as Power Metal and its stereotypical characteristics wouldn't be able to portray vampirism properly. Therefore, as a synthesis that I make to you, we can characterize Vampyr's music as a Power Metal with a neoclassical reference of romantic music, with a symphonic and harmonically gothic characteristic. Basically, it was this sound that Unlucky Morpheus built on Vampyr and it was a milestone for the band, which would not abandon this approach on subsequent albums. This configuration of trends and concepts made the sound of Unlucky Morpheus much more attractive and interesting compared to more traditionalist Power Metal bands.

The album Vampyr opens with a brief instrumental introduction of the same name, where Shiren opts for a piano with a dense atmosphere, loaded, but which strangely incites a certain peaceful feeling, perhaps due to the sound of bells and the gothic chants inserted in the accompaniment. It's a brief introduction, but properly assertive and that sets the stage for the real opening track: the very heavy Opfer.

Opfer is an excellent business card. As the first impression is the one that stays, the band would have to do their best, right? And Fuki surprises right away because, in addition to her traditional operatic vocals, with high range, she also explores the lower spectrum of her vocal cords, something she didn't do much in the previous works of Unlucky Morpheus. Listening to Opfer live is always a delight and I recommend that. In addition to listening to the studio version, you can also check out the singer's interpretation on the 2017 album, called LIVE. Fuki's bass and vibrato are phenomenal in this version, demonstrating a more aggressive and bestial side of her, different from the fluffy and typically anisong of Touhou's previous albums. And Opfer doesn't stop there in terms of aggression: the only really melodic instrumental moment of this track is during Shiren's solos, which are still accompanied by a rather brutal rhythmic base. In melodic terms, there's a very interesting escalation. But the guitars and drums, in 90% of the composition, were made to be really killers. The riffs are serious, intense and vary between cadence and repetition at high frequency, something that reminds us a little bit of riffs of the djent genre. No wonder Shiren chose to use a seven-string guitar in this work. Jill's violin, in turn, accompanies these riffs in an extremely pertinent way, as it is his melody that opens up the sound a little more, makes the access route more pleasant. And I couldn't help but mention the contrast that Fumiya's double bass also provoke in Opfer: as we've never heard Unlucky Morpheus use anything like that before, they're an extra element that positively surprises in terms of metal.

The junction of the instrumental part with the lyrical part contributes to the rise of an atmosphere of majesty, characteristic of a master vampire. Which in Opfer doesn't happen by chance. The song was inspired by an independent manga by Ogi-Atsu called Blood Smoker. Atsu is the artist who designs the covers of Unlucky Morpheus and this work of his, in particular, is themed around vampirism. The songs Opfer and Angreifer, from this EP, will narrate textual elements of Atsu's work, putting their spotlight on the same vampire. Opfer, in this case, is responsible for describing the character's transformation and the process of discovering and controlling his supernatural abilities. There is also an accent on the creature's psychic aspects, such as the desire for dominion, the deceit contained in its eyes and the pomp maintained by someone of noble descent. A faint trace of insanity is mentioned and soon emphasized by scarlet-stained claws and fangs. Opfer works a lot with the allegory of vampiric misery, of the being that loses the most precious asset: life itself. And he still finds time, in the midst of this torment of the dispossessed, to simultaneously approach the allegory between the hunter and the beast, an obvious allusion to Abraham Van Hellsing and Dracula, characters of the late Bram Stoker.

But Fuki's classic discoveries wouldn't stop at Opfer, anyway. In La Voix Du Sang, the Japanese explores an even older reference: in this song, she will sing about the lesbian vampire Mircalla, created by Sheridan Le Fanu and who performs in the work, covertly, under the name Carmilla. A curiosity is that the title of the song, which can be freely translated The Voice of Blood, in Japanese used different characters, which allow us to translate the expression as “Connected by Blood”, which makes much more sense: the song does not it is more than an account of Laura, the young woman who is completely lost and hypnotized by the charms of the beautiful and diabolical Carmilla. Totally surrendered to the vampire's charm. Note that Fuki, in the lyrics, does not directly mention the names of the female characters, but the narration of events is totally associated with the dynamics between them. The lyrical part explores the description of the setting, emphasizing the ambiguous aspect of Carmilla, the uninvited guest. The nightmare in the form of a beauty who walks sensually under the moonlight, the cold and charming damn woman moving in the shadows and giving her vampiric kiss while the helpless young woman lies in a deep sleep.

La Voix Du Sang exudes lyrical theatrics, which in turn is greatly enriched by instrumental touches. Jill, in this case, has a fundamental role here: the violin has a clean tone and tuning, which is lovely to listen to. The composition is still heavy and energetic, but much less than Opfer, as it works on a more seductive vampire concept, which opts for seduction rather than aggression. Jill's violin, in this case, helps to build a magical and dramatic aura closer to an erotic fantasy, more compatible with the concept of Carmilla, a bat that pretends to be a butterfly.

The album then moves on to the concept track that initially inspired Fuki. This is Phantom Blood, which is descriptive and very literal of the events of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. The name of the song, by the way, refers to the first arc of the manga, which runs from volume 1 to 3. In short, the work revolves around the Joestar family, one of the richest and most traditional in the world. The Joestars, at a certain point, adopt a young man named Dio Brando, who has a mysterious past and who gradually reveals that he is not exactly who others thought he was. In the Phantom Blood arc, we are introduced to Jonathan Joestar, the son of the family's patriarch and the protagonist of this arc, the one who will resist Dio Brando and his macabre stone mask, which gave him the vampiric powers he possesses.

I need to stress that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was undoubtedly very influential in Japan and the world. Especially in the field of fashion. The work is well set and is far from bad, but it is in the visual aspect that Hirohiko Araki really found his differential. His character designs are exotic and whimsical, purposefully exaggerated and it was this element that really impressed Fuki. As listeners may know, Fuki loves clothes: she creates the concept and sews the entire band's wardrobe herself, not just her own. Musically, Phantom Blood is Vampyr's most accessible track. It is a typical anisong and was created for this purpose, with catchy riffs and an arena chorus, to be sung with the audience.

The regular EP finally finds its conclusion in Angreifer, which musically speaking is the highlight of Vampyr. The album opens and closes with the same concept and very solidly. The composition is the longest of the work, reaching 7 minutes in length and was written with the intention of being a true epic. Angreifer is the most complete composition of Vampyr, the music that brings together all the classical and modern concepts that I mentioned at the beginning of my explanation. Years later, when Shiren developed tenosynovitis that prevents him from playing guitar very often, he took up the band's bestial vocals. The dynamic between him and Fuki is typical of the Beauty and the Beast concept, as is common in many bands in the symphonic genre. But Angreifer is interesting because it has already presented this tendency to us years before, which in my view is also a noteworthy fact.

The opening of the track has a very classic approach, including with regard to the guitar. Shiren will convince in Angreifer if he hasn't already done so; some of the scales he uses are very pleasant, typically novelist-sounding and, as usual, Jill helps make it even more pleasant thanks to the contrast between the tones of both instruments. The use of choir here is fundamental to the harmonization and setting of a metal epic. The chorus is one of the most enjoyable in the band's discography, thanks to Fuki's intonation and the clean, resonant notes she chooses. Fumiya, meanwhile, is also noteworthy, because in Angreifer he has more time and space to open his toolbox, playing with plenty of versatility, control, and adding lots of super-fast, accurate drum increments.

Lyrically, Angreifer takes up the vampire story narrated in Opfer. In this song, Fuki will work with the vampire duality, of a hybrid being (that is part human, part beast). Initially, she narrates the young vampire's resistance to his new cursed condition and, later, the moment where he succumbs and surrenders completely to his evil nature.

Conceptually, it's Angreifer that Vampyr ends up with. But as I mentioned, there is also a bonus, which is the Vampire song. The Unlucky Morpheus cover is much better than the original version and ends up serving as a complement to everything that was previously presented, with much more refinement. Here, we have a lyrical presentation of a vampire's behavior, aesthetic sense and destructive tendencies. But the music, as a whole, can easily pass for an anisong, as it has become accessible to the masses by avoiding too loud and aggressive distortions. Anyway, there are good moments from Shiren in this song, where he shows off a little bit through shred and also tapping during the solos.

Other than that, I have nothing to add. To the lovers of Unlucky Morpheus, I hope that the presentation was to your liking. To everyone who has come this far, I leave a tender hug in thanks and my traditional corvid greetings.