RYOJI SHINOMOTO RECENTLY RENAMED HIS LONGTIME BAND, BUT HE’S STICKING TO THE TENETS OF “SAMURAI METAL” WHILE SHREDDING ON A JACKSON… AND THE OCCASIONAL SHAMISEN
By Gregory Adams
NEWS + NOTES
THOUGH RYOJI SHINOMOTO just recently became Ryujin’s (usually stylized as RYUJIN) resident shredder, he’s paradoxically been the Japanese combo’s lead guitarist for more than a decade. That’s because the band recently went through a name change, rebranding as Ryujin for their new, now self-titled album, following a series of releases as Gyze.
What remains on pace is how the Hokkaido-based outfit continue to fine-tune their singular brand of “samurai metal,” a stylistic flex that melds power metal hooks with brutal melodi-death flair and traditional Japanese tonality. Take how Shinomoto’s primarily blitzing through the runs on “Raijin and Fujin” and “Gekokujo” with his custom, mirror-plated Jackson Kelly, but also loves doubling lines while speedily picking at a traditional three-string shamisen, or piping into a bamboo dragon flute. He’s also prone to rip-snorting through solos using Eastern Ryo pentatonic scales. And as Ryujin’s vocalist, Shinomoto growls out references to mythology and anime in Japanese and English. Those hyper-localized attributes, he argues, are what sets Ryujin apart from their contemporaries.
“There is a custom that the more Western the style, the better… [but] flowers that bloom with admiration quickly wither,” Shinomoto laments of his surrounding metal scene. “Don’t get me wrong; this doesn’t mean we don’t do Western things — I use an electric guitar and sometimes even a harmo
