Kaya - Carmilla

By sadOasis

Artist: Kaya
Title: Carmilla
Release Date: 10/31/2007
Price: 1575 yen
Type: Single

My Rating

Songs - 8.5/10
Length - 7.8/10
Song Quality - 7.5/10
Video Quality - 8/10
Overall Score - 7.7/10!

Review

Carmilla is Kaya’s 4th single of his solo career. Usually it was Kalm (ex Velvet Eden) to provide the music for Kaya’s songs, but for certain reasons, he could not, so Kaya asked Hizaki (currently guitarist of Versailles) to help. While I am a huge fan of both artists, I feared the outcome of this collaboration, but after finally listening to it my mind was put at ease. The concept of the cover song was taken from the book by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla, written in the Victorian period about vampire and a certain love between 2 women. Here’s my review.

The song Carmilla certainly had an interesting blend of neo-classical/symphonic music, typical of Hizaki, combined with a dance mix which adds a nicely with Kaya’s strong manly voice. The start give the feeling of fog rolling in, slowly building up to this explosion of fantastic composition. The short violin strokes makes me like it even more. While the image of vampire held a strong sense in the book, love dealt little between the vampire character, something opposite to Kaya’s lyrics, but common in his work.

The B side of the single came with a remix and live version from one of the songs from Kaya’s first album. Silvery Dark (Queen’s ver.) is certainly an improvement from the original. I much prefer for a few reasons, mainly because the beginning starts slower and with a soft violin symphony. Because of this, the song is also much longer than the original. For a live track, it has really good quality, and while Kaya may forget a word or two while singing, it’s still great to hear his smooth voice take you in sadness.

First press of this release was sold out within 3 days in CDjapan, which shocked me. It contained a live video on Kugutsu, a song previously release on his mini album "Hyakki Yagyou". The program Quick Time Player is required to view the video. For Kaya’s first video, the viewing quality is not the best, but nicely arranged. The choreography is nothing short of amazing, and Kaya truly again shows what a powerful he has.

The CD booklet had a few really great pictures of Kaya in his Carmilla outfit, and while I believe this release could have done better with more content, it did fairly well. I have grown quite fond of it over time, and if you give it a good listen, and sure you will too.

Track Listing for Single

1. Carmilla
2. Silvery Dark (Queen’s Version)

Where Can You Buy the CD?

YesAsia

CD Japan

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