Kalafina - 5th Anniversary LIVE Selection [revisited]

[Atlas Star]

Wow. Got around to listening to "seventh heaven" from this collection. What a WONDERFUL PERFORMANCE.

KEIKO's intro was simply heavenly. Such broad character in her voice.
HIKARU's voice is superb.... Crisp, thin, with a sturdy timber. She sounds so confident during her two solos, "Yami no naka kara..." and especially in "Tsuyokudakishimeteitte..". Just compare this performance to the acoustic performance from the 8th anniversary products album.... NIGHT AND DAY, I TELL YOU!!! HIKARU, YOU SOUNDED SO GOOD. WHAT A FACKING SHAME.

And the overlapping during the outtro... HIKARU, I miss your voice ;___; I miss you so. There was so much youthful energy in it, once upon a time. I didn't appreciate you when you had that voice. That is one thing I truly regret. I used to think your voice was annoying. ;_; How could I.........

 

[Atlas Star]

OK a note on "symphonia" LIVE, also from this collection.

At the start of WAKANA's first verse, "Higashino kaze ni...", it sounds as though WAKANA had sung the first syllable as "yu", as in "yume no yukue wo", which is the start of the second set of verses she sings... Am I the only one who hears this? Am I crazy?

 

[sarasara]

Agreed, that album is just phenomenal.
The live versions of serenato, lirica, Utsukushisa, and Aria were just SO good.

Only thing I dislike on it is interlude 01 because of how obnoxious Keiko sounds. She got better by the end but at the beginning it was just kinda ugh.

 

[ritardando]

I'm really biased but I really liked how Keiko sounds in interlude 01 live lol...

bring back the storia-progressive era Band members for Kalafina - they sound phenomenal and full of energy. Nozaki rocked every Kalafina songs. oblivious and Mata Kaze ga Tsuyoku Natta in that CD are full of energy as how it's supposed to sound. seventh heaven is really soft and subdued and not necessarily loud as how Sato makes it sound. Remembering about this makes me upset...when will I get my Nozaki back.

 

[Westkana]

At the start of WAKANA's first verse, "Higashino kaze ni...", it sounds as though WAKANA had sung the first syllable as "yu", as in "yume no yukue wo", which is the start of the second set of verses she sings... Am I the only one who hears this? Am I crazy?

I hear it too, I guess it was a mistake on Wakana's part.

I got this album for Christmas and I've been listening to it a bunch since then. Overall it is a very good album, though with Wakana's vocal problems being rampant throughout the second disc (starting with fairytale) it isn't as good then.

I disagree about this performance of seventh heaven with Hikaru- her voice is lacking maturity and is too nasally on the higher notes for my tastes. I think she sounded better during the FotW special final performance. And Wakana doesn't sound that great- she struggled with a lot of her solo lines.

Anyway, despite my criticisms, this album is stellar, with the performances of Natsu no Ringo, red moon, sprinter ~acoustic ver~, and interlude 01 being my favorites.

 

[ritardando]

@Westkana I agree with you (re: Hikaru on seventh heaven 5th anniv live CD), but I think Hikaru's best performance of seventh heaven was on Type Moon Fes 10th anniversary 2nd day. She sucked in fotw Special Final and Budokan Blue days. But I like Wakana on 5th anniv CD more (mostly because she sang it with her "old" voice and the "struggling" imo showed that the audio wasn't that "studio processed" much - the main reason why I love 5th anniv CD1 so much - that and Nozaki lol).

 

[Westkana]

@ritardando I get that about Wakana, definitely. Though I know I'm in the minority about Wakana's voice (I prefer her voice nowadays compared to then most of the time), what I meant is that Wakana was especially struggling compared to how she normally sang then. I definitely agree about the live though- Kala/FJ lives sounded much less studio processed then compared to now (maybe because of Nozaki's unbeatable drumming )

 

[Atlas Star]

Reading some really good points here.

@Westkana's comment about HIKARU lacking maturity - that's actually what captivated me so much the other night lmao I enjoy how young and immature it sounds in contrast to WAKANA and KEIKO and that nasally voice ahah something I've learned to appreciate recently...

@sarasara I agree that KEIKO sounds over-the-top with accenting each note so harshly in "interlude 01". Overall I felt the performance sounded really messy at the end with all the overlapping, with WAKANA sounding so lonely and then the playback just being there ... It was a mess IMO!

@ritardando yes! Nozaki seriously made the performances much more "lively". I really enjoy his percussion work, and thank you for pointing out that he was in some of these recordings, which is probably why I'm gravitated towards them compared to their recent live recordings.

 

[Westkana]

@Westkana's comment about HIKARU lacking maturity - that's actually what captivated me so much the other night lmao I enjoy how young and immature it sounds in contrast to WAKANA and KEIKO and that nasally voice ahah something I've learned to appreciate recently...

I guess I don't like the immature sounding voice that Hikaru had; I feel that way about performances of storia as well. In my opinion Hikaru sounded the best around 2011/2012 (pretty much anything from Magia until the Consolation special final), since she still had some of the youthful energy in her voice but also had maturity and depth in her voice. Listening to the seventh heaven performance from the Type Moon fes. which @ritardando mentioned, it is a perfect example of what I just explained (Ironically my favorite performances of both sprinter and ARIA are from this as well because of how Hikaru sounds).