The Random Album Review with Larry and Brian · Larry Wetzel

The Random Album Review with Larry and Brian Season 2 Episode 16: Under the Force of Courage by GALNERYUS

·32 min·2 clips

Syu describes the first three Galneryus albums as one story about Gallonary, a failed hero, a lost team, and a dragon battle.

1. The Random Album Review with Larry and Brian covers Under the Force of Courage by Galneryus in season 2 episode 16. 2. Larry and Brian host the show, swapping albums each week and framing the episode around their usual review format. 3. The point of the episode is to explain what Galneryus is doing on a 2015 concept album and whether the record works front to back. 4. Galneryus is described as power metal, symphonic metal, progressive metal, and neoclassical metal, with a move from V.A.P. to Warner Music Japan. 5. Larry says the band formed in 2001 with guitarist and leader Syu and vocalist Masahiro Yama-B Yamaguchi. 6. The hosts note that Yama-B left in 2009 because of musical differences, while Syu stayed with the group from day one. 7. They explain wabi-sabi as a Japanese aesthetic centered on imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness. 8. Syu is quoted as saying the band mixes European influence with a Japanese concept of wabi-sabi to create emotional music. 9. The episode names the album as Galneryus’s 10th studio record and says it was released in 2015. 10. The hosts connect Under the Force of Courage to the earlier trilogy of The Flag of Punishment, Advanced to the Fall, and Beyond the End of Despair. 11. They summarize that trilogy as the story of Gallonary, who fails, loses his friends, falls into despair, and fights a dragon. 12. Brian and Larry point to the final song of the third album, Rebirth, as the bridge into the later album discussion. 13. They speculate that the new record could follow the child implied by that earlier story, with the timeline landing around nine years later. 14. The album’s keyboard player Yuki is said to play keyboards, Hammond organ, guitar, and backing vocals. 15. Larry notes that Rain of Tears and Soul of the Field were composed specifically to use Syu’s death growl. 16. The lineup section names Sho on lead vocals, Taka on bass, and Leah as the drummer who joined in 2020. 17. Brian says Premonition feels like a build into a story, and Larry says the whole record feels like a JRPG-style journey. 18. The hosts describe the 14-minute closing track, The Force of Courage, as a rollercoaster that never drags its feet. 19. Fans of Japanese power metal, long concept albums, and anime tie-ins would likely enjoy this episode. 20. Listeners wanting short, casual rock talk without track-by-track detail might skip it.

As heard by us

A lively metal chat that lands hardest on the guitar work and the Hunter x Hunter connections.

Larry and Brian keep their recent metal streak going with a conversational look at a GALNERYUS album. The chat stays loose and immediate, with some pronunciation stumbles and a bit of quick research, which fits a duo that seems more interested in the back-and-forth than in a…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you like metal tangents and anime-adjacent band lore, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Random Album Review with Larry and Brian