An RPG soundtrack come to life.

It’s way too easy to repeat that video. Don’t. Megumi will wind up with your soul.

One of the really fun things about this project has been combing through fan sites and forums and finding out about these groups. A significant proportion of them are about as exciting as being hit by a car. And then you get to find groups like Mugen Regina.

That name is about as on-the-nose accurate as it gets: In a fun Japanese/Latin mashup, it literally means “Fantasy Queen,” and, well, just listen to that song.

I’m not going to pretend to know all that much about them right now except to say that I really want to get my hands on their At the Threshold of a Dream album, their first, which came out in October 2015; their previous releases include some EPs. Getting through the jumbled Google translation of their website reveals that they’ve been at it since October 2013, and, like others, they’re deliberately out to challenge and change the notion of what an idol can be.

That’s cool. That’s metal.

I’ll go ahead and alert fellow YouTube hounds that their original catalog is a little bit all over the place. It includes a summer single, for bob’s sake. That’s not bad, just kind of confusing when you consider that the above is the lead track off of their first full album release.

Otherwise, even allowing for the recent roster update, they cut an impressive profile on stage and don’t shy away from either the beauty or the brutality, as befits their style of music.

Where they’re going now, though, remains to be seen. Their center, Haruno Megumi, graduated in May 2016, and her striking stage presence and powerful voice will be hard to replace.

What they sound like

Proggy melodic metal. It’s incorrect to say “no frills” when so much of the sound is about frills, but this isn’t one of those trying-too-hard groups. They do what they do well. But let me just say that my personal hope is that they run with this whole ghostly/ethereal/”from hell” thing and forget about the summer singles.

You’ll like them if

Nightwish is your thing, or you really, really like RPGs.

Entries on the Ultimate Homicidol Playlist:

So far, just “From Hell,” though I get the feeling that more is on the way.

Members

Suzuki Ayame (leader) Twitter

Tokitama Ako Twitter

Sonozaki Arisa Twitter

Former Members

Hurano Megumi Twitter

Discography

Ai Shika Agenai (EP)
“Mugen” / “Graceful Ferocious World” (single)
5 Seasons (EP)
At the Threshold of a Dream (album? EP?) (This goes by a title similar to “Disqualified Queen” in Japanese; I dunno.)