Coroner Records Gives Studio Ghibli the Heavy Metal Treatment With Princess Ghibli
Update: Read my review of Imaginary Flying Machines’ Princess Ghibli.
Studio Ghibli’s films — e.g., My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, Whisper Of The Heart — are beloved throughout the world due to their heartwarming and imaginative storylines, iconic characters, and brilliant artwork and animation. And, might I add, their music. Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine My Neighbor Totoro without its opening and closing theme songs, or Princess Mononoke and Castle In The Sky without their sweeping Joe Hisaishi scores, or Whisper Of The Heart without its take on “Take Me Home, Country Roads”.
And it seems I’m not alone in my estimation of Studio Ghibli’s music — apparently, the music of Hisaishi et al. has plenty of fans within the extreme metal community. Coroner Records has just announced Princess Ghibli, a collection of metal covers of a number of songs in the Studio Ghibli canon. Here’s the official press release:
Coroner Records is really proud to announce the upcoming release of a new album of extreme metal covers of Studio Ghibli songs entitled “Princess Ghibli”.
The project called “Imaginary Flying Machines” (from the title of a short film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, which is exclusively shown daily at the Ghibli Museum) puts together bands from Europe and Japan (Disarmonia Mundi, Blood Stain Child, Destrage, Living Corpse and Neroargento) that reinterpret 12 very famous songs taken from the films produced by Studio Ghibli, bringing the soundtracks that have made dream many fans of Miyazaki in a new musical dimension, more aggressive and faster, without ever losing the melody and the magical atmospheres typical of the original versions.
The album has been recorded, produced and mixed by Ettore Rigotti at The Metal House Studio (Disarmonia Mundi, Destrage, Slowmotion Apocalypse, Stigma, etc…) and mastered by Alessandro Vanara.
The album will be released on April 13th Worldwide by Coroner Records (except for Japan, where is released by Media Factory — Overlap Record) in Digital Download on iTunes, Amazon and the most important digital distributors.
And here’s the complete tracklist for Princess Ghibli:
- “Tonari No Totoro” (My Neighbor Totoro) — Disarmonia Mundi feat. Sophia Aslanidou
- “Kimi Wo Nosete” (Laputa：Castle In The Sky) — Disarmonia Mundi feat. Yoko Hallelujah
- “Teru No Uta” (Tales From Earthsea) — Blood Stain Child feat. Ettore Rigotti
- “Gake No Ue No Ponyo” (Ponyo On The Cliff) — Destrage feat. Yoko Hallelujah
- “Mononoke Hime” (Princess Mononoke) — Living Corpse feat Yoko Hallelujah
- “Country Road” (Whisper Of The Heart) — Disarmonia Mundi feat. Sophia Aslanidou
- “Itsumo Nandodemo” (Spirited Away) — Blood Stain Child feat. Claudio Ravinale
- “Arrietty’s Song” (Japanese version) (The Borrower Arrietty) — Disarmonia Mundi feat. Sophia Aslanidou
- “Yasashisa Ni Tsutsumaretanara” (Kiki’s Delivery Service) — Destrage feat. Yoko Hallelujah
- “Toki niwa Mukashi no hanashio” (Porco Rosso) — Disarmonia Mundi feat. Yoko Hallelujah
- “Sanpo” (My Neighbor Totoro) — Living Corpse feat. Yoko Hallelujah
- “Nausicaa requiem” (Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind) — Neroargento feat. Yoko Hallelujah
I’ve embedded a teaser/trailer for the album before, and I have to say, the covers of “Tonari No Totoro” and “Gake No Ue No Ponyo” sound pretty darn awesome. What’s amazing is that, even with all of the screaming and guitar-shredding, those inimitable melodies still shine through and are as affecting as ever.
Princess Ghibli is currently available via iTunes and Amazon MP3. Via Topless Robot.
Related: Chris Kirby recently posted his review of Princess Ghibli, including an exhaustive track-by-track breakdown of the album, and concludes “I would definitely call this record a success.”