Anyone with a passing interest in the Japanese metal scene will be familiar with the guitarist known as SAKI. Renowned for colouring releases by Mary’s Blood, Nemophila, and Destrose with her fretwork gymnastics, Saki has also been busy forging a solo career since 2021, releasing a series of singles and a three-track EP that have signposted a bright future. However, the depth and breadth of SAKI’s past work hangs heavy and is ever present, and that means debut album PLUVIA comes laden with expectation. If the pressure is on, then it’s the kind that motivates and energises because SAKI has produced a ten-track album that sparkles and shines and suggests there’s a new guitar hero on the scene.

Although it might sound patently obvious; this is a guitar-centric album, and the six-string is the totem around which all else revolves. As such, this is an instrumental album with no singer, which means no lyrics. Vocalised music is “Marmite” to many and a crooner can turn off as many people as they turn on, whilst the words sung can guide the listener to a different place than to which the composer intended. However, PLUVIA successfully circumnavigates that problem thanks to SAKI’s expressive playing; the voice is replicated by the strings and the introduction to opening (and title) track ‘PLUVIA’ sings like the sweetest birdsong. Counterpointed by cascading keys, ‘PLUVIA’ slowly opens as if a flower turning towards the sun, slowly encasing the listener within sound, we are slowly subsumed within SAKI’s playing as the guitar lines weave through the air and tie us up in knots. SAKI’s guitar tone and playing brings to mind Steve Vai’s Passion And Warfare opus and she expresses a similar kind of virtuosity and sends all sorts of fretwork fireworks flying on cuts such as ‘HORIZON’ and the groove laden ‘M.D.D.’. Yet, any comparisons are merely that; SAKI definitely has her own thing going on and has developed a style that owes more to classical influences than it does to the blues. While her playing is certainly complex and is enough to make any amateur throw down their instrument in exasperation, SAKI’s genius lies in making that complexity sound simple. There’s an accessibility to tracks such as ‘Flores a Flores’ (featuring a guest spot from the legendary Gus G.) that’ll have you reaching for your air guitar and “playing” along.

While an album from a guitar virtuoso might fill your head with visions of endless solos and indulgent noodling, SAKI’s songwriting maintains a strong focus on melody and song structure, and that renders each of these songs instant earworm status, meaning the likes of closer ‘GERMINANS’ will haunt you long after the disc has stopped spinning.

• PLUVIA is released via JPU Records on 26th August 2026.
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Track List:

1. PLUVIA
2. Dezerted Zygos
3. HORIZON
4. THE EMPRESS
5. M.D.D.
6. Teeny Tiny Dance
7. 翠雨
8. Flores a Flores
9. Redemption
10. GERMINANS