Review: LiSA - Dawn

It is OST time in Japan, and LiSA was obviously going to join the action sooner or later. Dawn is the opening for Back Arrow, and follows the current OST trend of rock quite well.

Rock has mostly faded in America, is getting duller in Korea, and never truly arrived in India. Thus, the stronger place for rock in the world right now is Japan. The OST rock trend is one of the modern era's stronger. Despite this, this rock sound has several unique and creative examples. And if one artist can put their own style on the genre, that would be LiSA.

Dawn opens with a stadium-ready chant before moving into a slow, classic LiSA verse with some rock elements. There are some electronic flourishes throughout, giving a unique sound. Unlike Homura, we are thrown into a weird electric EDM guitar section, still in J-Pop fashion. It hurts the song's flow but is great on its own.

By this point, anyone familiar with J-Pop should guess the chorus's every move. Despite this, the chorus is strong and anthemic. LiSA vocals eat this sort of material, making it sound great. The second verse has a surprising amount of electronic EDM add-ons. I am not sure what to think of it, but at least it adds more character to the song. The next chorus appropriately skips the electric EDM guitar section, letting us see the verse-build be fulfilled.

Between the bridge and final chorus, we get a one-second fade-out, letting us appreciate the mightiness of the chorus, before the song drives to its rock-driven finale.

While it fails to beat Homura (I mean, that is a high goal), Dawn is still a winner, making there be more anticipation for LiSA's 2021.

Rating: 8.5/10

Image Source: Deforested Music (check the blog out if you have the time, it is great)