Buck-Tick Zone

Original Titles in Japanese

Tenshi No Revolver

Rendezvous

Montage

La Vie en Rose

Zekkai

Spider

Titles Translated

Tenshi No Revolver - "Angel's Revolver" or as translated on official tour merchandise, "Revolver of the Angel"

Zekkai - "Distant World", "Severed World", or even "Extinct World"; you get the idea

Notes

Ranked #5 on the album chart. 30,000 copies sold.

The singles released from this album were "Rendezvous" and "Alice in Wonder Underground".

The limited edition that included a DVD had the music videos for "Rendezvous" and "Alice in Wonder Underground". It also had a behind the scenes look at the making of the video for "Alice in Wonder Underground".

This is the first album release on BMG Japan/Ariola rather than BMG/Funhouse. The company had been going through changes (mergers and acquisitions) and thus the name changed to BMG Japan and Funhouse was gone. The company became a subsidary of Sony Entertainment and Buck-Tick started releasing their albums under Ariola.

The album artwork is based on the photograph "The Birth I" (1968) by Kishin Shinoyama. He is known for his photos of nudes outdoors. It could be coincidence but one of his series is called "Phantom", which happens to be the name of a tour Buck-Tick held in 2000.

After the gothic theme of Juusankai Wa Gekkou, Hisashi wanted to frame the next album as a rock album, closer to what a band would do, simpler songs with catchy pop melodies that anyone can understand.

As for the title of the album, it may be related to the song "Revolver", however an angel is not mentioned in the lyrics to that song but an angel is mentioned in a few of the other songs in the album, both in English and Japanese. Hisashi really liked "Revolver" as a title but since that was already the title of a famous album in the rock world, he modified it to "Tenshi No Revolver" (Revolver of the Angel).

The Japanese text next to the title "Rendezvous" simple says "Rendezvous" in katakana. The Japanese text next to the title "La Vie en Rose" simple says "La Vie en Rose" in katakana. These two songs are the first Buck-Tick songs whose titles are in a language other than Japanese or English. It should be noted however that Buck-Tick has used a couple French words in their lyrics, but very few, and ones that are common knowledge, such as "au revoir" and "adieu".

It goes without saying but for those that don't know, "La Vie en Rose" ("Life in Pink") was the signature song of Edith Piaf, first popularized in 1946. It has been covered by many artists. This however is not a cover, just a coincidence in title, although there could be a bit of homage as well. In the lyrics, "jinsei wa bara iro" means "La Vie en Rose".

Buck-Tick rarely mentions a person's name in a song but they did so twice with this album. In "Montage", Oswald is mentioned, though which Oswald is not clear. Going by the lyrics, "Lily" is a person and not the flower.

"Alice In Wonder Underground" was originally titled "L'Ange" (French for "The Angel") but when Hisashi was playing around with words in English, he ended up changing the title. Feeling that the album had too many guitar solos, he decided to do something difference. Hence "enter diabolo" in the lyric sheet and he sings a couple lines from "Diabolo". Both songs essentially start with the same beat on timpani.

The guest musician Selia performs with Auto-Mod.

Katsushige Okazaki is credited with timpani and drum direction. He is the drummer for Hisashi's side project Lucy. "Alice In Wonder Underground" curiously has a similar drumbeat to the Lucy song "Brandnew Day" (2006), albeit at a slower tempo. Katsushige has assisted with several Buck-Tick albums, starting with One Life, One Death.

Guest musician Mio Okamura played violin on two songs. She is sometimes credited as Mio Okamura Strings. She has worked with Ai Otsuka, Maaya Sakamoto, World's End Girlfriend, Boom Boom Satellites, etc.

This is the 2nd album to be recorded at Heart Beat Studio.

This is the 10th album to be engineered by Hitoshi Hiruma.

This is the 8th album to be engineered by Kenichi Arai.

The album was mastered by grammy-award winning Tim Young, retired since 2019. His credits are numerous. He has worked with the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Smiths, Manic Street Preachers, Placebo, The Killers, Massive Attack, The Cure, Tindersticks, My Bloody Valentine, Tomoyasu Hotei, etc.

There was a contest to send in proofs of purchase for the album and singles "Rendezvous" and "Alice in Wonder Underground" where 100 winners would receive a special music clip DVD. Contest ended October 1, 2007. The reverse side of the proof of purchase paper had a list of the "Tenshi No Revolver" tour dates.

Booklet Images

group

Music Video Stills

Rendezvous, directed by Tetsuo Inoue

Alice in Wonder Underground, directed by Kensaku Kakimoto