It’s nice to share some Japan-related news coming out of Scandinavia for a change!
Norway, along with its neighbors, is no stranger to the metal music scene. The northern European countries together constitute one of the world’s major strongholds for the various subgenres of metal music. But what do you get when you combine the vocal talents of a Norwegian symphonic metal singer with the catchy tunes of J-Pop?
Just listen to PelleK’s cover versions of the following anime songs to find out for yourself!
PelleK is the moniker of the Norwegian frontman for metal band Damnation Angels as well as his eponymous solo project. With an incredible four-octave vocal range, he puts his voice to good use producing music for both his own professional projects and a multitude of fun cover versions of popular songs from around the world.
▼Yes, four octaves:
One cover which he recently uploaded to his official YouTube channel turned out to be none other than a song from Japan’s long-running Detective Conan (also known as Case Closed) anime series! The melody of “Kimi ga ireba,” which means “If you’re here” in English, should be instantly recognizable to any Conan fan since it often plays at climactic moments during the series.
And we have to hand it to him, for someone who most likely knows next to nothing about the Japanese language and is just singing based on phonetic readings, his pronunciation isn’t half bad! Check out his work below.
▼The original Kimi ga ireba, released as a single in 1997 by Iori (伊織)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYo5h4K0mVw
▼PelleK’s Kimi ga Ireba cover version
But wait–upon further inspection of his YouTube account, we discovered that this is far from the only Japanese song PelleK has covered! In fact, animation theme songs from both Japan and America make up a large part of his favorites, and he seems completely undaunted while singing in a non-native language.
▼PelleK’s Japanese anime medley mash-up of 17 songs!
▼PelleK’s Pokémon theme song covers (English versions)
Isn’t his enthusiasm contagious?
Which of his cover versions was your favorite? Drop him a line if you think of any other songs you’d like to hear him cover!
Source: Kotaku Japan
Image: YouTube