Metal Musician first time REACTING to: Rolling Quartz BLAZE

[@emmajun2090]

Love watching people discover this band they are so good

[@Killdeer25]

yay! I do love me some rolling quartz! I did return to them recently as well, if you wanna check it out! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqqZk2qAeLFji5Y

[@hivelsword]

KRock is pretty much the red-headed step-child in the land of Kpop. Rock and metal is considered indie/underground. It's literally the opposite of Japan where THEY LOVE rock and metal. This is why Dreamcatcher has had a long, uphill battle to get their first show win this year. They never changed their title tracks to conform with KPop norms just so that they can get a 1st win. But it did take years. Rolling Quartz is the reason I got into KPop. Their drummer Yeong Eun did a drum cover of Lovesick Girls by BlackPink and then they did a stage cover (later a full production MV) for Dreamcatcher's "Good Night". I was sucked in. I got to meet Rolling Quartz at Otakon and also watch them perform. They're the real deal. And they are KRock's biggest hope. Their popularity is going to lift up other bands I've grown to love. Synsnkake, Remnants of the Fallen, Messgram, April Eighteen, Cloudian... those KZbin pages for those bands are criminally undersubbed but even though South Korea overall looks down their noses at rock and metal, these bands don't seem to GAF. They are so passionate about the music and they aren't giving up. I'm so grateful for Rolling Quartz. They opened up a whole new world for me. Both KRock, KPop and JRock. I'm forever in their debt.

[@Killdeer25]

haha as a metal head my inclination is always like ohhh underground you say haha

[@davidfrischknecht8261]

It seems to me that Dreamcatcher's more recent title tracks have had a less overt rock/metal influence than their earlier title tracks. To me, "Fly High" seems more rock than "Odd Eye" or "Boca".

[@hivelsword]

@@davidfrischknecht8261 and yet it’s unmistakably there in their choruses. Fly High also has more of an Anime intro sound than other tracks. Could include You and I as well. Less or more, it’s still their sound. No one else is doing title tracks like them. And if someone did emulate their M.O. then they are choosing the more difficult path. Girl crush and cute concept dominates KPop.

[@Brickerbrack]

@@davidfrischknecht8261 J-rock heavily informed their first few title tracks, hence the frequent anime comparisons. Deja Vu kinda headed away from that, but the surprise popularity of Silent Night, one of the B-sides from that EP, inspired them to try a more EDM-route with Scream, and that's kinda where this new direction comes from. But the rock never goes away, and they've said, not too long ago, that rock is likely to be a significant part of their musical identity for the foreseeable future.

[@barrabasxj600s]

I'm a metal fan since the 80's and I approve of this ;-) and they have a cover of dreamcatcher's "good night" very epic

[@Killdeer25]

yes my friend!

[@barrabasxj600s]

@@Killdeer25 the drummer of rolling quartz was teaching a member of dreamcatcher

[@Killdeer25]

@@barrabasxj600s that's legit! I love watching her drum videos

[@Brickerbrack]

@@Killdeer25 Yeong Eun's addictive, isn't she..? 😜And yeah, it was Handong she taught, which we basically know from a line at the end of the description of the Good Night MV; they've otherwise been pretty quiet about it...

[@KD-fv8mp]

To me, Rolling Quartz is similar to Vixen's old sound, which I loved. ♥ Thanks for being open-minded enough to react to k-pop/k-rock. My daughters pulled me kicking and screaming into it, and down the rabbit hole I went. It's a slippery slope, and there's no looking back. There's so much talent in these artists!

[@Killdeer25]

Agreed! It's a slippery slope haha I have met and heard some wonderful things from kpop! Great times!

[@kristenblack6026]

Just watched your Rolling Quartz reaction from today, Sept 20/23 and realized I missed this group the first time around! Love your thoughts on how musicians from other cultures interpret music not originally from their own culture. I agree it makes the sound so fresh and interesting!

[@Killdeer25]

For real! They are so fresh and original, it's so refreshing to have

[@Brickerbrack]

Heads up; the title is "Blaze", rather than _"Ablaze"._ 😉You didn't _need_ to say anything watching this video; that grin on your face the whole time _screamed_ "I'm in"... 😜 While they're happy to be labelled K-pop, they're really not. For me, K-pop is primarily about the idol system; agencies recruit youngsters and train them up to essentially be all-round entertainers. These ladies are entirely self-formed. Drummer *Im Yeong Eun* and vocalist *Park Jayoung* were best friends who decided to form a band and put out feelers, eventually finding guitarist *Choi Hyunjung* (with the blue hair here) and forming Rose Quartz. After a while, a mutual acquaintance (I seem to recall it was one of Yeong Eun's teachers, but I may be misremembering) put them in touch with bassist Kim Areum (aka *Arem* ) and red-haired guitarist *Iree,* who were in a band called Rolling Girlz. And so Rolling Quartz was born, on August 22nd 2019. They earned their stripes the old-fashioned way, mostly playing the local club circuits around Hongdae (which is kinda the main student and entertainment area of Seoul). One of the (many) things I love about them is that for such a young band, they have a really broad range of musical influences, both geographically and temporally. One of their go-to covers is Skid Row's _Youth Gone Wild,_ released in 1987, before any of them were born! 😜 Jayoung likes classical music, anime scores (in fact she's learning to do digital orchestra composition) and is also a fan of One OK Rock, as is Yeong Eun. Yeong Eun is also a huge InSomnia (Dreamcatcher fan), as is Jayoung, and also cites Japanese metalcore band, Crossfaith, as a big influence. Iree is a longtime fan of Korean punk band Crying Nut, and she's actually played with them! And as you've noted, all those influences play heavily into their songwriting (Jayoung writes the lyrics and core melody, and lets the others figure out how they want to play their parts), giving them kind of a timeless feel; it sounds fresh, but at the same time those 70s/80s/90s sensibilities also shine through! For original songs, they also have MVs for Delight and Holler, and there are live versions on their channel of Rock and Roll Paradise. There's also Random (which is actually a collab with 015B, who wrote the song, even though RQ are the only ones appearing in the video), and Higher, which is _semi-original;_ a re-written version of an anime theme song, written and performed as a commission for Korean TV show _Witches_ (about an all-female celebrity baseball team).

[@christopherrmcarter1809]

Their covers of Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran Re good and the cover of Manneskin is excellent.

[@bishopman2308]

As a fellow metal head, I'm happy you like Rolling Quartz. I got into kpop and looked for something more rock and found RQ when I searched up krock bands and I liked the different sound they had.

[@Killdeer25]

Yeah, that's probably what stood out to me the most. Is that its unique

[@mikesmith3342]

I'm a huge Band-Maid fan, but I still like Rolling Quartz as well, and actually play their excellent "Covid" online shows more these days (look for them on the official Rolling Quartz YT channel), just because the music is so wonderfully "straight ahead" rock. 6-string guitar, 4-string bass, excellent drumming and a great vocal.

[@Killdeer25]

oh thats cool, I should look that up, I am going to be doing something special for Rolling Quartz here soon

[@mikesmith3342]

Rolling Quartz are great, they deserve a lot more attention. Great singer, great drummer. For fun, watch their "rolling quartz up tempo speed version" video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jonKlX6Ml52Kppo They're having so much fun, and watch the drummer's footwork at the end!

[@Killdeer25]

I saw their drummer cover Wage War that was dope!

[@rina95line10]

if you like bands i can recommend you day6, ftisland and onewe. they are amazing. thanks for the reaction to the girls, I enjoyed it!

[@Killdeer25]

Thank you for watching! And thank you for the recommendation, I definitely need to get into some bands for sure

[@jeffle9599]

Thanks for reacting to Rolling Quartz. I really enjoyed it. If you want to check out one of their covers I recommend Zitti E Buoni (HOT ver.). They also have few clips of live performances on their youtube channel which are worth checking out.

[@Killdeer25]

Oh I'm definitely going to be reacting more to Rolling Quartz 100% guarantee

[@Brickerbrack]

Honestly, I prefer to give the Cool version some love; it has far fewer views, is every bit as good, and in fact has a couple of bits that I prefer over the Hot one (particularly one Arem-focused section)... For the record, the two videos come from exactly the same shooting session, and feature quite a few of the same pieces of footage, but also plenty that are unique to each version. I actually guessed, and they basically confirmed, that they just had too much gold footage that they didn't want to leave on the cutting room floor, so they decided to make two videos instead of just one... 😜

[@anaslytherin7022]

They are very good with rock.

[@anaslytherin7022]

please I really want you to react to Gdragon's Obsession live 🤭

[@Killdeer25]

they are! alright! I will, am never mad when I have to react to Gdragon

[@snakewhisperer1]

Enjoyed the reaction. Yes, as a metal guitarist myself, I found it interesting that they choose Strats. Though it does give them a unique sound. But not to long ago, Hyunjung (blue hair) acquired herself a Suhr and Iree (red hair) just recently scored herself an ESP. So it appears they're upgrading.

[@Killdeer25]

Thanm you! Oh yeah, I mean I guess it also depends on what Strats they are using on if it's an upgrade. But Suhr and ESP probably fit their genre better right?

[@snakewhisperer1]

True. There are some really high end Strats. They've talked about them in various interviews and twitter/Instagram posts. Both guitarists have said they bought their Strats 2nd hand. Iree's is a custom shop...looks like a '69 Reissue. Hyunjung's appears to be a late '80s/early '90s American Standard. The Suhr and ESP are the first new guitars they've had. The band must be doing pretty well. They deserve it. Here's a recent televised performance of their Dreamcatcher cover, "Good Night": kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGa9gp6fdtKsj8k

[@oliphant2848]

@@Killdeer25 The ESP has Humbuckers and a much heavier tone and gives their sound more meat. However, I hope that they don't forget their Strats completely, because I also kind of like this sound here. I think they should change guitars depending on the song, or maybe the audience.

[@naimimane]

I love Rolling Quartz! It's a little revolutionary to me to see an all female Rock band in a country like Korea where the pop genre took over And hey since you don't mind female musicians in rock/metal and you're a metalhead, would you mind if you check out my band? I don't want you to react to it, just to check it out?

[@Killdeer25]

Give me a link, I could check it out.

[@Killdeer25]

I definitely am here for this kind of a revolution!

[@naimimane]

Thank you very much i just want to share this with fellow Metalheads, I hope you like it kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYG4lXuPltWmmbs

[@123photogo6]

That band has amazing musicians. Enjoyed this a lot.

[@Killdeer25]

Agreed!

[@Mattserrano77]

I discovered this group through their cover of Dreamcatchers Good Night and became an instant fan. They took an amazing song and made it even better with their arrangement which includes guitar a duel guitar solo. This band has great musicians all around. 👍

[@Killdeer25]

Yeah, they are very talented! I need to check out their covers so much!

[@nupagagyi]

I love this song, but the chorus feels underwhelming. It is too vocal heavy, the instrumentals are fading away behind the vocal. But hey, Rolling Quartz is great! My fav from them is Rock and Roll Paradise. :-)

[@Killdeer25]

oh nice! I will have to check this out!