Andrew’s Judgmental Album Reviews: Rolling Quartz – Fighting (2022)

Now YouTube done struck again! Here I am minding my own business and then it’s like HEY! Look at this new music video! And it was the music video for Delight only a couple of days old when YouTube told me about it. So I clicked, and I was pretty immediately impressed. I learned they had an EP that came out last month, and that sounded perfect for the article.

So backstory; Rolling Quartz is a mixture of musicians from the bands Rolling Girlz and Rose Quartz. An all-female Korean Rock group. They did a couple competitions, an in house streamed concert, and I believe one collab with AleXa (a great collab by the way). Rolling Quartz is: Arem on Bass, Hyun on guitar, IREE on guitar, Yeon on drums and Ja on lead vocals (yes I shortened some of their names purely for ease of Western consumption). Also in most of their recent videos they’ve actually taken to specific colors for their hair. So Arem is green, Hyun is blue, IREE is red, Yeon is purple/pink and Ja is yellow/blonde.

Don’t let the pretty faces fool you, they are all really damn good and I’m excited to see where the future leads with them!

• Artist: Rolling Quartz
• Album: Fighting
• Label: Rolling Star Entertainment
• Total Track Time: 20:56

Delight this immediately gives me J-Rock vibes from like Gackt or Hide. It’s a very clearly sung song with a great bassline throughout and just really solid Radio Rock grooves. It’s a combination of Korean and English, so if lyrical understanding is a hang up for you, this may not hit well. But the composition is simple, rocking and the backing vocals kick with a sultry echo effect. For a general lyrical understanding it seems to be a cool rocking song about not forgetting what you creating with someone and delighting in the time spent.  Holler comes off a little more pop oriented. The guitar tone is a little lighter, again general lyrical tone is about wanting to be with the person, pain and fear entices them, so they want them to holler. Lyrically seems to be a similar vein to Halestorm I Miss the Misery, but the song tone is much more radio friendly.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Paradise is straight forward as just a fun party song, but they have an interesting slow part that turns into a harmonic moment with the guitarists and bassist, before picking back up into “Party Time”. Not bad, gets the point across enough, but not quite as crazy as I’d like for a party song. Good Night now this is great, beautiful misleading open with a light classical sound before a drop out into the more up tempo song structure. Now this has a correct sexy tone mixed in with mystery since lyrics say something about “the devil comes out in the moonlight” so just a beautiful endless nightmare with the women. This is also probably the best little solo/breakdown moment so far. Simple runs and pinch harmonics, but they’re clean lifts and it fits the sexy and rough tone to the song. Easily the best song so far.

Azalea so this starts off with some of the heaviest distortion so far, and then turns into a beautiful spiteful breakup song similar to something from HIM. Equating herself to Azalea flowers during a breakup where even if the person steps on her and leaves, the wind will take the crumpled remains to circle them and make them sick of seeing her. The lead’s voice is also wonderful here, Ja hits the right tone of anger, pain and spite to make it a very powerful delivery. Higher sounds like the Dragonball Super opening theme at first. I was really marginally confused. But the high energy is great, the rhythm guitars, crashing cymbals, and rise in vocal delivery definitely work for the high energy, run towards the future concept of this song. Very fun, and again, Ja’s vocal tone is really a great focal point in this band. The stereotype of Asian women would of course be high voices, and many Japanese Rock and Pop groups don’t help the stereotype, but Ja is like a combination of Amy Lee and Lady Gaga when it comes to the tone of her voice.

For a debut EP, this is pretty solid. They show a little range in the musical composition, each member had moments to shine, and it’s definitely enough to sink your teeth into. Now my main critiques would be Holler needs to sound more like Queensryche. Add some darkness and grit to that song, while Rock’n’Roll Paradise needs a faster tempo. However the fact that 4 out 6 songs are pretty fantastic, and when I found the band I went down a rabbit hole to see some of their other stuff and they are really damn talented.

So part of this judgment is off of everything I’ve seen from them this week, but objectively, it’s a solid EP that should produce a great album eventually. Good Night is probably still my favorite song…followed by Azalea. Give the girls a listen, you won’t be disappointed.

Final Judgment: 8/10