“Shadows of a Rising Sun” by Shadows of The Sun

Shinsuke Nakamura is a professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE). He’s a hard hitting athlete with an incredible history of having show-stealing matches in his home country of Japan with the Japanese promoters New Japan Pro Wrestling. Nakamura made the move to the United States and WWE in early 2016, and in that time, has become one of their top stars. The song “Shadows of A Rising Sun” is a Japanese rock/rap song by Japanese band Shadows of The Sun. This track acts as Nakamura’s new entrance theme, and is played every time he makes his way to the ring. The song was released with the recent change in attitude from Nakamura after the events of Wrestlemania 34 on April 8th, 2018, which saw him turn bad (more commonly known as turning “heel” in pro wrestling terms) on longtime friend and rival AJ Styles.

This track is actually a remix of Nakamura’s original entrance music, “The Rising Sun”. That song was a rock instrumental that was highlighted by an incredible violin solo. This instrumental was so recognizable and well-liked by fans that they would often sing it as Nakamura made his way to the ring and even during his matches. This remix keeps the overall melody and structure of the original instrumental, but by cutting a key part of the melody and adding a rap in Japanese, the largely English speaking audience is unable to sing along. Combine this with the more prevalent and harsher electric guitar, and you get a song that has an attitude fit for a bad guy.

The music video for “Shadows of A Rising Sun” actually plays on the arena big screens whenever Nakamura makes his way to the ring, being seen by thousands of people in attendance and millions watching at home every week. The video features the band playing the song in a recording room while being lit by red lights, red being Nakamura’s signature color. The very first shot of the video is of the violinist’s chucks, which come into frame as she bends down to take her violin out of its case. We also see that the bassist is wearing black chucks in the video. There is a lot of frantic and angry movement in this video, both from the performers and the camera which, when combined with Nakamura’s new personality and mannerisms, really sell his turn from good to bad.