Japanese techno rockers sounding like Nirvana meets Nero
Hometown: Osaka, Japan.
The lineup: Kenta Koie (vocals), Terufumi Tamano (programming), Kazuki Takemura (guitar), Hiroki Ikegawa (bass), Tatsuya Amano (drums.)
The background: Crossfaith, we should clear up from the start, have been around for a while, earning a reputation for their fierce, fearsome music, back home in Japan but also here and in Europe, in metal circles, or circles that appreciate metal in an alliance with electronic dance music. This, though, is being talked-up as their breakthrough moment, and their forthcoming album is being described by their record company as their debut, so there.
It has a suitably climactic title for a record designed to mark a watershed for the band: Apocalyze. Crossfaith - whose name like many in this medium connotes the (ir)religious - are prone to using titles to make ultimate statements, but then we are, of course, operating in an area already populated by acts such as Armageddon, Angel Corpse and Atrocity (wait till you hear the Ds, they're real doozies). There is a slight sense of oneupmanship in the titling, even inadvertent parodying of a genre (death metal at its broadest) notorious for the nefarious. The first single from the album is called We Are the Future and elsewhere on the album you will find Hounds of the Apocalypse, Countdown to Hell, Deathwish and Gala Hala (Burn Down the Floor).
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The music itself feels more like an aggregation of ideas about fusing rock and rave than a next-level exercise. They are not the first to make this move, but this does seem like a refinement. Industrial, metal, hardcore, electronica - it all gets sucked up by Crossfaith and turned into a perfected version of sci-fi metal, as though some crazy scientist had created some future hybrid of the Prodigy and Pantera, or Slipknot and Skrillex. Our problem is that we haven't heard enough metal lately to decide whether this is a great leap forwards, but it doesn't strike us as such, although as amalgams of riffs and keyboards go, it does seem heavier and harder than, say, Pendulum. Crossfaith get compared a lot to Enter Shikari, but their sound is fairly ferocious, not to mention an intelligent way to appeal to both the dancefloor and the moshpit.
We Are the Future - with its elements of tech metal requiring a "tronic" suffix - reminds us of the past, specifically of the time we went on the road with Phil Anselmo and Co (true story). Our ears are still ringing from the experience. Kenta Koie's vocals - term used loosely - are Anselmo-esque, i.e. suggestive of demonic possession and the urge to enact biblical purges. How does he keep singing like that? And are the lyrics in Japanese? We can't tell. Hounds of the Apocalypse is hell-prog with a dash of electro-core. The guitars blitzkrieg, the synths strafe. And you can dance to it. On Gala Hala (Burn Down the Floor) the onslaught of unison voices suggests the hubbub of the damned. The attack is relentless, and in a strange way, rousing. There is no let-up here as we approach the end. Closing track Only the Wise Can Control Our Eyes, apparently written about the 2011 disasters that devastated Japan, is the most brutal and pummellingly intense demonstration of their commitment to crush your skull. Sheer controlled machine mayhem, if only a simulacrum of the future.
The buzz: "Crossfaith ARE the future."
The truth: They may not be the future, but they provide a punishingly tense present.
Most likely to: Make you cross.
Least likely to: Give you faith.
What to buy: We Are The Future is released in August, followed by the album Apocalyze on September 9. It can be pre-ordered here.
File next to: The Defiled, Pendulum, Rammstein, Enter Shikari.
Links: facebook.com/crossfaithofficial
Thursday's new band: Oliver Wilde.
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