CROSSFAITH // Announce Post-Apocalyptic Ravecore Concept Album

Jun 15, 2018 / WORDS Matt Doria, Contributing Editor / Get those fucking Jägerbombs ready.

A week on from stunning us with their heaviest single yet, the Japanese ravecore warriors in Crossfaith have announced the album it’ll pop up on.

If you haven’t already heard The Perfect Nightmare, stop what you’re doing right now and follow these instructions:

1. Gather your best set of headphones.
2. Scroll down the page and locate the YouTube video.
3. Pump your volume to its absolute max.
4. Click that sexy, sexy play button.
5. Prepare to have your life changed forever.

How good was that!? It’s the most brutal track we’ve heard from the genre-bending fivesome, and it won’t be long before they stab our ear holes with even more delightful murder music. Today, the band announced Ex_Machina: a post-apocalyptic concept album that sees Crossfaith give simultaneously their biggest (in terms of concept and content) and smallest (in terms of their sonic limitations) amount of fucks to date.

They’d initially sworn off the album model for good after dropping XENO back in 2015, opting instead for half-yearly EP releases (which saw New Age Warriors, Wipeout and Freedom all make their way exclusively to streaming services). If we do say so ourselves, it’s bloody great to see Crossfaith back in the full-length game. And with a concept album, too!

A press release describes the album as being set in “an alternative near future in which the ruling class, known as Angels, maintain their world through artificial intelligence and other technology, which dehumanises people and effectively turns them into drones.”

Frontman Kenta ‘Ken’ Koie explains: “After we released last album XENO, we were thinking about what the next theme for us is. Then we decided to put theme, ‘awake the individuality’. Because we’re always trying to make new things and that’s the big part of band’s attitudes.

“Technology has been advancing from when I was kid, and it definitely helps the world but at the same time I feel like technology take out important process to think about individuality in exchange for convenience.

This album is a grave warning for our future, I hope you guys listen to this … and start something for your future. [ KENTA KOIE ]

“This album is a grave warning for our future, I hope you guys listen to this and think about what the meaning of this album is for you and feel how you feel through this album and start something for your future.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Crossfaith album with out some top notch collab tracks. The new LP is set to feature cameos from Enter Shikari yeller Rou Reynolds, industrial hip-hoppers Ho99o9 (what a name!) and Coldrain vocalist Masato—not to be confused with Moscato, which is as delicious a drink as Masato’s vocals are. Easy to mix the two up.