Crossfaith - Live - The Library At The Institute, Birmingham, England

Friday 21 November saw Japanese metal band Crossfaith, now on their first headlining tour, "Apocalyze Now", play live to a sell out crowd at The Library at the Institute, Birmingham, England. The tour is in promotion of their latest album.

After support bands Coldrain, and Silent Screams had finished their sets, anticipation for the headliners was huge. When Crossfaith finally entered the stage, one by one, the crowd roared as each member appeared, and what followed was one loud, energy-filled and exciting show!

I only managed to take a few photos; and unfortunately most of them didn't come out so well, as I had to use a compact camera, and the crowd were jumping so much, it was difficult to keep the camera steady. Anyway, here are some of the "least-bad" shots... Apologies for the poor quality...

Crossfaith, Live at Download Festival 2014

When I first heard that Crossfaith were playing at Download Festival this year, I was well happy. I'd never seen them live so far, and had heard that they put on quite a show! They were one of my "definite bands to watch" at this year's festival.

When they came on stage, there was already a huge crowd waiting for them, no doubt because of their reputation for an exciting performance! They were on fairly early, so unfortunately they had quite a short set, so they had to omit quite a few songs that would've been fantastic to hear, such as "Jaegerbomb", and "Monolith".

They do, of course, still have a great back catalogue from which to choose their songs, and with the last album APOCALYZE only ten months old, it was inevitable that we'd hear some of the songs from that album.

Their set was brilliant; exciting, with a huge sound, and the band's performance really lifting the crowd. Lead vocalist Ken, made a heartfelt speech about how their dreams had come true, to be able to play such a prestigious rock festival, and that they were "making history". It was the kind of speech that would sound a bit cheesy and fake, had it come from some other band, but coming from Crossfaith, it sounded very genuine to me.

I managed to record one song; "Eclipse", which you can see below.

Top 10 Japanese Bands

Are you a fan of Japanese bands? Visual-kei, J-Rock, J-Indie, J-Ska, J-Punk, J-Pop, J-Pretty-much-everything. It's all out there; thousands of different bands, seemingly releasing a new single every week.

I've been listening to J-Music since 2002, and have heard so many bands over the years, so it's difficult to pinpoint which ones I like the most. It can sometimes be quite difficult trying to keep up with it all too, as there are so many bands, and so many new bands coming along, with so many songs available to listen to; in recent years I may also have been listening more to the K-Pop side of things, but I think I've managed to find a nice balance between everything, and I still love to listen to plenty of Japanese music too, usually listening at least to something Japanese every day.

I'm going to try and focus on bands with the traditional guitar, bass and vocals setup; although I will also add bands that use other instruments too. Sorry, but there won't be any J-Pop idol groups or anything like that; perhaps I'll save that for another day. Obviously it's impossible to know every single band out there, so here's a list of my top ten favourites. Most are older bands from the past, but are generally still active today, and some are newer, having recently released music available for purchase; the Japanese music industry moves ridiculously quickly, and there are new bands coming along all the time.

Let me know in the comments below if you agree (or disagree) with any of them, or want to suggest your Top Ten, or even just some of your favourites. I'm always open to hearing any new music!

Anyway, here's my list:

Crossfaith - Eclipse

Another new video from Crossfaith has been uploaded to promote their forthcoming album APOCALYZE, released later this month.

I don't think it's quite as heavy as their usual output, but it's still as catchy as hell!



I'm really looking forward to hearing the new album!!
Release dates are as follows:

JAPAN - August 7th
UK - August 19th
EUROPE - August 19th
USA - August 20th
CANADA - August 20th
AUSTRALIA - August 23rd

What do you think of the video? Please comment below.


Photo credit: Crossfaith Official Facebook Page

Crossfaith - We Are The Future

Osaka metalcore band Crossfaith have uploaded a new music video, "We Are The Future", and are set to release their new album, APOCALYZE in August, following last year's brilliant Zion EP.

I think they're one of the most exciting bands to come along in a long time. It's pretty heavy music, but at the same time really catchy.

What do you think of the video? Any fans of the band out there?




Photo credit: Crossfaith Official Facebook Page