Another super late gig review. It has only been six months.

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I guess you’d know that of late, my penchant for attending J-rock (or even pop) gigs have grown exponentially. The only thing I knew of this Osakan electro-metalcore five-piece was that I tend to confuse Crossfaith with coldrain. I’ve to admit I’d cursorily checked these two bands out on YouTube and am aware they’ve a sizeable overseas following. And then I saw this poster:

The gig tix price was like £11. And there were three supporting acts, one of which was coldrain! I didn’t really care for the other two (sorry!) but this was a right bargain. The Newcastle Uni gig was on a Saturday and it was a right no-brainer to get tickets to see them at my old uni. And one thing to note – this was my first ever gig at my former uni’s student union building! Just 19 years too late eh? We arrived at about 7PM and quickly had a bite to eat at a burger place nearby and when we reached the Union, coldrain had just began their incendiary set. Masato’s vocals were pretty superb and he pretty much spoke in English (he’s half-American – you can tell from the accent!) in between songs. I couldn’t see much of Y.K.C. or Sugi as we were kinda at the back, avoiding the moshpit.

Most of the set was from their 2014 release, The Revelation. The only song I know was The War is On which they played near the end of the set.

The University, Newcastle upon Tyne 22.11.14 set: The Revelation / Six Feet Under / Die Tomorrow / Aware & Awake / Evolve / The War is On / No Escape

Once Silent Screams ended their set, we gravitated towards stage left. We were pretty much like 3rd or possibly 2nd row behind the front barrier. There was a hint of apprehension as this was a metalcore show and there was bound to be circle pits, and I’m too old for this shit. Whilst waiting for Crossfaith, I checked out the stage and was impressed with their stage set, especially Tatsu’s beautiful drum kit on a riser on stage left. Teru’s DJ-ing equipment was on stage right. There were three raised platforms were right at the front of the stage. They appear to be clear perspex and was lit up accordingly.

Crossfaith got onstage and kicked off with We Are the Future from their current release. The crowd was going apeshit and due to luck, I was pushed to the front row. This meant I was slightly elevated due to the way the barrier was constructed and being here protected me (kinda) from the craziness that will ensue later in the show. I was slap bang in front of the guitarist who didn’t look anything like Kazu. Heh.

It then transpired that Kazu had been having problems with repetitive stress injury and the band had a stand in. He was pretty good and was using Kazu’s arsenal of FGN guitars.

As I had alluded earlier, my knowledge of Crossfaith’s material was near to zilch apart from one song. Therefore, I’m here to enjoy the show and check out their songs firsthand. These guys are tight and one person to watch was Teru. He’s just nuts, and bloody energetic throughout, providing second vocals when not behind his setup. When he does the drop – that’s when things go really crazy. Ken was really for getting the crowd to form circle pits several times during the set, as well as a couple of walls of death. We managed to escape unscathed!

That one song of theirs that I knew was Eclipse, which was the last song of their main set. Admittedly, this one ain’t as heavy as the other songs Crossfaith played but it was defo a crowd favourite, with all of us jumping along. For the encore, Teru did a brief DJ set followed by Tatsu doing a crazy ass drum solo. They then did the right heavy Monolith from the Zion EP and a superb Prodigy cover (Omen). Leviathan, also from Zion was the final song of the evening.

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A week after this show, I was back in Japan where I finally managed to buy physical copies of Apocalyze and their then latest single, MADNESS. At the time of completing this post, these guys are in the UK playing a handful of shows and will soon be returning to Japan where they’ll be supporting ONE OK ROCK for two nights at the Osaka Jo-Hall. That’d be a great show to attend. At the rate these guys are roaming the planet to do gigs, I’m sure I’ll have the chance to catch them again soon-ish.

For more photos, please go to my set on flickr.com.

The University, Newcastle upon Tyne 22.11.14 set: We Are the Future / Hounds Of The Apocalypse / The Evolution / Countdown to Hell / Jägerbomb / Scarlett / Photosphere / Madness / Eclipse // TERU DJ & TATSU Drum Solo / Monolith / Omen (The Prodigy cover) / Leviathan