Album Review: Crossfaith-Apocalyze

My first exposure to Crossfaith was this past summer at Warped Tour. I checked them out simply because of a sign I saw advertising their set that simply read "Crossfaith: Futuristic Japanese Metal". My intrigue gained from that sign paid off as Crossfaith put on one of the most energetic and fun sets I've seen in a while. Much of the raw energy of their live shows translates over to their third full-length album, Apocalyze, which solidifies them as one of the promising up-and-comers from overseas.

On Apocalyze, Crossfaith takes a very stale genre (trancecore) and injects it with a much-needed spark of creativity. A lot of bands in the genre use the same tired formula of auto-tune, dubstep beats, frail screams and emo-inspired clean vocals catering towards the teenage girl audience. Aside from a couple of brief wub-wub brostep moments early on in the record with tracks like "We Are the Future" and "Hounds of the Apocalypse", Crossfaith (thankfully) does none of that and reaches outside the stereotypes of the genre for inspiration. The vocals are very much rooted in melodic death metal, there is a killer sense of groove that is reminiscent of old-school metalcore, the drums are explosive and loaded with crazy fills and the synths are mostly catchy and fun. It's very refreshing to see an act produce metal with a heavy electronic influence that isn't gimmicky or watered-down. This is some legitimate, classic metalcore that intertwines perfectly with the electronic elements to produce something that will stick with you and warrants multiple listens.

The music that Crossfaith produces is not only technically-sound and interesting, it's just plain catchy. There is quite few synth lines here that are absolutely infectious and if you dropped the metal around it, could pass as straight techno-classics. Keyboradist Tamano Terfauri uses a wide-array of synths and programming to keep the listeners on their toes and and me being the sucker for good synths that I am, was happy to find a new band that likes to use synths in a variety of different, cool ways. Completing the successful electronic/metal fusion is the guitarwork of Takemura Kazuki. Kazuki proves himself a master groovesman with a storm of fat, headbang-worthy riffs throughout the record. The unholy mid-album trio of "The Evolution", "Scarlett" and "Gala Hala (Burn Down the Floor) are the best moments of the album primarily because of how sick the riffs Kazuki lays down on these tracks are. Really the only downside of Kazuki's performance is the lack of soloing. The listener gets a nice taste of what he's capable of on "Burning White", but as satisfying as that solo is, it's disappointing that he didn't rip out more over the course of the record.

Apocalyze is one satisfying album from the masters of "Futuristic Japanese Metal". Crossfaith shatters trancecore genre stereotypes and makes an album that is well-crafted, hooky and a whole hell of a lot of fun. I have to give them a lot of props because this is a genre that I had heavily written off in the past and this is the first album/band from the genre that I've enjoyed in the slightest. Crossfaith is the perfect, organic blend of electronic music and metalcore and I can see them absolutely exploding here in the U.S. with more exposure. They are one of my top discoveries of 2013 so far and hopefully they keep cranking out inspired, energetic music in the future.

4/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.The Evolution
2.Gala Hala (Burn Down the Floor)
3.Scarlett