Interview: Risingfall (Japan)

8 minutes

The Nwothm

Tokyo’s Risingfall channel the spirit of classic heavy metal with a raw, DIY edge and a love for speed and fantasy. From early lineup shifts to a recent breakthrough performance at Keep It True Rising in Germany, their journey reflects persistence, passion, and a deep respect for the genre’s roots. In this interview with The NWOTHM, the band shares thoughts on songwriting, the Tokyo scene, and the story behind their latest EP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mWWNFj-FlQ

Interview

TheNwothm: Can you tell us your name and role in Risingfall?

Risingfall: Hello, I’m Kono from Risingfall. I play guitar in this band and write about 98% of our songs.

TheNwothm: When did Risingfall form and how did the band members meet?

Risingfall: Around 2013, I met our other original guitarist, Yoshiki, through an online band member recruitment site. Later, our drummer Yuki joined, along with a bassist who’s now active in another shoegaze black metal band. Fun fact: our first live show featured a female vocalist. As is common in a band’s early days, we had a lot of member changes besides me, Yoshiki, and Yuki. Things stabilised around 2017 when our current vocalist, G Itoh, joined. Our current bassist, Gyokusai Ishii, came on board around 2019.

TheNwothm: Why did you choose the name “Risingfall”?

Risingfall: When choosing a band name, as is typical, we looked to metal song titles for inspiration. We considered names like Lady of Mars (Dark Star), Cry Wolf (Savage), and Leticia (Novella), but ultimately settled on a one-word version of
Leatherwolf’s classic song, Rise or Fall.

TheNwothm: What inspired you to play heavy metal?

Risingfall: Honestly, I think we draw inspiration from all the music we listen to. We’re not pros; we create music with the mindset of, “We want to make cool music like this ourselves!

TheNwothm: Your music has fantasy and speed themes. What inspires these ideas?

Risingfall: I’ll let our vocalist, G Itoh answer.

G Itoh: I mainly just write lyrics and sing, so when it comes to songwriting, you should really ask Kono. As for the themes of the lyrics, I get inspiration from all kinds of sources. Usually, the demos Kono sends me already have a title, and there’s one thing that’s always fixed — what he wants me to sing in the chorus.So I take that key phrase and think about what kind of imagery fits it, drawing from my favorite movies, manga, and tokusatsu shows. Stuff like Mad Max, Star Wars, Fist of the North Star, Kamen Rider… all sorts of things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNtzY8RvNvw

TheNwothm; Are there any books, movies, or games that also influence your music?

Risingfall: As for songwriting, I don’t really draw influence from anything outside of music.

TheNwothm: You are based in Tokyo. What is the metal scene like there? Are there many live shows in Tokyo for heavy metal?

Risingfall: This is a tough one to answer.Japan’s population is declining, and compared to the ‘90s when the metal scene was at its peak in Japan, both concert attendance and CD/record sales are said to be down.There are a lot of overseas metal bands touring Japan, but it’s unclear if those shows are profitable.As for the Japanese metal scene played by Japanese musicians, it’s fair to say it’s not very big.If we hold an event and draw about 60 people, that’s considered a success.Most Japanese metal fans tend to prefer overseas metal bands.

TheNwothm: Your first demo was “Prologue” in 2017. What do you remember about recording it?

Risingfall: Our first demo was recorded with four mics set up on the drums ourselves, guitars and bass recorded at home on a computer, and vocals laid down as is, without any edits—mostly because we didn’t even know how to edit. It’s a
very rough recording, but I love the upbeat vocal melody in the first track, “Livin’ on the Edge,” which we played at Keep It True Rising the other day. I think it’s a great opening song.

TheNwothm: “Tokyo Metal Fire” is a live album. Was that show special for you?

Risingfall: To perform live in Japan, you typically join events at live houses and pay a performance fee of about 30,000 yen. After doing a few of those and starting to feel fed up, I got a sudden call from a crazy metalhead classmate from university. He was also into old-school metal and suggested we organize an event in Tokyo, gathering young old-school bands.We rented a music studio in the city and held a studio live with his band and a few others. It was an amazing experience, and honestly, it might not be an exaggeration to say that’s when Risingfall truly got its start.

TheNwothm: “Cry for the Steel” and “Arise from the Ashes” are strong titles. What do they represent?

Risingfall: Cry for the Steel was just a spontaneous five-word idea. Arise is an homage to one of my favourite prog bands, Renaissance.

TheNwothm: How did you choose songs for the 2020 compilation?

Risingfall: While reaching out to various labels about releasing “Arise” in Europe, Golden Core responded, suggesting we make it a compilation instead. That compilation probably includes all our songs up to that point.

TheNwothm: Your full album “Rise or Fall” came out in 2022. How was the response?

Risingfall: It turned out pretty decent, I think. We got a lot of positive reviews, but negative ones tend to stick in your memory. As a songwriter, listening back now, I can feel some immaturity in parts. Still, I think “Rock Fantasy” is a killer track. Rather than being perfect from the start and having people say the first album is the best forever, I’d prefer something rough around the edges with good parts, leaving plenty of room for improvement.

TheNwothm: Tell us about your new EP “Dungeon’s Call.” What is the story behind it? The name sounds intriguing!

Risingfall: This EP was made because we hadn’t recorded much after releasing our album in 2022, and with a Germany tour lined up, we created it for that occasion. Normally, our process involves me making a home demo first, which we then
arrange in the studio, but the title track was born during a studio session. I’ll let G Itoh talk about the story behind it.

G Itoh: “Dungeon’s Call” was a song we created while jamming with the band.It started with us improvising, like, “This is the kind of riff you’d expect from epic and dark heavy metal, right?”—and I just started putting vocals on top, also improvised. The vibe we were going for was something like Cirith Ungol, Genocide Nippon, or early Queensrÿche—that kind of epic feel. Naturally, with that kind of epic heavy metal, a dark fantasy theme felt like the right match, so the title Dungeon’s Callcame pretty organically.

The story behind the song is this:A group of people is trying to awaken something that lies underground, answering its call—but what they awaken is nothing like what they had imagined.It turns out to be a once-holy being that had fallen, a Lovecraftian entity, and a figure from completely different local folklore—all of these elements merged into one single manifestation. The image of the title Dungeon’s Call, combined with inspiration from the movie Sadako vs. Kayako, is what sparked the lyrics.

TheNwothm: Will there be an album following your EP?

Risingfall: “Strike Back Again” and “Blaze of Glory” are tracks we want to include on our second album.

TheNwothm: You recently opened Keep It True Rising in Würzburg, Germany? Tell us about that experience!

Risingfall: The experience was unbelievable. We never even dreamed of playing at Keep It True (KIT); our only thought was to someday attend and enjoy its amazing lineup. To actually perform at such a dream venue was surreal.We’re probably
completely unknown in Europe, and we were anxious about whether an obscure band from the East would be accepted. But we were thrilled to be welcomed so warmly. We got a lot of great reactions.After the show, we soaked in our first
European festival experience!

TheNwothm: What touring plans do you have for the rest of the year and beyond.

Risingfall: This November, we’ll be joining Iron Kobra’s Japan tour, who supported us perfectly in Germany. By the way, I also play guitar for Iron Kobra! Huge thanks to everyone in Iron Kobra for everything in Germany! After that… honestly, we don’t have any plans! We’ll record new songs in December, and hopefully release something next year.

TheNwothm: How can our readers buy your music and merch?

Risingfall: You can check out our music on Dying Victims Productions’ site, who’ve been a huge help, or on our Bandcamp. Merch is… tricky since we don’t have a proper web store setup.

TheNwothm: Where can fans follow you online?

Risingfall: For overseas metalheads, we recommend following us on our Facebook account!

TheNwothm: Anything else you would like to mention?

Risingfall: To all the metal fans reading this, thank you so much! Next year, we’re releasing a split with a certain band, and after that, we’ll be working on our second album!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063697592287

Bandcamp: https://risingfall.bandcamp.com/

Label: https://dying-victims.de/

#dyingVictimsProductions #HeavyMetal #japaneseHeavyMetal #KeepItTrueRising #NewWaveOfTraditionalHeavyMetal #NWOTHM #Risingfall #RisingfallJapan #thenwothm #thenwothmCom

Coven Japan – Earthlings Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

The past still lives around us—a phone booth dilapidated with its tethered telecommunications device extracted, an eerie, abandoned Sears parking lot, Def Leppard jammin’ for the 6:00 pm crowd at the grocery store. Even for new members of the heavy metal clan, the sounds of royalty—Maiden, Priest, Saxon—often line the path to whatever extreme they may later fall into. It’s no surprise, then, to read that new Japanese export Coven Japan declares themselves as a young band influenced by 70s bands like Angel Witch and 80s bands like Satan.1 It’s a dangerous proposition. When you wield such well-known and mighty names in your promo blurb, you better be ready to deliver the goods. Does Earthlings earn its place amongst the Gods?

To no one’s surprise, Coven Japan does not surpass the works of time-tested, riff-imitated classics. That doesn’t mean that Coven Japan can’t be fun, though, and that element of their 70s rock, 80s heavy metal stained sound shines through on Earthling’s most driving cuts (“Land of the Rising Sun,” “Apocalypse,” “Lost Humanity”). And among these tracks, which can remind me a little too much of hall of fame metalworks in riff identity for comfort (“Land of…” – “Aces High,”2 “Lost Humanity” – “Heading out to the Highway”), there lies the speed-driven, punky ambition of early Loudness and Anthem albums to keep Earthlings from being pure NWoBHM pastiche. In the same vein as their countrymen, Earthlings too possesses a warm, decently spacious production with crispy edges—not as clear and biting as the European bands that pioneered the sound. But that’s OK, this kind of louder, rawer construction channels the same windows down, knob-cranked attitude as you would expect from proper heavy metal.

Of course, as is the curse of many Japanese bands playing with this throwback temporal mindset—Significant Point and Risingfall come to mind—the vocals often can pose a hurdle. And, in a form true to this troubled expression, these issues come about most when the band dials back speed for ballad territory, the intro to “Night Flyer” posing the most challenging earuption of the run. The sing-song harmony has a quality to it that is fitting though, same with the quasi-ballad title track that follows. But really vocalist Taka’s wails shine best against an urgent bassline, jangling chords, and searing lead melodies (“What Goes Around Comes Around, “Apocalypse”). 2023 doesn’t need any more ballads.

What it does need more of are the rollicking, guitar-fueled excursions that Coven Japan brings to bookend the lesser clips throughout Earthlings. Good albums start with a bang, and the one-two burst of “Land of the Rising Sun” and “What Goes…” pack that same old school punch that you would find on scrappy classics like Iron Maiden3 or Fly to the Rainbow4 (Scorpions), right down to the leads that swell from thin amp pull to distortion flurry for maximum impact. The popping snare can get in the way from time to time, being one of the sounds borrowed from 80s and not in a great way. But when it comes to numbers that feel more of that time, the Satan-leaning “Apocalypse” or the stadium-ready “Return of the Souls,” it works well against loud riffcraft and bouncing, bluesy grooves. That overdriven heft helps the to-the-point closer “Lost Humanity” flourish in its reverb-soaked chorus chants and snappy twin-lead breakaway.

Coven Japan makes their fair share of missteps throughout this debut full-length outing—the repetitive epic “To Sanctuary – March for the Voiceless,” the over-balladization of a couple of choice tracks—but they do so with feet planted and volume set to rock. For an album that borrows so much from the elders of the halls of metal, Earthlings lands with scrapes and bruises of character from each stumble and success. To put it plainly, Coven Japan has heart and it pours through in every note, which goes a long way in pushing through some of the less-than-stellar moments. And did I mention how absolutely fantastic the cover is? If I remember nothing else of this later, I will remember lady demon with laser eyes. Likewise, if Coven Japan remembers tomorrow is a new day to shine, and that this outing is but a point of entry into future fan’s ears, then they’ll realize there’s no turning back on this path of heavy metal.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7| Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: No Remorse Records
Websites: coven.site | coven.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/coven.japan
Releases Worldwide: November 24th, 2023

#2023 #30 #AngelWitch #Anthem #CovenJapan #Earthlings #HeavyMetal #IronMaiden #JapaneseMetal #JudasPriest #Loudness #NoRemorseRecords #Nov23 #Review #Reviews #Risingfall #Satan #Saxon #Scorpions #SignificantPoint