REVIEW

Tokyo-based artist RobounoIshi, who works both as a Vocaloid producer and a band project, delivers his 6th album. This release is an ambitious blend of blackgaze and post-black metal featuring Hatsune Miku. Noisy, black-metal-inspired guitars rage like sandstorms, intersecting with Miku’s ethereal vocals and ferocious screams to create an apocalyptic soundscape. The interplay of “beauty and violence” or “light and darkness” is the defining charm of blackgaze, and this album embodies it perfectly.

Highlight tracks include #5 “Koya Nite,” which starts with a brooding mid-tempo and then bursts into an explosive section, and #6 “Violet,” which throws in club-music-style synths while remaining firmly in beautiful-melodic blackgaze territory—a contrast sure to delight fans of Violet Cold. The album closes with #7 “Messia,” a dramatic finale where Miku’s long pilgrimage culminates and hope seems to revive in a ravaged world.

RobounoIshi also performs live in a band format, so fans in the Tokyo area should definitely check out a show. I myself have yet to see them live, so it’s high on my list.

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