Makin' It Rain

We’ve barely made our introductions before frontman of the metalcore outfit Coldrain Masato Hayakawa brings up Crossfaith and starts singing their praises. But as our conversation progresses, it becomes apparent that his affection for Crossfaith goes beyond simply paying homage to those came before. “When we started out it was never really a goal of ours to have an international presence. Nobody was really doing that at the time. But then you see a band like Crossfaith, who you’ve been friends with forever, touring the world, it becomes more and more of a possibility. And then after touring Europe just once it dawned on us that we could have done this at any time, so now after six/seven years playing in Japan, we’re totally ready to go anywhere.”

In the wake of Crossfaith, Coldrain are in the right place at the right time. Their third long-player, The Revelation, which has just received international release, is an infectious, melodic meaty slab of metalcore, an album that people who’d never heard of the band before their surprising announcement on the first Soundwave 2015 bill will have plenty to get excited about. “We didn’t know about the announcement until it actually happened. We knew we were playing Soundwave, but we didn’t know we were going to be the first ones, and the only ones, announced. It was crazy – totally crazy… And initially we thought, ‘Everybody is going to hate us for what’s happened,’ but it’s turned out cool, because the more people who hate us, the more people who know us, and the more people are going to check us out.”

Masato reckons Coldrain’s place on the Soundwave bill comes at a perfect time for the band. “Because the market is so big in Japan, a lot of bands don’t even think about leaving to try and play other places. And that means a lot of the fans get used to you playing inside of Japan, and they get used to your live show. For us, at the end of last year we were at the point where we needed to start something new and reach out to those people who were only getting our stuff through YouTube… And there are a lot of other bands in that same position, so there’s going to be more Japanese bands coming out and travelling the world.”

Who should we look out for then, Masato? “There’s a band called One Ok Rock who did Warped this year in the US and they’re super big in Japan, and give it a year or two they’ll be big all over the world. We’re good friends with a band called SiM, they play metal punk stuff and I think a lot of people are going to want to see them live… But there’s going to be a lot more coming out.”