Coldrain (コールドレイン, Kōrudorein, stylized as coldrain) is a Japanese metalcore band from Nagoya, formed in 2007. The band mixes melodic singing with screams typical of the post-hardcore genre.[2] Although the band is Japanese, all their songs are written in English. Masato (lead vocals), has a Japanese father and an American mother and speaks both Japanese and English.[7][8] After the first two albums, Final Destination and The Enemy Inside, which were only released in Japan, the group made its worldwide debut in 2014 with the album The Revelation, released by Hopeless Records and Sony.

Contents 1 History 1.1 2007–2008: Formation and major label debut 1.2 2009–2011: Final Destination and The Enemy Inside 1.3 2012–2013: The Revelation 1.4 2014: Worldwide debut 1.5 2015–2016: Vena 1.6 2017–present: Fateless 2 Musical style 3 Band members 4 Discography 4.1 Studio albums 4.2 EPs 4.3 Maxi-singles 4.4 Digital singles 4.5 DVDs 4.6 Compilation appearances 4.7 Collaborations 5 Music videos 5.1 Official music videos 6 References 7 External links History 2007–2008: Formation and major label debut coldrain line-up: (l-r) Sugi, RxYxO, Katsuma, Masato, Y.K.C

After the disbanding of the bands Wheel of Life (RxYxO, Sugi and Y.K.C.) and AVER (Masato and Katsuma),[9] coldrain was formed in 2007 in Nagoya with Masato on vocals, RxYxO (Ryo) on bass guitar, Katsuma on drums, and Y.K.C (Yokochi) and Sugi on guitars. The common musical interest of the members was one of the decisive factors for the forming of coldrain. Once when AVER and Wheel of Life first co-debuted on stage, and AVER heard Sevendust's song played during Wheel of Life's rehearsal, an excited Katsuma asked RxYxO, "Don't tell me you're a fan of Sevendust as well!?"[10] Thereafter, each time they interacted, they wanted to form a new band together. RxYxO was originally doing the vocals, but turned bassist because of coldrain.[10] The band gained their first followers from performing as a local band in their home-town while distributing demo discs after each performance.

About a year after coldrain formed, they were offered and later signed a major contract with VAP,[11] after which the band released its debut maxi single "Fiction" on 5 November 2008. They then set off for their first nationwide tour and played in 30 venues across Japan.

2009–2011: Final Destination and The Enemy Inside

After the tour, the group released their next maxi single: "8AM". The limited edition included a DVD which featured the music video of the title song and three live videos: "Fiction", "Painting", and "Come Awake". "8AM" was also used as a theme song to the anime series Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger.[12] In 2009, saw their first performance at the Summer Sonic Festival 2009.[13] In October, they released their first album Final Destination[14] and embarked on another successful sold-out nationwide tour.

The band released their EP: Nothing Lasts Forever on 23 June 2010. One of the songs, "We’re Not Alone", was used as an opening theme of the anime series Rainbow: Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin.[15] Another song, "Die Tomorrow", was used in the Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 soundtrack.[14] They also went on tour with several bands, including Mucc, Avengers in sci-fi and Totalfat.[16]

On 16 February 2011, coldrain released their second album called The Enemy Inside, which keeps the melodic vocals and breakdown parts of the last songs. The song "The Maze" has Mah from band SiM singing in some parts. On 7 December of the same year, the band released their first DVD, Three Days of Adrenaline,[17] which was recorded in three cities: Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo. The DVD contains 19 tracks (all 10 songs from The Enemy Inside are in), 3 little videos behind the scenes, exclusive performances, and the music videos of "To Be Alive" and "Rescue Me".[18]

2012–2013: The Revelation The band's logotype, used since 2013.

On 20 April 2012, the band released a new song, "No Escape",[19] which was used in the official trailer for the video game Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City;[20][21] the song was on the band's new EP, Through Clarity, released on the following 4 July.[22] This is their first album recorded abroad in the US.[23] The EP was produced by David Bendeth,[11] famous for his collaborations with international artists like Paramore, All Time Low and A Day to Remember.[24]

On 1 August, it was announced that because drummer Katsuma was devoting himself to medical treatment for a chronic hereditary disease, he was temporarily withdrawing from the band. Katsuma's withdrawal period includes three people, ZAX (Pay money To my Pain), Tatsu (Crossfaith), and YOUTH-K!!!(BPM13GROOVE), playing the role of support drummer.[25] During the summer, they finally returned to the stage at Summer Sonic Festival 2012.[26] On 4 November, at Hiroshima University of Economics, two bands held a live performance, Maximum the Hormone and coldrain. At that point Katsuma returned to the band.[27][28]

On 30 November, coldrain announced they would be in the studio from December to February to record their third studio album with David Bendeth.[29][30] On 2 March 2013, they performed at Megaport Music Festival in Kaohsiung for 5,000 people, along with many other artists such as Grizzly Bear, Cyndi Wang, Boris, Head Phones President, SiM, LTK Commune, Guntzepaula and Chochukmo.[31][32] Shortly afterward, on 17 April, they released their third full-length album, The Revelation.[33][34] On 5 May, the band held the opening date of The Revelation Tour in Chiba, Japan, at the same location where they performed during the Ozzfest on 12 May.[35]

2014: Worldwide debut coldrain performing at L'Olympia on February 5, 2014.

In December 2013, coldrain signed a record deal with Raw Power Management, a British company with many international bands to its name, including Bullet for My Valentine, Bring Me the Horizon, Of Mice & Men and Crossfaith. This allowed the group to go on a European tour with Bullet for My Valentine and Chiodos between February and March.[36] Subsequent headline dates were also announced for the United Kingdom, along with the European release of the EP Through Clarity on 27 January, with free download of the song "Inside of Me" if the EP was preordered.[36]

On 21 February, they announced release of the DVD The Score 2007-2013.[37] On 18 January they recorded a live show called "One Man Show Evolve" for their second DVD, Evolve,[38] which was released on 30 April of the same year.[39] The album was also available on Blu-ray Disc, for the first time for the group.[40] During the same period came the news that coldrain would be performing at Rock am Ring, Rock im Park and Download Festival 2014[41] in June 2014.

On 9 April, the announcement came that coldrain had signed a contract with the American label Hopeless Records for a new edition of their third album, The Revelation, which would be released worldwide (except Asia, New Zealand, and Australia) for the first time.[42] On the same day Hopeless released the eponymous single, "The Revelation".[42]

Coldrain performing at the Rock am Ring, 2014. Coldrain performing at the Rock im Park, 2014.

At the announcement of the international release of The Revelation, the singer Masato wrote:

"It’s hard to put in words how excited and proud we are that ‘The Revelation’ will be released Worldwide. The dream we’ve had ever since we started playing music is finally coming true. I can’t wait for everyone to hear the songs, learn the words and sing them with us live. We are grateful for the many fans in our homeland that have supported us in becoming the band we are today. Without them this would have been impossible. This step will be the biggest in our careers and we couldn’t be more ready."[43]

The international edition of the album was subsequently released on 23 June in Europe, and 24 June in North America.[43] On 18 June they also released their third EP, Until the End in Japan.[44][45] The EP contains 6 new tracks, 5 of which were also included in the international edition of The Revelation, which was released by Hopeless Records on June 2014 in Europe and North America. The band also announced the album's release in Australia, scheduled for 8 August of the same year (by Sony Music Australia[46][47]), along with the news that the band would perform at Soundwave Festival 2015.[47]

2015–2016: Vena

On 27 June 2015, they performed at the Lunatic Fest (hosted by Luna Sea) at Makuhari Messe, alongside 9mm Parabellum Bullet, Dead End, Tokyo Yankees, Siam Shade, Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dir En Grey, X Japan and Luna Sea.[48] On 28 August, the band released the song "Words of the Youth" from Vena,[49] their fourth studio album, which was released worldwide in October 2015.[50][51] The record will be promoted by a worldwide headlining tour "MAY EUROPEAN TOUR" with Wage War[52] between May 2016.[53][54]

Early in the morning of 20 March 2016, coldrain was involved in a bus crash while traveling from their recent stop in Texas to the next scheduled concert (support of "Silverstein 2016 USA Tour") in Oklahoma.[55][56] They reported that no one was hurt, but they had to cancel their show in Tulsa as they had no means of transport to get there.[57] In the summer, coldrain embarked on a tour across the United States (playing at Monster Energy South Stage) as a part of Vans Warped Tour.[57][58][59]

On 17 August, coldrain released their third maxi-single "Vena II" worldwide, with new songs "Born to Bleed" and "Undertow" and new acoustic versions of "Gone" and "The Story". The limited edition included a bonus DVD which featuring "VENA JAPAN TOUR 2016" held at Zepp Tokyo on 15 January 2016.[60]

2017–present: Fateless

On 26 July 2017, coldrain announced a new album to be called Fateless,[61]; it was released on 11 October 2017 worldwide.[62] The limited edition of the album features a live CD with coldrain's 10 year anniversary performances in their hometown Nagoya.[63][64] One of the songs, "Feed the Fire", was used as an opening theme of the anime series King's Game The Animation.[65][66]

The band's official tour, FATELESS JAPAN TOUR 2017, began on 29 October 2017. The tour spanned approximately the following two months and 15 venues across Japan,[61] ending with a concert on 6 February 2018 at the Nippon Budokan.[67][68]

Musical style

Early in its career the band played songs that sounded like alternative rock and especially like post-hardcore,[2][69] accompanied by guitar pieces reminiscent of classic metalcore[5] and thrash metal riffs. By their third album, The Revelation, coldrain's music came to be defined as a mix of alternative metal, metalcore[69] and screamo.[5] According to other critics, certain influences instead recall genres like pop punk, and the band has been likened to groups like My Chemical Romance, Pay Money to My Pain,[2] Asking Alexandria, Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows, Bullet for My Valentine[5] and A Day to Remember. Masato himself has stated Linkin Park to be his biggest influence to start recording music. When Y.K.C, the main composer of the band, was asked about songwriting, he said, "It is essential not to forget 'why a song is cool', the song itself needs to have holding power, and only then is there meaning. That's what I try not to forget when composing."[70]

Band members Masato David Hayakawa (マサト, Masato) – lead vocals Ryo Yokochi (ヨコチ, Y.K.C) – lead guitar, programming, piano Kazuya Sugiyama (スギ, Sugi) – rhythm guitar, baritone guitar, backing vocals Ryo Shimizu (リョウ, RxYxO) – bass guitar, backing vocals Katsuma Minatani (カツマ, Katsuma) – drums Masato Y.K.C. Katsuma RxYxO Sugi Discography Studio albums Year Album Details JPN chart[71] 2009 Final Destination Released: 28 October 2009 88 2011 The Enemy Inside Released: 16 February 2011 21 2013 The Revelation Released: 17 April 2013 7 2015 Vena Released: 21 October 2015 9 2017 Fateless Released: 11 October 2017 8