Review: Asunojokei – Think of You
You want to know how you hook me on an opening track?
You start with a killer riff and shout “GO!”
I was introduced to Asunojokei back in 2022 after the release of Island, and I’ve been a big fan ever since. Think of You has been one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and Island left some big shoes to fill, so how does Think of You compare?
It’s complicated.
Asunojokei have always brought in a wide variety of influences: Island might be their most straightforward blackgaze album and had a song that started as a lo-fi hip-hop track, Awakening had a lot of tech death moments, Wishes has always hit my ears as their most purely post-black metal release, and A Bird in the Fault sticks out to me as their most traditionally black metal album. Even with all of that being said, Think of You stands out as being truly different from the rest of the band’s work.
Image via last.fm
Think of You strikes me as their least metal work yet, with the band opting for what I’d describe as blackened J-rock. In true Asunojokei style though, there are so, so many extra flavors mixed in. “Stella,” for example, starts out with these beautiful, disco-y chords that have been playing on repeat in my head since I first heard them. Heck, the whole track feels like a city pop song with a distortion pedal. There’s some amazing fretless bass work on this album, courtesy of Takuya Seki, that continues this feeling throughout the later tracks, and the opening riff for “Zeppelin” has a certain emo energy to it that I really dig.
Speaking of opening riffs, starting songs is really where Asunojokei shines. I’m not exaggerating when I say that every song on this album has an amazing first 30 seconds. But what good is a solid opener if you can’t keep that momentum going? Well, thanks to the gorgeous guitar work of Kei Toriki and the driving drums of Seiya Saito, that’s never an issue. The energy present at the beginning remains constant and the record does a great job of not losing momentum. Sure, there are times where the band slows things down, but it never feels meandering or unfocused, a trap that a lot of post-whatever falls into. Asunojokei seem to always have a plan for how they want to get back to that more energetic level.
My complaints with this album really are few and far between. While Daiki Nuno‘s vocals are excellent, there are some passages where I think the harshes are a little out of place. Nuno has showcased his cleans on previous releases and I wouldn’t mind if they made more of an appearance on this one. Other than that, all I really have is that “Dogma” feels like a little bit of a weak link. It’s not terrible, but there doesn’t seem to be much going on after the first minute or so. It feels a tad empty. What’s more, it’s the track that I most feel would have benefited from a cleaner vocal style, or at least a wider variety of harshes. But if that’s the worst I’ve got to say, I’d say you’ve done a great job.
There’s one aspect of this record that I want to highlight above them all, and that is just how fun it is. Even if I weren’t writing this review, Think of You would still be playing just as constantly. Every bit of time I’ve spent with this record has been time well-spent. I especially want to give some love to Rain Wang, whose art really ties the whole thing together. Listening to this album and looking at that art really does make me feel like I’m sitting on a park bench in the dead of winter after everything, somehow, has worked out. And I’ve got a feeling this album will remain in my rotation for much longer than just this coming winter.
4/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell
Think of You is out now on Bandcamp.
