CROSSFAITH at Key Club, Leeds

The sold out crowd in the Key Club are getting restless. Not because the band are late on stage, but quite the opposite. An automated voice intermittently announces that the show will start in so many minutes, and the countdown can’t end soon enough.

Coming out and launching straight into the tour’s title track Xeno, it takes no time at all for Kenta Koie to get straight into the crowd and the heavy guitar rifts kick in. Unusually for a small club, at least in the UK, the sound is incredibly balanced and defined, which is important for a sound like CROSSFAITH’s if you’re here to listen as well as jump around.

Sadly, the stage is a little small to get the full effect of all band members. Kazuki Takemura on guitar and Hiroki Ikegawa on bass do a fantastic job up front of strutting around and riling up both sides of the crowd while Kenta looks after the front. However, Terufumi Tamano on programming/synths, normally the onstage equivalent of a firework factory explosion in terms of raw energy, is tonight more like a caged animal. He’s performing perfectly and clearly soaking up the atmosphere, but he needs to be released.

Continuing through the set with more new material, everything remains perfectly balanced, but the band’s movements onstage and interaction with the crowd stop this from being a dull "could’ve put the album on at home" experience. Playing through Ghost in the Mirror and Eclipse with perfect English vocals, CROSSFAITH is only recognisable as a Japanese band for the obvious fact that they come from Osaka, Japan. They take a very raw western-style metalcore/electronic mix but play with the absolute precision and perfection expected from a world class band. There is no visual kei aesthetic, no squeaky J-pop samples, no gimmick; just five men sharing a moment with their audience.

Carrying on with the party vibe, the audience is encouraged to jump and dance, share a drink of Jäger, and generally get involved as the more dance-centric Wildfire kicks in with Skindred’s Benji Webbe’s vocals being substituted by Kenta.

As the end of the main set draws to a close, the whole room is cheering and involved. The band are loving the reaction they’ve created and it could end here with everybody going home more than happy… but that wouldn’t be good enough.

A lone Tatsuya Amano takes his place behind the drums and fills the silence with an incredible series of solos that would easily stand up to YOSHIKI of X JAPAN in a face off. Where has the energy come from? After the interlude, CROSSFAITH once again show their influences and love of the UK music scene by launching into a cover of The Prodigy’s Omen, a song that could have so easily been replicated note for note for a quick win, but they have made it a little longer and added their own twist. The cover perhaps went on a little too long and would have fared better with more original material, but the crowd in their party vibe didn’t seem to care.

Finally, after a short goodbye and thank you, the band launched into the epic Monolith to finish the night. They said “We’ll see you again”, and Leeds will certainly be welcoming them back.


Set list

01. Xeno
02. Raise Your Voice
03. Ghost In The Mirror
04. Eclipse
05. Wildfire
06. Paint It Black
07. Photosphere
08. Devil's Party
09. Countdown To Hell

Encore

01. DJ & Extreme Drum Solo
02. Omen (The Prodigy cover)
03. Monolith