Laypeople who don’t listen to heavy music often lump it all together, even while those of us who dedicate our time to the cause can pick up the difference between death metal, thrash and hardcore in seconds.
RASHŌMON are one of those bands that would have people in fits right away, likely calling it metal even though there are few similarities. It’s loud, angry and super heavy. The guitars are blistering, the drums relentless, the vocals unforgiving. But this is hardcore, through and through. There are no solos, the vocals are equal parts shout and snarl, and the songs barely crash the 2-minute mark. Metal wallows in the misery. Hardcore plows through it.
“Tokyo via DC hardcore,” (per Iron Lung’s description) is a great starting point, as it checks many of the boxes I know from my limited knowledge of that scene. While the music itself is relentless and furious, it’s more polished than your typical American hardcore and with less bravado. It’s heart-on-sleeve and no nonsense, like the broader genre, but there’s a spastic energy that feels less formulaic even if the surface sound is rather familiar.
On this 6-song record the band covers a wide range in a short period of time. Drums often steal the show, as in “愛国者 Patriot,” while metallic flourishes in the guitars appear throughout, just without the showy excess. “Death Factory” is a good example of that, which also features a nice little breakdown in the middle of the 3rd of 6th songs and effectively serves as a reset for the EP. After that, “Resume Operation” is just heavy, more plodding than pummeling, while “ムシャムシャ! Musha Musha!” brings buzzsaw guitars and harsh, yet rhythmic, vocals that sometimes bark but, more so, snarl and spit. It’s a really big song that I think stands out the most here, though it has some serious competition in the closer, “Pigs in Blue,” which at one point hints at a marching order drum pattern before it devolves into haunting chaos, perfectly matching the finer lyrical point to the song.
The EP as a whole is super fast and super heavy. It feels like barely contained chaos but a closer listen reveals that it’s intricately composed, which it why it masterfully captures so many deeper emotions all shrouded underneath a dark, brooding storm cloud on the horizon.
