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J-pop…maybe J-metal?…band Asunojokei blends genres, wins fans in Japan and abroad【Interview】

SoraNews24 Mar 19, 2025
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We sit down for a talk with Kei Toriki about making a musical chimera.

Our Japanese-language reporter Seiji was recently in Hokkaido, where he checked out the town of Kamikawa’s thoughtfully protected Pokémon manhole cover. That wasn’t the only discovery Seiji made in Japan’s northernmost prefecture, though. In addition to being one of SoraNews24’s writers, Seiji is also a musician, and his band, Si, Irene, was touring as the opening act for another group, called Asunojokei.

Asunojokei’s name translates literally to “poetic description of the scenery of tomorrow,” and the band’s genre is similarly tricky to sum up in a single word. If you isolated their pounding percussion or guttural vocals, your ears would instantly tell you that they’re a metal band, and sure enough, Asunojokei has been attracting attention in the overseas heavy metal scene, and has even toured Europe as a result. However, if you instead listened to just the upbeat, bouncy chords of Asunojokei’s guitars you’d get an entirely different impression, something more akin to pop or U.K. rock.

▼ Asunojokei’s “In the Town where it Rains Cobalt”

Having gotten acquainted with each other during their shows in Hokkaido, Seiji took the opportunity to sit down with the up-and-coming band’s guitarist Kei Toriki, who also composes their songs, to talk about Asunojokei’s musical style and influences.

Seiji: In talking with people who’ve heard your music, a lot of metal fans notice your pop elements, and a lot of J-pop and J-rock fans pick up on the metal aspects. As kind of an outlier in either genre, you can play at events for both, but how did you develop your sound?

Toriki: Really, for me, J-rock and J-pop are as much a part of my musical background as metal is. For example, when I’m driving in my car I have [J-rock band] Supercar blasting on the sound system a lot. So I wanted to combine all the parts from the different kinds of music I like.

Seiji: It’s like you really made a musical chimera, isn’t it?

▼ “Chimera” is another of Asunojokei’s songs

A unique aspect of Asunojokei’s live shows is that the band doesn’t use any amplifiers or foot pedal-operated compact effectors for their guitars, giving them a lot of freedom in their performing style.

Toriki: We create the effects for our guitars on a Quad Cortex multi-effector and then send it back to the ear monitor through Line. Then I program it so that the effects change automatically as the song progresses.

Seiji: That’s a really modern solution. Have you always done things that way?

Toriki: No, I’m originally an amp kind of guy. But I started trying this new style about a year ago, and it’s worked out great in all sorts of ways.

Seiji: How so?

Toriki: Since we don’t have to worry about hitting the foot pedals, we can concentrate on just playing our guitars, and our performance is better for it. It really brought to light how conscious we had to be of the pedals before. It also frees up our budget, and with less equipment we have to rent from clubs and venues, we’ve been able to put those funds towards having a regular sound team with the same members, which is a huge plus for a band.

▼ Left to right: Seiya Saito (drums), Takuya Seki (base), Daiki Nuno (vocal), Kei Toriki (lead guitar), Gen (guitar)

Asunojokei’s Hokkaido tour is wrapped up, but that doesn’t mean it’s break time for the band. On March 12, they held a solo concert at Club Quattro in downtown Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood, playing to a packed crowd that roared with enthusiasm as every song started in their 12-number set.

▼ They also gave out promotional single CDs of “In the Town where it Rains Cobalt,” in a retro-size design reminiscent of Japanese music releases in the 1990s and early 2000s.

As the concert finished, Seiji could overhear members of the audience debating whether they felt like Asunojokei is a pop-style metal band or a metal-style pop band, and while no consensus was reached either way, they all could agree that it was a great sound. “I can’t give any details just yet, but we’re in the middle of a recording project,” Toriki told the assembled fans. It’s going to be exciting to see what the band does next, and in the meantime you can keep up with them on their website here.

Related: Asunojoki website
Photos courtesy of Jun Tsuneda
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[ Read in Japanese ]