Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
TRiDENT is a three piece all-female rock band from Osaka, Japan, and they’ve been around since 2016 when they previously went by Girls Rock Band Kakume, changing their name to TriDENT in late 2019. Led by their front women ASAKA, TriDENT has been slowly building a discography of excellent J-rock bangers since the rebranding, with one full album and a handful of singles and EPs since 2020.
Their newest music video for “NEO FUTURE” features their signature vocals of ASAKA and bassist SERINA providing great melodic harmonies, along with call and answer vocals. That iconic J-rock tone/sound is present, but with their fun signature style of Drop D guitar added in with some fun drum fills help keep this upbeat single afloat. The added keyboard thrown in throughout the chorus and bridge also make the band feel bigger than a three piece. I still can’t get that djent-esque main riff, but it fits perfectly along with the J-rock sound.
While “NEO FUTURE” didn’t wow me like “CRY OUT” did a year ago, it’s still worth experiencing. It’s a fun song that, along with its melodies and riffs, really comes alive over the course of its runtime. I can definitely see this one being a fun time whenever it pops up on my playlist, and hopefully TRiDENT will continue to pump out some more EPs, or even a new full album.
So I highly suggest everyone check out TRiDENT, as along with the great discography, they’re continuing to show that young J-rock/metal is still doing well overseas in Japan. It’s not just getting exposure that’s hard for these lesser known bands overseas, but TRiDENT was another group that has made supporting with physical merch sales a headache to say the least. Thankfully, they’ve recently opened an online shop for overseas fans that has a good assortment of merch, from signed albums to T-shirts to towels for purchase. This is just a problem with Japanese underground bands in general, but one that I hope will slowly be filtered out over time*.
*That said, the novelty of it feels like I’m back in ’04 trying to get YUI‘s newest single or EP, and provides a strong sense of nostalgia here.
