Today marks the official unveiling of Crimson & Jet Black, the latest full-length from leading Japanese heavy metal act, ANTHEM, out now on Reaper Entertainment.
It’s been four years since the release of the band’s critically acclaimed Nucleus full-length — a re-recording of their classic hits with English lyrics. But ANTHEM used the pandemic downtime wisely. Crimson & Jet Black features eleven tracks, once again performed in English.
Offers the band, “Finally, our new album Crimson & Jet Black is out! The album is full of straight, powerful, and great metal songs. We promise that it sounds as sharp as a knife. If you love metal, you shouldn’t miss it. But be careful not to get blown away!”
After finishing two anniversary tours in 2021 — the band’s thirty-fifth anniversary tour, which had been postponed due to the pandemic restrictions, as well the twentieth anniversary of their reunion tour called the ANTHEM 2001 Vs ANTHEM 2021 Tour — the band began work on their latest offering. Originally scheduled to be completed in the Spring of 2022, band leader Shibata, a perfectionist at heart, decided to enrich each of the songs’ quality and pushed the recording schedule to Summer/Fall. Like previous ANTHEM works, Naoto is the main producer of the album, but this time renowned Swedish producer Jens Bogren, (Arch Enemy, Amon Amarth, Dimmu Borgir, Opeth, etc.) who had previously mixed and mastered Nucleus, is credited as a co-producer.
ANTHEM:
Naoto Shibata – bass
Akio Shimizu – guitar
Yukio Morikawa – vocals
Isamu Tamaru – drums
