Review: Asunojokei – Think of You

Style: blackgaze, Shimokita-kei, post-hardcore (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Kvelertak, Deafheaven, Sadness, Dir en Grey
Country: Japan
Release date: 6 August 2025

I’m writing this in an apartment that has broken AC, and my semester begins in less than a week. It’s perpetually 88 degrees in my room. I love the heat outdoors, but this is too much; besides, most of my music is for cold weather. I’m not listening to Opeth or Agalloch when it’s 100 degrees and humid as balls outside, or a sweltering furnace inside, for that matter. Picking what I’ll listen to is harder than normal, let alone what I’ll review. But Japanese Deafheaven-turned-pop icons Asunojokei may be the solution to all my problems (well, I think a better solution would be if my landlady fixed the AC, but I digress¹). 

Think of You is a musical flashbang, with short pop song structures and a sound characterized by youthful vivacity. Beginning with a riff that could open an anime while evoking the same feeling as stepping out of your final class of the semester for summer, “Dawn” sets the tone for the record instantly—cheery, summery, relentlessly energetic. To round out Asunojokei’s J-pop core, the quartet blend biting screamo vocals, post-hardcore attitude, and towering blackgaze tremolos into a cohesive and distinct sound. Everything Asunojokei do is crisp; the album has spotless, gleaming production, and the group’s tight performances are held together by Seiya Seito’s animated drumming. Listening to Think of You on a bright and breezy summer day feels right. Even the blackgaze sections are more like black metal gone surf rock, with the clean-toned trems.

Asunojokei have mastered writing compelling melodies that are fun without dipping too far into cheese (barring a cliche one in “Magic Hour”). Guitarist Kei Toriki makes his instrument absolutely sing. The expansive blackened surf rock riff about a minute and a half into “Dawn” satisfies, as does the jazzy Mario Kart chords that permeate the track; I want the guitar solo in the back half of “Zeppelin” to be injected into my veins; and the whole intro section of “Stella” is unabashedly fun. It’s a classic review cop out in lieu of penning a better description, but Think of You is just a total vibe—you become your own anime protagonist listening to the record².

That said, the dynamic group do fall victim to their own identity on occasion; they’ve honed and perfected their formula since their last record, Island, but the lack of variety begins to weaken the latest release, even at a prim thirty-seven minutes. Each track could be a copy-pasted version of the previous one with pretty much only the main melodies shifted. The short songs begin with a post-hardcore vibe before leading into more black metal-y choruses and climaxes, both of which are typically bookended by shimmering clean guitar parts. Minor tweaks to the formula are as delicious as water on a hot summer day, but they’re few and far between—the bass solo in “Angel” is my favorite, with the heavier black metal opening to “Dogma” a close second. What hurts Think of You most, however, is the monotony of the vocals. To pull off a screamo style, you’ve gotta be compellingly emotional, and Asunojokei’s Daiki Nuno isn’t for the most part. The vocals feel repetitive, unfortunately, with the harsh style meshing poorly with the instrumentation. Nuno’s talented and has a pleasantly energetic tone for the technique he relies on, but I can’t help but find his approach to be the wrong choice for the songs Asunojokei write. 

Incredibly, summer flew by (it’s already late August if you weren’t aware), so I’m not sure how much longer such a blindingly cheery record will stay in the rotation. Nevertheless, I found Think of You to be an excellent seasonal soundtrack, its addictive melodies hitting the spot like a cool glass of lemonade, and I could very well see myself returning again in a year’s time. As for the people who don’t exclusively wear black, and who enjoy more positive emotions, Think of You could very easily take up an entire calendar year.

Recommended tracks: Dawn, Angel, Dogma, Zeppelin
You may also like: Breaths, Heaven in Her Arms, Baan, Sonhos Tomam Conta
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Naghibloom

Asunojokei is:
– Daiki Nuno (vocals)
– Kei Toriki (guitar)
– Takuya Seki (bass)
– Seiya Saito (drums)

1.  She has fixed it before publishing, thank god (and the landlady). ↩︎
2. I’m not a weeb and have no idea what that means, but I my nerdier peers confirmed that I used the descriptive clause correctly. ↩︎