Crystal Lake is a metalcore band formed in Tokyo, Japan in 2002. Initially one of the many hardcore bands that emerged from Japan in the early 2000s, through perseverance, adapting to changes in the music scene, and good timing, they became one of the most popular metalcore bands in the late 2010’s and Japan's biggest export of the genre.
The first lineup of Crystal Lake consisted of guitarists Yudai Miyamoto and Shinya Hori, vocalist Kentaro Nishimura, bassist Seiji Nagasawa, and drummer Yusuke Ishihara. With this lineup they released two demos, Freewill and One Word Changes Everything. They started touring Japan and Asia soon after, supporting other hardcore bands. They released their first split with fellow Japanese hardcore bands Loyal to the Grave and Extinguish the Fire called Blood of Judas. Crystal Lake would follow up with a second split called 3 Way Split with Risen and Unboy. Crystal Lake released their first full length album Dimension in 2006. Crystal Lake’s popularity would gradually build, doing direct support for international acts in Japan such as I Killed the Prom Queen and Hatebreed. Bassist Seiji Nagasawa would leave the band in 2007 and be replaced by Yasuyuki Kotaka. Their next album, Into the Great Beyond would drop in 2011 and as expected, Crystal Lake would do more domestic tours in support of the album. However, this would be their last release with founding vocalist Kentaro Nishimura and drummer Yusuke Ishihara.
In April 2012 Crystal Lake announced their new vocalist, Ryo Kinoshita, and live drummer, Gaku Taura (ex-A Ghost of Flare) via Facebook. Their first release with Ryo was the EP Cubes. Crystal Lake also released a cover of Rollin’ which got quite a bit of traction on YouTube. In 2015 Crystal Lake announced they signed to Artery Recordings and they would distribute their third full length, The Sign in 2015. ‘’The Sign’’ saw the band changing up genres from a metallic hardcore sound to a modern metalcore sound that would alienate some fans but would bring them much more popularity. As expected, more tours would happen in Japan and Asia. In August 2015, bassist Yasuyuki Kotaka would leave the band due to failing health and Teruyuki Takahashi would replace him. Crystal Lake would follow up The Sign with their fourth studio album True North in 2015. Teruyuki Takahashi would leave the band in 2016 and was replaced by Mitsuru.
Crystal Lake’s biggest growth in popularity would come when they released the video for their song “Apollo” in 2017. The video found itself on darn near every metalcore mix on Youtube and it allowed the band to finally start touring Europe in 2018. Crystal Lake would start hosting their own festival in 2017 titled “True North” which featured many local Japanese metalcore/deathcore bands as well as international acts. Crystal Lake would announce at the second True North festival that they signed to Sharptone Records and their fifth album, Helix, would release in 2018. Crystal Lake would do their first American tours in 2019 supporting August Burns Red in early 2019 and a second tour supporting Northlane and Erra that summer, in between doing summer festivals and Europe and many large domestic Japan tours. A followup to Helix is in the oven at time of writing this page, and as soon as they can Crystal Lake will be back on the road. Ryo has also confirmed in a podcast that they will re-record some of their early material. In July 2020, Yudai announced he is leaving the band due to personal issues. The band also announced a new album, The Voyages, which contains several re-recordings of their early material.
In late 2021, Ryo Kinoshita was diagnosed with adjustment disorder,
resulting in the band going on hiatus. Ultimately, in September 2022 Ryo Kinoshita left the band due to mental health issues. After a lengthy audition process, John Robert C. was announced as their new vocalist in March of 2023.
Current members (founding members in Italics):
- Shinya Hori (guitars, 2002-present)
- Gaku Taura (drums, 2012-present)
- Mitsuru (bass, 2017-present)
- TJ (guitars, 2021-present)
- John Robert C. (vocals, 2023-present)
Past members:
- Yudai Miyamoto (guitars, 2002-2020)
- Kentaro Nishimura (vocals, 2002-2011)
- Seiji Nagasawa (bass, 2002-2007)
- Yusuke Ishihara (drums, 2002-2012)
- Yasuyuki Kotaka (bass, 2007-2015)
- Ryo Kinoshita (vocals, 2012-2022)
Discography (full lengths in bold):
- Freewill (demo, 2002)
- One Word Changes Everything (demo, 2003)
- Blood of Judas (split with Loyal to the Grave and Extinguish the Fire, 2004)
- 3 Way Split (split with Risen and Unboy, 2005)
- Dimension (2006)
- Crystal Lake / Cleave (split, 2008)
- Into the Great Beyond (2010)
- Cubes (EP, 2014)
- The Sign (2015)
- True North (2016)
- The Circle (single, 2018)
- Helix (2018 Japan, 2019 worldwide)
- WATCH ME BURN (single, 2020)
- The Voyages (2020, re-recordings of Kentaro Nishimura songs)
- Curse (single, 2021)
- Denial//Rebirth (single, 2023)
CREATORS, DESTROYERS, THEY ABANDONED US TO TROPE ALONE!
- All Drummers Are Animals: Gaku goes to town on the drums.
- Amicable Exes: Crystal Lake is still on good terms with Kentaro Nishimura, and he’s even performed with them live a handful of times since his departure.
- Audience Participation Song: “Up and Down” UP UP UP! DOWN DOWN DOWN!
- Author Appeal: With titles like “Prometheus,” “Dimensions,” and “Apollo,” space must be one.
- Cover Version: Of Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin’” and The Ghost Inside’s “Wide Eyed.”
- Darker and Edgier: Helix, thanks to the noticeable deathcore influence.
- Deathcore: They always had traces of deathcore, and Helix is where they really went in on the style. “Hail to the Fire,” “Apollo,” and especially “Aeon” are good examples of nu-deathcore.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The music vid for “Beloved.”
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Kentaro Nishimura-era albums were closer to the metallic-hardcore bands of the early 2000’s. The production on these albums was also much rougher than the cleaner sound of the Ryo Kinoshita era releases. That said, they haven’t totally abandoned their early material. On headlining shows or hardcore shows (such as the yearly Bloodaxe Fest in Japan) they will bust out their early material.
- Harsh Vocals: Ryo and Kentaro. Ryo is known for his mids and lows whereas Kentaro could hit highs.
- Keet: Good god, Ryo. Dude is a beast on stage, multiple stage dives and crowdsurfs are normal nights for him, and don’t be surprised if he throws down in the pit. The other members aren’t too far behind him.
- In Name Only: As of September 2022, Shinya Hori is the only original member of Crystal Lake left.
- Last Note Nightmare: "Disobey"
- Metalcore: The style they have been associated with and often the bands they tour with when Crystal Lake tours internationally. The Kentaro Nishimura era material was more in line with metallic-hardcore and the Ryo Kinoshita era blends in nu-metal and deathcore. They’ve also had run-ins with djent and progressive metal labels.
- Metal Scream: Kentaro could do 2’s and 3’s easily, while Ryo is known for his 2’s and 1’s. John Robert C. mostly uses Type 1's and 2's.
- Motor Mouth: The rapping on “Devilcry.”
- New Sound Album:
- The Sign would change styles from the melodic-metalcore style of their early material for a cleaner, modern metalcore sound that would define the late 2000/early 2010 metalcore sound. True North builds off the sounds from The Sign and adds in a smidge more electronic and nu-metal influences
- Helix is the greatest departure so far, with more electronic and deathcore influences, and one song being trap.
- Nu Metal: No doubt been on influence on the band (they covered Rollin’ for crying out loud!). It wasn’t until Ryo joining the band would nu-metal be incorporated in their music (mostly as rapping).
- Only One Name: Live bassist Mitsuru is known as... Mitsuru.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: “Just Confusing” off Helix could be described as a trap song.
- Piss-Take Rap: “Apollo” is the best example of this, and not the only example in their discography.
- Rock Trio: Technically, Crystal Lake was officially Yudai, Shinya, and Ryo until Yudai's departure in 2020. Mitsuru and Gaku were listed as live members, but they officially became members in 2021.
- Special Guest: Quite a few for their studio efforts:
- Ikepy (Her Name in Blood), Senta (Numb), Yosh (Survive Said the Prophet), Kenta Koie (crossfaith), Makoto (Sand), Jake Taylor (In Hearts Wake), Hironobu Onose (Fact), Kaya Otomo, Jesse McFaddin (Rize), AJ Rebollo, Masato Hayakawa (Coldrain), and Daniel McWhorter and Tyler Riley (Gideon).
- Ryo himself has been featured on tracks from Coldrain, End These Days, The Royal, Fit for a King, Awake the Dreamer, Breakdown of Sanity, Within Destruction, Spiritbox, Before My Life Fails, Brand of Sacrifice, and Aborted.
- Soprano and Gravel: Ryo mostly sticks to harshes and raps. If there’s a feature, chances are they’ll contribute cleans.
- Wolverine Publicity: Ryo has become this for the Japanese metal community. He’s on a lot of features.
