XANVALA - アイライナー

[zeus]

XANVALA won our 2026 Newcomers Bracket, so I promised I’d write something about them. Eyeliner is their newest single and is thus the best candidate to assess their sound and see why so many people are attracted to them. The first thing I notice about XANVALA across all of their tracks that I’ve listened to is that they’ve got a focus on melody and light guitar even though they’re a loud kei band; if you want heavy deathcore with harsh vocals, go somewhere else. This one is a Souma creation, and I’m getting to the point with XANVALA where I can distinguish guitarist Souma songs from bassist 70.'s songs. Eyeliner features a strong chorus and an even stronger solo! They’ve even got some sprinkles of horns and piano in there if you listen closely enough! All of the elements come together to create a strong and memorable single. This might be one of my favorite XANVALA songs after two listens, but that’s not a competitive category because I don’t have any favorite XANVALA songs.

Speaking of which, they filmed a music video for this single. Not uncommon, as far as singles go, but it’s good to see some PVs once in a while, especially ones that don’t overly rely on AI. XANVALA has a knack for imagery. I’m loving the use of color and light in this music video - it’s simple but very effective. Small things like hanging a cube in the middle of rotating around the instrumentalists adds a lot to the shots. Vocalist Tatsumi is the star of the show and I’m still deciding if the face paint features jewels or not. A solid music video to go along with a solid song.

What did you think of XANVALA’s newest single?

[Kaishiki]

So far I just listened to the song twice, once right after buying it and once it came up in my mixed playlist. I like it. It didn’t blow me away like other of their songs but I really like it.
What I like about them is the variety of their songs. You mentioned that they aren’t a heavy deathcore band and I agree with that. They have their moments with songs like ジャバラ (JABARA) or C4 or クロコダイル (crocodile) yet that’s less heavy deathcore than I don’t know (I’m not good at categorizing) but there’s mostly a good variety of melodies and more. Which’s why I love them a lot. There sometimes obviously are other band’s influences like MUCC with 僕の神様 (boku no kamisama), I at least think it was this one, and also some Gazette even though I can’t put my finger on a certain song for them. Both ain’t surprising, I’ve seen Gazette seen as an influence on their Japanese Wikipedia and when they were invited to one of the MUCC two-man shows last year they’ve been mentioning that the band had influenced them and all that.
To get back to the single, I also have to admit that I never watched the PV, I’m just not someone watching a lot but mostly just listening (all I’ve seen are the snippets they’ve been posting on SNS, like all the ones for the other PVs that they came up with leading to their anniversary, and also now for their special live “LEGACY” on April 4th, and today’s features even one of my most favorite songs of theirs).