VMJ

Ashes and Diamonds | Are Forever (album)
2025-10-31
Ashes and Diamonds | Are Forever (album)
RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1st (2025)
RECORD COMPANY: Cleopatra Records

Ashes and Diamond: Are Forever | Sarcastic, sensual and soulful. An organic and textured album where hierarchy fades and all three musicians shine as one.
Daniel Ash has never been one to sit still and look backward. From the spectral shadows of Bauhaus to the psychedelic pulse of Love and Rockets, he’s built a career on reinvention. With Ashes and Diamonds, his collaboration with Paul Denman and Bruce Smith, he sounds newly reborn. “It’s like being nineteen again” he says — and Are Forever, seven years in the making and recorded twice from scratch, proves it. When the band scrapped their first completed version and decided to start again, it wasn’t a mistake — it was liberation, a blessing. Ten days at Johnny Depp’s Hollywood studio gave them what remote recording couldn’t: depth, warmth and chemistry. In that small, smoke-scented room, everything snapped into place. Daniel Ash rediscovered his passion for guitar after plugging into a found Fender Hot Rod amp — its tone became the album’s emotional core. The result feels organic and connected. It breathes like a live band in one room, not files stitched together across borders.
The record opens with Hollywood, where sirens melt into a narcotic haze. Trip-hop tension and muted glamour swirl together, blurring the line between dream and decay. It’s a hypnotic descent into the city’s restless heart, Daniel Ash’s voice gliding between confession and detachment. Teenage Robots takes that theme further, a sleek, electronic lament for a world drowning in connection but starving for contact. Its rhythm pulses like circuitry, but the ache beneath is entirely human. Then comes On a Rocka, the album’s surge of blood and laughter, a glam-fueled anthem of speed, release, and reckless joy. The guitars roar like engines; it’s a celebration of freedom for freedom’s sake. On shifts the mood inward. Minimal, sensual and spectral, it whispers rather than shouts, a study in restraint where silence becomes its own rhythm. Boy or Girl follows with playful seduction. Written years ago, it now resonates with new cultural meaning, exploring identity without ever naming it. “We didn’t want it to be political but it’s open for interpretation” — Daniel Ash said. The result is irresistible: teasing, tender, and slyly subversive. The A Listers turns satire into atmosphere, a smoky night song about vanity and self-performance, half smirk, half sigh. Plastic Fantastic, a song that sparkles with irony and sunlight, a tongue-in-cheek ode to our obsession with surfaces. Unexpectedly bright, buoyant and pop. Daniel Ash sings in the purest sense, not whispering, snarling or narrating. There’s warmth in the phrasing.
Then the light fades. Ice Queen is narrated. The song was recorded “drunk on vodka” is icy and somewhat cinematographic. It’s the sound of someone letting go while pretending not to. Setting Yourself Up to Love plays like a confession caught mid-transformation. What begins as mechanical and monochrome suddenly erupts into color, mirroring the lyric’s push and pull between desire and fear. “Many want love but bolt when it arrives” — Daniel Ash said — and here that tension blooms into melody. Alien Love steps fully into dream. It’s haunting and hypnotic, a slow-burn reverie that feels scary and tender. Its pulse sways like something suspended. It’s fantasy on the surface — a lone figure meeting a visitor from another world, but beneath the humor lies a deep yearning for connection untouched by cynicism. Champagne Charlie, a portrait of someone who seems to have it all while feeling nothing inside, it’s Daniel Ash at his most candid. The song glows with late-night melancholy, elegance cracked by truth. Finally, 2020 closes the album with beautiful grace, a requiem for isolation. “I actually loved the solitude” — Daniel Ash told us, “but I saw what the pandemic did to other people.” Its slow build feels like dawn after a long blackout, fragile, luminous, and cleansing.
Through it all, Bruce Smith’s intricate beats and Paul Denman’s fluid bass form the gravity that anchors Daniel Ash’s voice and guitar. There’s no hierarchy here — every element burns at the same intensity. That balance is what makes Are Forever such a rare achievement: warm, organic and alive. Co-mixed by Robert Stevenson, the sound breathes rather than gleams. At its core, Are Forever is an album about time, how it corrodes, renews, and ultimately reveals. It’s about second chances, and the courage to dismantle something beautiful in order to make it real. Sarcastic, sensual and soulful, it encapsulates three veterans daring to feel excited like teenagers again. Are Forever is an excellent album from start to finish. Highly recommended, go get your copy now!
⩺ INTERVIEW | HERE
__________________
Mandah FRÉNOT
(c) VMJ
TRACKLIST:
01. Hollywood
02. Teenage Robots
03. On a Rocka
04. On
05. Boy or Girl
06. The A Listers
07. Plastic fantastic
08. Ice Queen
09. Setting yourself up for love
10. Alien Love
11. Champagne Charlie
12. 2020

MUSIC VIDEOS:

PURCHASE:
Cleopatra Records | SHOP
⩺ OFFICIAL WEBSITE | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL FACEBOOK | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL INSTAGRAM | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL X (ex-TWITTER) | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL YOUTUBE | HERE

D'ERLANGER | Evermore (album)
2026-04-22
D’ERLANGER | Evermore (album)
RELEASE DATE: April 22nd (2026)
RECORD COMPANY: Warner Music Japan
D’ERLANGER have revealed the full details of Evermore, their eleventh studio album, due May 22nd — the 19th anniversary of the band’s reunion. The Deluxe Edition comes as a box set with a 24-page photo booklet and exclusive 16-page CD booklet. Its DVD features previously unreleased live footage from the fan club shows KIDS BLUE STANDING SPECIAL 2024 and 2025, both held at EX THEATER ROPPONGI on December 24th, including individual performance footage of all four members across three songs — 12 videos in total. The Standard Edition adds a bonus track — You’re gonna be the one that saves me — and its own exclusive 16-page booklet. All artwork across both editions was handled by drummer Tetsu. First-press purchase bonuses vary by retailer.
ARTWORK:

TRACKLIST:
01. undercover of darkness
02. Kiss My Blood
03. Roses blooming softly at nite
04. Mutinity In Heaven
05. C’est la vie
06. Shin’ai
07. You’re gonna be the one that saves me (※ bonus track)
08. RAIN
09. SPs＼E5th.mdnt
10.Umbrella
11. Wandering Star
Pre-orders are open now (click here).
Our exclusive interview with vocalist kyo is live now on VMJ (click here).

Mandah FRÉNOT
(c) VMJ
─────────────
⩺ OFFICIAL WEBSITE | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL X | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL FACEBOOK | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL YOUTUBE | HERE

Lucy | ROCKAROLLICA III (album)
2026-04-23
Lucy | ROCKAROLLICA III (album)
RELEASE DATE: April 23rd (2026)
RECORD COMPANY: Victor Entertainment

Lucy is back after 20 years of silence!
The powerhouse trio, featuring Hisashi Imai (BUCK-TICK), Kiyoshi (hide with Spread Beaver), and Katsushige Okazaki (M-AGE) has officially announced their long-awaited resurrection. The band is currently in the studio recording their third album, staying true to their signature sound. Fans can look forward to a Limited First Press Edition, which features a bonus disc with brand-new footage. A teaser video is already available on their official social media channels. The reunion features a new visual illustrated by Shou Tajima, the artist behind the manga Multiple Personality Detective Psycho. This is a special tribute to the band’s history, as their name was inspired by the character Lucy Monostone from Tajima’s work.
To celebrate the reunion, Lucy will re-release their first two albums, ROCKAROLLICA (2004) and ROCKAROLLICA II (2006), on April 10th, 2026. These limited reissues feature 2026 remastering and iconic Digipak artwork by designer Ken Sakaguchi; pre-orders are available now.
The band is also set to return to the stage with their first tour in two decades: Lucy Show 003 ～Shout, Speed, Shake Your Rockarollica～. The tour kicks off at SUPERNOVA KAWASAKI and concludes with a grand finale at EX THEATER ROPPONGI, spanning nine performances across eight cities in Japan from April 26 to May 24.
Further information will be added as it becomes available.
─────────────
Mandah FRÉNOT
(c) VMJ
⩺ OFFICIAL WEBSITE | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL INSTAGRAM | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL X (ex-TWITTER) | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | HERE

LUNA SEA | FOREVER (single)
2026-05-29
LUNA SEA | FOREVER (album)
RELEASE DATE: May 29th (2026)
When we covered LUNA SEA’s return to the stage at Ariake Arena last March, we closed by saying the band stood at the edge of winter — ready to flourish into spring. They didn’t waste any time. LUNA SEA have just announced FOREVER, their first new song in approximately 6 years, set for release on May 29th. The announcement was made tonight through a video message from each member of the band, on what happens to be a new moon. The release date aligns with the band’s formation anniversary and the opening night of their nationwide UNENDING JOURNEY -FOREVER– tour, which kicks off in Hadano, Kanagawa — Shinya’s hometown, where ROSIER and I for You remain embedded in the city’s train station melodies to this day.
The title will surprise no one who was paying attention at Ariake. Shinya’s final instruction to his bandmates — “No matter what happens, do NOT stop LUNA SEA” — set the terms. FOREVER is the band’s public answer to that charge, arriving on the day they were born, in the city that meant most to the brother they lost. The tour runs from May 29th through October 18th, covering 33 shows across 22 cities.

⩺ PURCHASE | HERE
─────────────
Mandah FRÉNOT
(c) VMJ
⩺ OFFICIAL WEBSITE | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL INSTAGRAM | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL X (ex-TWITTER) | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | HERE

D'ESPAIRSRAY @ B7KLAN J-ROCK FEST, Paris [FR] – July 12 (2026)
2026-06-12
D’ESPAIRSRAY will perform at the B7KLAN J-ROCK FEST on July 12, 2026, at the Arena Grand Paris in France. This marks their first European appearance since 2010 following their reunion. The festival celebrates B7Klan’s 20th anniversary.

— Event: B7KLAN J-ROCK FEST
— Date: 11 & 12 July 2026
— Location: Arena Grand Paris, France
— Performance: July 12, 2026
— Context: Part of the band’s reunion activities, including a new single “RAPTURE” and a 2026 Japanese tour.
⩺ EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | HERE
D’ESPAIRSRAY | D’ESPAIRSRAY has found the light on their way back home!

─────────────
⩺ OFFICIAL WEBSITE | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL INSTAGRAM | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL X (ex-TWITTER) | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | HERE

D’ESPAIRSRAY @ Coliseo, Santiago [CL] – Feb. 4th (2027)
2027-02-04
D’ESPAIRSRAY is taking their “REVENANT” World Tour to Latin America in early 2027. These shows are part of their dedicated world tour, marking their first-ever tour across Latin America. While the Paris B7KLAN event is a multi-band festival celebrating an anniversary, the Santiago and Mexico City stops are full live sets focused entirely on D’ESPAIRSRAY. These are the first international dates announced following their reunion.
— Tour: “REVENANT” World Tour
— Date: Feb. 4th 2027
— Location: Coliseo, Santiago (Chile)
— Ticket: www.puntoticket.com
⩺ EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | HERE

D’ESPAIRSRAY | D’ESPAIRSRAY has found the light on their way back home!

─────────────
⩺ OFFICIAL WEBSITE | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL INSTAGRAM | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL X (ex-TWITTER) | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | HERE

D’ESPAIRSRAY @ La Maraka, Mexico City [MX] – Feb. 7th (2027)
2027-02-07
D’ESPAIRSRAY is taking their “REVENANT” World Tour to Latin America in early 2027. These shows are part of their dedicated world tour, marking their first-ever tour across Latin America. While the Paris B7KLAN event is a multi-band festival celebrating an anniversary, the Santiago and Mexico City stops are full live sets focused entirely on D’ESPAIRSRAY. These are the first international dates announced following their reunion.
— Tour: “REVENANT” World Tour
— Date: Feb. 7th 2027
— Location: La Maraka, Mexico City (Mexico)
— Ticket: www.puntoticket.com
⩺ EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | HERE
D’ESPAIRSRAY | D’ESPAIRSRAY has found the light on their way back home!

─────────────
⩺ OFFICIAL WEBSITE | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL INSTAGRAM | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL X (ex-TWITTER) | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | HERE
