A long time in the making: After dropping their digital EP “OPTIMIZE” October 25th, 2025, Japanese rock quintet coldrain have released their long-anticipated 8th full length album “OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMISE”. Spanning 12 tracks, the album sees the band seamlessly navigate the line between rock and metal, powered by their trademark sound and electrifying energy. Guest features from Bert McCracken (The Used) and Kenta Koie (Crossfaith, Aftervoid) add further depth, resulting in a record that feels fresh, ambitious, and captivating throughout. The album includes the band’s prior single releases “INCOMPLETE”, “CHASING SHADOWS”, and “FREE FALL”, and “EX-HUMANITY”, and “POISON”.
BUY/STREAM THE NEW ALBUM HERE
WATCH THE ALBUM TRAILER Below:
coldrain announced their “OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMISE JAPAN TOUR”, which will be happening from October to December 2026. All dates and further info here: https://coldrain.jp/blogs/live
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- OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMISE JAPAN TOUR 2026 -
06.10.2026 - Japan, Kawasaki: CLUB CITTA'
10.10.2026 - Japan, Hiroshima: BLUE LIVE HIROSHIMA
17.10.2026 - Japan, Fukuoka: UNITED LAB
21.10.2026 - Japan, Sapporo: PENNY LANE24
22.10.2026 - Japan, Sapporo: PENNY LANE24
01.11.2026 - Japan, Kanazawa: EIGHT HALL
03.11.2026 - Japan, Niigata: NIIGATA LOTS
29.11.2026 - Japan, Sendai: SENDAI GIGS
01.12.2026 - Japan, Osaka: NAMBA HATCH
02.12.2026 - Japan, Nagoya: COMTEC PORTBASE
08.12.2026 - Japan, Tokyo: TOYOSU PIT
09.12.2026 - Japan, Tokyo: TOYOSU PIT
Credit: Yusuke Yamatani
ABOUT COLDRAIN:
The title OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMISE is itself a warning: a caution against a world in which the rise of AI has come to symbolize humanity’s growing confusion over what it means to be human. More than a framework of “against AI” or “against technology,” this album calls for the liberation of the soul in response to a world that is steadily being bleached of color, and to the brutality of people who, having stopped thinking for themselves, continue to hurt one another. That is the reason coldrain continues to fight. And OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMISE is the album where that essence appears more youthful, pure, and unfiltered than ever before - a human fuse burning toward ignition.
Coldrain, the quintet that is about to release their 8th album, first emerged in Japan in 2007, proudly identifying themselves as a “loud rock” band. Their songwriting, heavily influenced by the nu-metal and emo/screamo movements of the 2000s, resonated directly with the youth culture of America at the time. Yet in the Japanese rock scene of that era, “loud music” was still largely associated with melodic punk and pop-punk. As a result of that advance, coldrain absorbed musical elements far beyond nu-metal and screamo alone. While maintaining melodies that carried a distinctly Japanese sense of emotion, they transformed into a chimera capable of crossing through every subgenre of rock. Their ability to be both heavy and endlessly pop became their greatest weapon.
Now, especially since joining forces with Century Media Records, the very fact that their music cannot be defined by a single attribute - and the very “in-between” quality of their style - has become a musical identity unconstrained by borders or genres, radiating an originality that stands among the strongest in the world.
coldrain are a band whose lives were changed by music that could never have been born in Japan, and yet they themselves are a hybrid that could only have emerged from the Galápagos-like environment of Japan. That is coldrain. Rather than needing to acquire a new place, coldrain were able to turn simply “being themselves” into music in its most unfiltered form. As a result, OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMISE is pierced throughout by a youthful rawness that feels almost impossible for a band nearing twenty years since its formation.