This post was, uh, supposed to run on Saturday, and then through some mechanical error on my part did not run on Saturday. So instead let’s do it when it’s convenient!
I love having Erisu in a permanent state of notification on my phone. Because they don’t do 20 lives per week, every announcement has some actual heft to it, and you’re goddamn right I was stoked when they started their last most recent countdown. The reward was this latest EP, continuing on their theme of alien goddesses come to earth, which is capped by:
I wish more idols had the sheer gusto of Erisu. They’ve been officially a thing for six? seven months? And yeah, a lot of new units pump out a lot of content early to build a fan base, and then from there I presume that the business logic is to spend judiciously, release strategically and hold on for dear life as the consecutive percussive waves of flavors of the month roll on and on toward the little niche of recognition you built for yourself. But isn’t Erisu in an interesting position? Based in Italy, under absolutely none of the same kind of performance pressure of every other idol unit in existence, and as true a passion project as you’re going to find, they get to do what they want how they want and when they want, and damn if they don’t do it well.
The announcement of the new EP with the kind of prog-or-Fall-Out-Boy title that I love hasn’t even been out all that long, I don’t think, but I knew that I didn’t want to miss the drop. And I was right! You don’t either. This is taking your “idols have a concept” concept and running it to absolute exhaustion. If you’re gonna go, kids, go hard:
Sorry Erisu! I had meant to do more with this much sooner, but here we are, the week is almost out and I haven’t said a blessed thing about your new single. So: Everybody, guess what, Erisu has a new single out! And apparently declared war on some underling of Brian’s!
Yes. I’m in deep like with traditional heavy metal of late, and I always like proggy stuff, so please do mass produce this at a slightly more intense pace than the ‘rona vaccines and inject all of it directly into my veins. I don’t know if you all are familiar with just-barely-pre-metal band called Coven, but I feel a lot of similarities between the two, all deep, murky, clearly esoteric and mysterious hard rock/metal … well, Coven did have a woman singing, but she notably only did cleans, the coward. Continue reading →
We got ourselves the first ERISU MV! That was pretty welcome news yesterday, seeing as how the combination of stress and a hangover meant that nothing else was being done or paid attention to. Quite a remedy to get, as the first couple of glimpses into the world of our first esoterica-themed Italy-based multinational idol group demonstrated. It’s genuinely been cool to have such a unit come along, bringing with them a cultural collision that pulls off being idol as the day is long (as far as we know) and boasting a musical approach that can only work in the medium of idol, something eminently dark but also accessible, with all the elements of a Coven album that has enough pop sensibility for broad appeal. It’s like the soundtrack of a very fun but very literal black sabbath!
Well folks, I think that just about everybody in the Western idol scene was aware of and at least somewhat invested in the debut of ERISU, originally timed for the Monster of Dolls show that is now skipping into the far future on account of the *waves hand* you know. I was definitely pleased that the group decided to go ahead with debut proceedings, anyway, because even if you can’t do the thing you want to do the way you wanted to do it, oftentimes the only thing keeping you from doing it at all is yourself, and that person is a jerk. But yeah, that first single was definitely worth it, and it was hard to ignore the group’s theme rooted in spooky and esoteric things AND their lovely sound reflecting the same, and not draw an immediate parallel to October/Halloween. For me, the big question was how surely they’d stick to that, followed only by when they’d prove it by releasing something else.
Listen to that! I love when idols deliberately recall other things that I like — in this case, I’m transported to the glory days of AFI, by which I mean that AFI that went gothy before somebody convinced Davey that he needed to be some kind of actual rock star and they did that regrettable more emo turn and anyway I’m bitter, leave me alone. Yeah, kind of like that era of AFI, except obviously with the crucial idol overtones, and all the flexibility to do basically whatever they want in other elements of the song, so after making a final tally of all of this I think we’re left with something like “the glory days of AFI if they also did a darkwave remix except with idols” which I have to tell you kicks a good amount of ass.
Really great start from our multilingual Italian-based upstarts. May they please please please never step too far away from this murky, misty esoterica theme, and may they grace us with another single in two weeks’ time, perfectly set up for Halloween and their live event.
Well, if you’ve looked at Brian’s latest newest or are merely the average Western wota with a Twitter account, the cat for this one is already somewhat out of the bag. Hell, the idols in question have already appeared in multiple Weekenders for their buildup. Be that as it may, we follow processes here at Homicidols HQ, for what is success if not forged in brutally enforced order to smite the chthonic chaos demons that would misuse our otherwise idle hands, and as such I am contractually obligated to share with you idols according to a rote formula. So:
Hey, you guys may have heard of this exciting-if-not-mysterious new group ERISU, right? Well get a listen to this! Continue reading →
