Animetic

In April 2022 ASTERISM moved its base from Fukuoka, its home ground, to Tokyo and relaunched itself after the pandemic. On 15 May that year the trio announced Animetic, a concept album that plays anime theme songs as its own instrumental metal, with a new artist photo, logo and website the same day. Asterhythm Music released the album worldwide as a download and stream on 9 September 2022; no CD was made at the time. The members picked the nine songs themselves from anime themes of the 2000s onward. Seven are opening themes: 「廻廻奇譚」 by Eve from Jujutsu Kaisen (2020), "unravel" by TK from Ling tosite sigure from Tokyo Ghoul (2014), 「空に歌えば」 by amazarashi (2017) and 「ポラリス」 by BLUE ENCOUNT (2019), both from My Hero Academia, 「狂乱 Hey Kids!!」 by THE ORAL CIGARETTES from Noragami ARAGOTO (2015), 「シルエット」 by KANA-BOON from Naruto: Shippūden (2014), and "asphyxia" by Cö shu Nie from Tokyo Ghoul:re (2018). The other two are ending themes: 「君の知らない物語」 by supercell from Bakemonogatari (2009) and "Next 2 U -eUC-" by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:naNami from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 (2016). These were the band's first anime-song covers. HAL-CA said making the demos showed how hard covering is but opened new possibilities, and MIO said the choice of songs, the arrangements and the playing carried more of the band's own colour and freedom than ever. Four tracks came out singly ahead of the album, each with a music video: 「廻廻奇譚」 on 22 May, "unravel" on 17 June, 「狂乱 Hey Kids!!」 on 15 July and 「シルエット」 on 19 August. In September the band played one-man shows in Tokyo and Fukuoka under the title "Animetic" Release Tour 2022 ~After Recording~, and streamed a one-man show for the first time. On 7 October a video appeared in which the Norwegian singer PelleK sings over the finished ASTERISM version of "unravel", and on 9 December the band and PelleK released the digital single 「一途 / unravel」. Those two songs joined the nine covers on the album's first CD, Animetic+p, released on 28 June 2023.