The Session Vol.2

The Session Vol.2 is a five-track CD that ASTERISM released through Tokuma Japan Communications on 24 January 2018, under the catalogue number TKCA-74565. The band now counts it as its second EP; the announcement on its website on the day of release called it the "2nd 5TRACKS ALBUM" and described it as a mini-album. It is the companion to The Session Vol.1 of November 2017, and the band said that with the two records its "real debut" was complete. As on the first volume, the players are HAL-CA on guitar, MIYU on bass and MIO on drums. The originals, "Rising Moon" and "YUNAGI", which the band called two of its signature pieces, open and close the record. Between them come three covers: Rage Against the Machine's "Guerrilla Radio", Rush's "YYZ" and Motörhead's "Ace of Spades", a choice the Japanese magazine Gekirock described as spanning rap metal, progressive rock and rock and roll. "Guerrilla Radio" features the guest singer Maki Oyama, credited in the title as "Guerrilla Radio feat.Maki Oyama", and it was the first song with a vocal in the catalogue of a band that had worked as an instrumental group. The music video for "Rising Moon" appeared on 17 January, a week before the release, and a mini concert and signing session for both volumes was announced for 20 January at Canal City Hakata in Fukuoka. According to the band's chronology, the same month it began broadcasting on Facebook Live, and in April it started a studio-live project called BATTLE SESSION. The song came back in August 2018: buyers of the first full album, IGNITION, on iTunes received an instrumental version titled "Guerilla Radio (out set Ver.)" as a bonus.