HOME / NEWS / Zilqy Release Their First Full-Length Album Birth of Riot On October 7 — An Eight-Date Japan Tour Opens October 11

Zilqy Release Their First Full-Length Album Birth of Riot On October 7 — An Eight-Date Japan Tour Opens October 11

· METAL BOOST Editorial

Zilqy's first full-length album, Birth of Riot, is out on Wednesday, October 7. It follows their first EP, Vacant Throne, from November 2025, and holds ten songs, among them the advance tracks "World's End", "CAVEAT" and "RUN"; vocalist Anna wrote every lyric. On October 6 Rolling Stone Japan published a long interview in which Anna talks through the album, and Tower Records began handing out special receipts and showing panel exhibitions the same day. On October 11 an eight-date Japan tour carrying the album's title, Birth of Riot, opens at Kashiwa PALOOZA in Chiba.

Ten songs, mixed and mastered by Lance Prenc

The ten songs are "From Zero to One", "World's End", "RUN", "Psycho", "CAVEAT", "Caught in the Web", "Other Side of the Moon", "Misfit Toys", "Grotesque Noblesse" and "Crimson". Guitarist Toki, bassist Miho and drummer Kano brought motifs and ideas for the songs, and Anna shaped each one's world through its lyric and vocal melody. Toshi-Fj and MACKY, who worked on the EP, return as co-writers, joined this time by rui (fade), who co-wrote "Grotesque Noblesse" and "Crimson". Lance Prenc of Prenc Audio mixed and mastered the album, as he did the EP.

The official introduction describes a sound meant to be heavy and universal at once: the weight of modern metal's riffs and breakdowns, with synthesizers and melodies that stay in the head laid on top. The band calls the result "post-melodic nu metal".

It comes in two editions. The limited edition (DCCA-182, 8,800 yen incl. tax) has an LP-sized sleeve and a 24-page booklet and is sold only through MAVERICK STORE. The standard edition (DCCA-183, 3,630 yen incl. tax) carries a different bonus at each shop: a random postcard from four solo photos at Tower Records, a group-photo postcard at HMV, a random bromide from five designs at disk union and a mini sticker at Amazon. MAVERICK STORE adds a band-logo sticker and, with the standard edition only, entry to an online event whose details are still to be announced.

Anna on what the title means

In a long interview published by Rolling Stone Japan's website on October 6, Anna, who wrote all of the album's lyrics, talks through the title and each of the ten songs.

According to the interview, the title was chosen with the upheavals that swept the world in the 1960s and '70s, and Japan's student movement, in mind. Taken literally it means the birth of a riot, but Anna explains that the point is not violence: it is letting out feelings people tend to keep pressed down inside. She also describes the anxiety about the state of the world she felt while writing in the first half of 2026, including the Doomsday Clock being set at 85 seconds at the start of the year.

The rest of the band left the lyrics entirely to her, she says, and Zilqy is the first band in which she has written them. She explains that "RUN" and "Misfit Toys" are addressed to people who do not fit in with those around them, and that "CAVEAT" carries her unease with a society that puts efficiency and convenience first.

Signings at three Tower Records stores

Three Tower Records stores hold signing events to mark the standard edition's release. On Saturday, November 7 the band sign CD sleeves in the 9th-floor event space at Tower Records Shinjuku from 18:00 (gather at 17:45); on Sunday, November 8 they sign fans' own items in the 5th-floor event space at Tower Records Shibuya from 15:15 (gather at 15:00); and on Sunday, November 29 they sign CD sleeves in the in-store event space at Tower Records Umeda NU Chayamachi from 18:30 (gather at 18:15). The members wear the outfits of their artist photos in Shibuya and their own clothes in Shinjuku and Umeda. Tower Records' update of October 1 moved the Shinjuku and Shibuya start times from those first announced.

An entry ticket comes with each copy of the standard edition bought at one of the three stores, first come, first served, with reservations taking priority, and it admits its holder to that store's event only.

From October 6 to 18, Tower Records stores hand out a special receipt printed with a handwritten message from the members (some stores excepted). Customers who order from Tower Records Online by October 18 and receive the album by October 21 get access to an image with a handwritten message at 17:00 on October 23. Tower Records Shibuya, Shinjuku and Abeno Hoop show panel exhibitions until October 12 (as planned), with a draw for the displayed panels among buyers.

The tour opens in Kashiwa on October 11 and ends at Zepp Shinjuku on December 16

The Japan tour carrying the album's title, Birth of Riot, runs to eight dates: Kashiwa PALOOZA in Chiba on Sunday, October 11; Sendai LIVE & CLUB MACANA in Miyagi on Monday, October 12, a public holiday; Kobe VARIT. in Hyogo on Saturday, October 24; Nagoya ell. FITS ALL in Aichi on Sunday, October 25; Fukuoka INSA on Saturday, November 14 and Sunday, November 15; OSAKA MUSE in Osaka on Saturday, November 28; and a final at Zepp Shinjuku (TOKYO) on Wednesday, December 16.

Zepp Shinjuku starts at 19:00 with doors at 18:00; the other seven shows start at 18:00, with doors at 17:00 in Kashiwa and 17:30 elsewhere. Tickets are on general sale through eplus.

Magazines and television ahead of the release

The run-up to the release has kept the band in print. On October 2 rockinon.com carried a solo interview with Anna; Ongaku to Hito, out October 5, ran another solo interview with her together with new photographs; and WeROCK 115, out October 15, puts Zilqy on its cover with a 38-page lead feature that includes a section on the album.

Their appearance on J-MELO, NHK WORLD-JAPAN's music programme, which aired on October 4 and 5, is on the programme's site with the members' interview and live performance.

Sources