ASTERISM Teams Up with Acky Bright for New Concept Album

Instrumental metal band ASTERISM and manga artist Acky Bright recently joined forces to create a new concept album.

Released digitally on May 22nd, PLANET OF METAL is a collaboration born from the artists' friendship, which began at last year's Anime Expo in Los Angeles. The seven-song album is said to take fans on a journey through a fantasy world that only they could create.

After meeting last year in L.A., the artists were determined to find a way to combine their approaches and immediately started talking about ideas. Bright created the concept and characters to match the young band's energy and aggressive musical style.

The story is described as follows:

"In PLANET OF METAL, at the edge of the galaxy, a horrific curse spreads across the planet, causing creatures to become violent. ASTERISM journeys to find the mysterious mechanical skull at the source of the curse, aided by Zom-chan, a zombie-like companion with a dark secret. ASTERISM battles the forces controlled by the Mecha-Skull — ninjas, a giant squid, an army of zombies, and a giant metal dragon — before their final, epic battle to restore the soul of metal."

Inspired by the visual designs, ASTERISM aimed to bring the story to life through music. Finally, Bright used the power of the songs to create the album jacket and a 28-page book of artwork to complete the project.

Links to download and stream the album on Spotify, Apple Music and other music platforms are available here. 

The deluxe artbook edition of the album will be released on June 26th. It can be pre-ordered here. 

In addition, a series of limited edition goods featuring this project will be produced. The first two items are a T-shirt featuring the Mecha-Skull, a key character of the story, and a sticker set, including the exclusive project logo, cover art, etc. Both will be available in limited quantities at ASTERISM's performance at FOX_FEST in Japan on May 25th. These items will also be available for overseas fans via this special website. 

ASTERISM and Acky Bright will also team up to promote PLANET OF METAL ("POM") with a weekly Instagram live show co-hosted by Bright and ASTERISM guitarist/vocalist HAL-CA. The "POM POM PLAY" live show will feature music performances and live drawing sessions, with English translation for international fans. Fans can follow Bright on Instagram hereand HAL-CA here.

ASTERISM commented:

"PLANET OF METAL is an unprecedented project that uses both music and art to create a story where you fight six enemies! We took on the challenge of composing each song with the feeling of defeating each enemy, but as we approached the final boss, the hurdles to composing the songs rose, and we truly became the characters created by Acky. Please enjoy the unique collaboration between ASTERISM and Acky Bright!"

Acky Bright commented:

"This album was created through a session format in which music and art are created simultaneously. It was a very exciting time to collaborate with the overwhelming talent of ASTERISM. As a result, we've created a large-scale work that represents our visions as artists who are active on the world stage, At the same time, it's become a metaphor for us as we continue to challenge the world."

Stream PLANET OF METAL on Spotify: