For more than a decade, Kenta Koie was one of the Japanese frontmen European festival crowds were most likely to have seen. Then his band stopped. What he did next says a good deal about him.
The Festival Years
Crossfaith formed in Osaka in 2006, with Koie on vocals. The EP The Artificial Theory for the Dramatic Beauty came in 2009, and five albums followed: The Dream, the Space (2011), Apocalyze (2013), Xeno (2015), Ex Machina (2018) and Ark (2024).
The touring record is the part few Japanese bands can match. Warped Tour in the UK in 2012 and in the United States in 2013 and 2015. Reading and Leeds in 2013, 2014 and 2016. Soundwave in Australia. Download and Rock am Ring in 2014. Tours with Enter Shikari, Architects, Bring Me The Horizon and While She Sleeps. Our longer piece on how an Osaka band won over British festival stages is here.
The Stop
In the summer of 2025, after dismissing its guitarist, Crossfaith suspended its activities. The band later made the pause indefinite, saying it needed time to reconsider how it should exist as a band.
AFTERVOID
On 8 February 2026, Koie announced a solo project, AFTERVOID, introduced with the track “RUNNING AWAY (Destruction Test Remix).” Coverage of the launch described it as hard techno colliding with metal, with his voice and screams at the centre. Electronics were always half of Crossfaith’s identity, so the direction is not a surprise.
The day before the announcement, he had been on stage at coldrain’s BLARE FEST in Nagoya, joining ONE OK ROCK and MAH of SiM for “Skyfall.”
The year filled in from there. AFTERVOID was on the bill of FRONTLINE FESTIVAL on 29 August 2026. And when coldrain released OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMISE on 25 September 2026, Koie was one of its guest vocalists.
Why It Matters
A frontman whose band goes quiet has an easy option, which is to wait. Koie put out music under a new name within months and went back to playing other people’s festivals. His friends kept the door open, and he walked through it.
Start with Apocalyze and Xeno, then look up AFTERVOID.
