The first album by VALKYRIE ZERO has nine songs. Not one of them is mid-tempo. That is the band’s argument in a sentence.

Before the Zero

The story starts with an earlier band, VALKYRIE. It released an album, VALKYRIE RISING, in 2018, and opened in Japan for two well-travelled thrash bands from abroad: Nervosa, from Brazil, and Legion of the Damned, from the Netherlands.

Then came 2020. Activity stalled during the pandemic, and the band effectively came to an end.

The Restart

VALKYRIE ZERO was put together in 2023 from what was left. Aya Ozeki, who sings and plays guitar, and the guitarist MIHO had begun writing songs for a new band. SHUKO, the drummer from VALKYRIE, joined them.

The fourth member came from further out. COR had been the central figure in a death metal band called PASHT, and is a guitarist by trade. In VALKYRIE ZERO, COR plays bass.

The band is based in Osaka. The members come from Osaka, Aichi and Wakayama.

The Sound

VALKYRIE ZERO plays thrash metal the old way. One Japanese retailer described the band as sounding as if it had been reincarnated from the 1980s, at a time when many thrash bands have changed course.

The influences the members name bear that out. MIHO lists Randy Rhoads and Kerry King. SHUKO lists Dave Lombardo. COR’s list runs from Jimmy Page and Dave Mustaine to far more extreme territory.

The Records

ATTACK OF VALKYRIE came out on 28 June 2023 on Slumber Records. All nine songs are played at speed, and the Japanese metal magazine BURRN! praised the band’s attitude as refreshingly direct.

A self-titled mini-album followed on 16 April 2025, promoted as faster and sharper again.

A second full album, LAST WAY FORWARD, was announced for 28 October 2026. It has ten songs, eight of them new.

Why It Matters

Thrash is forty years old, and plenty of bands treat it as a costume. VALKYRIE ZERO treats it as a discipline: pick the fastest version of the idea and commit to it.

Its drummer once described leaving her previous band as her biggest mistake, and this lineup as her best memory. The second half of that sentence is why the band exists.

Start with ATTACK OF VALKYRIE.