What happens when you take all the classic death metal, metalcore, tech metal, and other genres from the early 2000s and cram them into a 2021 idol song? You get Kosame and her first single, Cord.

Much like Miho in the last post, Kosame is produced and manged by former From A Second Story Window guitarist, Derek Vasconi. But unlike, Miho’s song, Doubt, Cord has a ton of influence from Vasconi’s previous work.

Cord is fantastic mix of heavy breakdowns, blast beats, melodic elements, and a whole slew of other musical elements slammed into a perfect 4 min and 26 second package.

The song starts out with an incredibly nostalgic set of fast guitars, heavy drums, and low growls from Kosame. A throw back to MySpace days of death metal. Where you would trick your friends to coming to your page and blast them with the music of the damned. It perfectly captures that element of “this is me, and this is my statement, deal with it.”

The song doesn’t let up after that, assaulting the ears of listener with intense blast beasts, and haphazard guitar playing extremely reminiscent of From A Second Story Window. Vasconi’s influence is strong with this one.

Kosame and her song don’t stop the siege until about halfway through the piece where it shifts into a more melodic affair after Kosame lets a growl ring out for an absurd amount of time. It is at this time you being to understand what she is talking about. What the song’s lyrical purpose is. And it’s not happy.

This is not an idol song. This is not a death metal song. This is Kosame.

Cord is about being depressed, having suicidal thoughts, and thinking about using the titular object as a noose. This song was completely written by Kosame, and it chronicles a part of her life where she lived in a state of constant depression. Kosame has not had an easy life, and she leaves it all in the lyrics for people to read.

Unlike most Japanese idol songs, this song is not in her native language. It is entirely in English. Even though Miho’s song contained some English, Kosame’s song was written purposefully to allow as many people to understand it. She wants people to understand her as a person. This isn’t your otaku’s idol song.

Kosame isn’t the first person to create an idol song with depressing lyrics. Minna no Kodomo-chan’s lyrics (to name one group), which are mostly written by current member and only member Cinnamon, are also quite depressing. However, there is a fine line between writing lyrics that sound depressing, and writing lyrics that come from the heart. Kosame writes from the heart.

There is something that needs to be made clear about Cord. This is not an idol song. This is not a death metal song. This is Kosame. And Kosame is set on doing things completely different than any person in the industry. There have been other groups, past and present, to do things that are close to Kosame’s work. Candye Syrup comes to mind immediately. But the difference between them and Kosame is that Kosame’s music isn’t intentionally made to be an idol song with death metal elements. It’s has almost no noticeable idol moments. It’s the perfect amalgamation of everything that it needs to be for her in this moment.

What needs to be understood about the Japanese music world is that they are almost in every case are behind. This is especially true with idol music, making them even further behind. There are some groups here and there that catch a whiff of some mainstream metal groups and decide to mimic that, but it’s never the same and always end up sounding like poor imitations. With the help of Vasconi, the idol world is about to be brought up a few years in music and get a glimpse of the future. Cord is just the beginning.

While this is the only released recorded song, Kosame has a few other songs that currently can only be seen live. Her other songs are equally intense, and play with genres more so than Cord. There are breakdowns that are heavier, blast beats that are more intense, and even quick rap sections. Kosame’s music is all over the place in the best way possible.

You can see a past live show of hers here. All of Miho and Kosame’s live events are either streamed or recorded by Vasconi himself. Unlike other idols, Vasconi’s intent is to make them as international as possible.

Kosame can only grow up from here. Her other songs are in a lot of ways better than Cord, and only time will tell when they get released.

You can purchase Kosame’s merchandise from Idol Underworld.