COLDRAIN Announces New Album 'Optimize = Optdemise', Releases 'Ex-Humanity' Single

Nagoya, Japan-based alt-metal quintet COLDRAIN makes its global return with the long-awaited eighth full-length album, "Optimize = Optdemise", set for release on September 25, 2026 via Century Media Records. The album announcement is paired with the release of their new single "Ex-Humanity", which marks the sixth track unveiled from the upcoming album and the band's first new song since the release of the "Optimize" EP in October 2025. The EP includes the band's prior single releases "Incomplete", "Chasing Shadows" and "Free Fall", all of which will also be featured on the forthcoming album.

COLDRAIN vocalist Masato comments: "'Ex-Humanity' is a song built on contrast. Musically, it's energetic, powerful and alive. Lyrically, it's intentionally simple, static and full of despair. That contrast reflects the tension between what it means to be human and what we could become if we lose the things that make us who we are. Is this song a cry for hope or a requiem for humanity. My hope is it will not be the latter."

"Optimize = Optdemise" track listing:

01. Optimize
02. Chasing Shadows
03. Digitoll
04. Incomplete
05. Free Fall
06. Ex-Humanity
07. Rest Of Me
08. Poison (feat. Bert McCracken)
09. G.I.A.I.G
10. Sing
11. Picture Perfect Hell
12. Savior (feat. Kenta Koie)

Last month, COLDRAIN announced the "Optimize = Optdemise Japan Tour", set to take place from October to December 2026. Additionally, the band has been confirmed as one of the support acts for ELECTRIC CALLBOY's "Tanzneid World Tour" tour in Australia for September 2026, alongside ICE NINE KILLS. The band will also play at various festivals across Japan this summer.

The title "Optimize = Optdemise" is itself a warning: a caution against a world in which the rise of A.I. has come to symbolize humanity's growing confusion over what it means to be human. More than a framework of "against A.I." or "against technology," this album calls for the liberation of the soul in response to a world that is steadily being bleached of color, and to the brutality of people who, having stopped thinking for themselves, continue to hurt one another. That is the reason COLDRAIN continues to fight. And "Optimize = Optdemise" is the album where that essence appears more youthful, pure, and unfiltered than ever before - a human fuse burning toward ignition.

COLDRAIN, the quintet that is about to release its eighth album, first emerged in Japan in 2007, proudly identifying themselves as a "loud rock" band. Their songwriting, heavily influenced by the nu-metal and emo/screamo movements of the 2000s, resonated directly with the youth culture of America at the time. Yet in the Japanese rock scene of that era, "loud music" was still largely associated with melodic punk and pop-punk. As a result of that advance, COLDRAIN absorbed musical elements far beyond nu-metal and screamo alone. While maintaining melodies that carried a distinctly Japanese sense of emotion, they transformed into a chimera capable of crossing through every sub-genre of rock. Their ability to be both heavy and endlessly pop became their greatest weapon.

Now, especially since joining forces with Century Media Records, the very fact that their music cannot be defined by a single attribute — and the very "in-between" quality of their style — has become a musical identity unconstrained by borders or genres, radiating an originality that stands among the strongest in the world.

COLDRAIN is a band whose lives were changed by music that could never have been born in Japan, and yet they themselves are a hybrid that could only have emerged from the Galápagos-like environment of Japan. That is COLDRAIN. Rather than needing to acquire a new place, COLDRAIN were able to turn simply "being themselves" into music in its most unfiltered form. As a result, "Optimize = Optdemise" is pierced throughout by a youthful rawness that feels almost impossible for a band nearing twenty years since its formation.

COLDRAIN is:

Masato - vocals
Y.K.C - guitars
Sugi - guitar
RxYxO - bass
Katsuma - drums

Photo credit: Maciej Kucia