With appearances at RESURRECTION FEST and EVIL LIVE FESTIVAL, a world tour covering Europe, the US, China and Japan in 2024, and a return to Europe later in the same year it’s safe to say that JILUKA have managed to appeal to an audience outside of Japan. Earlier this year the band also supported LANDMVRKS in North America, and they’re currently on the 2025 version of their World Tour, where they will be visiting quite a few countries and festivals in Europe and continue the tour in Japan later during the year. Does this mean JILUKA will fill up this time elsewhere in the world? Perhaps, but I sadly don’t have any sneak peeks for you regarding that either…
In December of 2023 V already took you on a journey through the band’s then most recent music video for their song “VENΦM”, and I admit that I have been itching to take you through their newest music video: “KVLT”.
And to be honest, I’ve been wanting to take you on this adventure for a while, but some housekeeping first: as you might know by now I really, really like to have the lyrics for these types of articles. Unfortunately, with “KVLT” the lyrics have not been released, despite the song being revealed on YouTube on February 7 already. Which means that this review is done entirely by ear, and there might be some inaccuracies for that reason. Sorry about that!
Since “KVLT” is released as a one-song-single and a music video, I’m also going to treat this as a music video review primarily, where we look at both the song itself and the video for it.
Are you ready to join this (fxxkin’) cult? Then let’s go!
Who’s your god?
“KVLT” is the 5th installment in JILUKA’s EGM style, following “S4VAGE” as not just the next single, but also the next music video. Which means that every song in this concept has a music video to accompany it.
If you’ve been following along with JILUKA’s evolution recently you’ve probably heard the term ‘EGM’ being thrown around as a description of the band’s style, but what does this term mean exactly? EGM stands for Electro Gothic Metal, and is a combination of everything that JILUKA has been since their formation, except all are incorporated into one song rather than a song that is more electro or gothic and combined with metal. This is why you hear a clear difference between their earlier releases and everything following the first EGM-song “BLVCK”.
“KVLT” is no exception to this rule, as it makes use of the same type of vocals for RICKO, allowing him to use his regular (but powerful) singing voice, but also more than enough room for his scream vocals – sometimes even layered where you hear his scream voice behind his regular voice. Their instrumental sound doesn’t favor one instrument above the others, which is a welcome surprise considering SENA’s guitar skills do have their moments, and the same can be said about his rap-skills. These rap-vocals are incorporated in a way that actually compliment the style with a feature element rather than take away from it, something we also saw in their previous EGM songs. BOOGIE’s bass is both prominent and supporting, often mixing extremely well with the drums provided by ZYEAN – creating for a fast-paced, heavy song in which JILUKA solidifies something that we’ve already seen happening overseas: they’re creating their very own ‘cult’ through their music.
For as far as I can tell there is no story in these lyrics, but this wasn’t the case for the previous EGM songs either – and frankly, not every song needs to have or be part of a story in order to be enjoyable. In JILUKA’s case the entertainment value is mostly determined by their sound and visuals, “KVLT” again not being an exception to this rule.
If you’ve enjoyed “BLVCK”, “OVERKILL”, “VENΦM” and “S4VAGE”, you will undoubtedly enjoy “KVLT” as well. The one question that’s buzzing around is about the group’s full EGM-album: will every song be a fast-paced powerhouse like we’ve seen up until now? If I’m entirely honest: I kind of hope it is, because the style of their live shows are the same: they’re fast, they’re powerful, they don’t give you time to rest from the second their set begins, and that is absolutely the ‘magic’ of their live performances. While the group is entertaining through their music videos and songs alone, their live show brings these songs to life in a way you can only experience on a stage – regardless of this is in a concert hall or a festival stage.
The music video itself pulls in a lot of the ‘gothic’ aspect in JILUKA’s EGM concept, at least in it’s visual performance. This isn’t entirely surprising given the title and subject of the song, since the gothic style often incorporates religion and the architectural style carrying the same name. A lot of the video is created with special effects and digital aspects, but the parts that aren’t show the band in a warehouse setting where they perform the song, occasionally surrounded by members of their cult.
While there is no real ‘story’ to be found in the lyrics, you can pull some elements from the visuals, but here the story isn’t the first thing you’ll gather from the visuals either. When it comes down to it, the music video is still a ‘band performs song’-type of video, but it’s mixed with so many other shots that it’s not boring to look at. (It just means that I can’t tell you very much about it, unfortunately!)
At the time this article is published, JILUKA is in the middle of the European leg of their 2025 World Tour, so there is still a chance to catch the group live and experience their EGM concept for yourself. Because trust me, it will resonate through you during a live.
For more information about their 2025 World Tour, please refer to our news article about it, here.
More about JILUKA
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雪 (Yuki) is the owner and driving force behind Arlequin.
She originally started the project in 2009 as a photographer under the name of Arlequin Photography, but developed an interest in journalism and translation ever since. Because of these interests interviews and reviews were added to the project, until it eventually hit the limits as a "photographer" in 2021, and Arlequin Magazine was added to the mix.
雪 (Yuki) is a native Dutch speaker with a graphic design degree, which means she is also the main person behind Arlequin Creations.
After all these years, she's still the one responsible for the interviews and most of the live photography you see here at Arlequin, but the majority of reviews and behind-the-scenes work is also done by her.
The reviews she writes are from the viewing point of an overseas fan, and thus written in English before being translated to Dutch, Spanish and Japanese. In the English versions she also tries to explain the meaning behind certain kanji or song titles to the readers, but what you don't see here is that these explanations are omitted in the Japanese versions in order to appeal to these readers more.
She speaks Dutch and English on a native level, but also understands Japanese and German.