EP REVIEW: PARASITE DREAM BY PROMPTS
Reviewed by Cecilia Pattison-Levi
Release date 16 June 2026
The Japanese/Korean metalcore band Prompts has recorded this new Extended Player (EP) ‘Parasite Dream’. It is great to hear the vocalist P.K., that we all saw play with Crystal Lake on their Australian tour, deliver this new music with his own band. Prompts consists of P.K. (vocals), Ryuki Matsuno (guitar), Piguri (bass/vocals), Yasui (guitar), and Heaven (drums). The EP leans into Prompts brutal metalcore sound: featuring heavy, down-tuned chugging guitars, explosive percussion and drums with some surprises. With band members hailing from both Japan and South Korea, Prompts’ cultural and musical influences blend to create a distinctive sound.
The EP starts with some electronic and guitar strings pulsing out a beat as ‘Sun Eater’ explodes with heavy vocal fry and huge guitars. The song turns up the heavy beat, with Piguri’s machine gun bass and Heaven’s drumming underpinning the band’s blend of genres as the melodic singing where the lyricism is clear, heavy metal guitars, and subtle electronics with samples play out. The heavy vocals and the dreamy metalcore break in the song with those beautiful atmospheric vocals and heavy drums will leave you gasping for air. The following song ‘Edgerunner’ is heavier, almost screamcore, in its brutal start. The drums and skilled guitar rule here as the vocals give oxygen to rage.
Then, ‘Drowning’ has a great alternative rock beginning before the heavy guitar riffs, and huge vocals from P.K. and Piguri layered around the lyricism and dominate the song in a good way. It’s inventive! ‘Deceiver’ is heavy to the core with pure chaotic energy. It blends mathcore, deathcore, and nu-metal as it features those brutal guitar riffs and abrasive vocals with guttural sounds. The song does break halfway through with ethereal and melodic vocals that offer a contrast and a framing for what comes next on the EP.
The heavy and huge basslines with electronic bleeps underscore ‘Stranger’. The song features the vocals of Landon Tewers of The Plot In You and they match P.K’s vocals perfectly. The guitar and bass riffs in this track are just so in your face, they slap! The vocals are heavy and guttural, but are paired beautifully together as they interweave into a consolidated voice. The atmospheric vocals that float over the mix are transcendent. Then, ‘Weirdo’ that features AG of Noisemaker hits, and it’s a much more of a melodic heavy metal sonic soundscape, it almost has a European metal feel to it. The vocals are just terrific with a fast spoken, almost rap, delivery in the verses but the soaring vocals in the rest of the song are just wonderful. “Sink, swim or disappear”, just do not miss any of this five-minute and-seventeen-second track. It’s an EP highlight!
‘Weirdo’ is delightful, and it signals a change in tone and style from Prompts. As the EP closes with ‘Death Of Me’, it flips the switch with a soft and dreamlike sonic palette. Prompts lean into a more subdued and atmospheric direction with the guitars and drums doing their work, but it’s a very different tension. ‘Death Of Me’ sees Prompts trading their heavy guitar and vocal thrashing for restraint with an undercurrent of melodic instrumentation and vocal beauty that creates a slow-burn track. It is wondrous!
If you love metalcore, heavy guttural rage paired with sonic experimentation and contrasting melodic vocals: then this EP is for you.
