Inosuke
Photo Credit 📷 : @steadydietofnothin
Do you like anime? What about epic tomes of sorcery and adventure? If you answered yes to those questions, and you came here for the screamo, then I’ve got a little slice of wonderful for you with a brand new track from Cleveland, Ohio’s Inosuke. Clocking in at just over six and a half minutes, “A Thousand Years of Ash and Mist,” is a love letter to dystopian, epic fantasy and the parallels drawn to the authoritarian state swirling around us.
The duo of Jason Kallicragas and Erik Anderson took their combined screamo legacy and their mutual love of fantasy fiction and anime, and bundled it into into an impressive debut in December of 2023. “A Thousand Years of Ash and Mist” takes the foundation the band built two years ago and expands on heavy, raw, and blistering screamo of rage/ruin by blending in slow, doom-inspired elements, that coupled with Erik’s blisteringly fast drum work, evoke a sludgy, post-metal feel.
Don’t let this adventure towards doom metal deter you from a deep dive with this song, Anderson’ drumming has the track veering into new directions rather than a plodding, slow, methodical weed-laden jam session. It should come as no surprise that the man behind kit for Lautrec, Stormlight, and Lord Snow, pushes even the pace of the slowest riffs with the litany of tom fills and kick drum flourishes. The man in the boar’s head mask breathes a different lifeblood into the songs, “I will tinker and build the songs out for months or longer on my own until I have a structure that feels complete then I'll bring it to Erik and it evolves from there. I've learned to wait on writing lyrics until he has contributed drums because the speed and vibe of parts vastly changes even if the chords and riffs don't,” Jason says of the writing experience.
Meanwhile Jason brings another set of influences from his tenure in Men as Trees, Locktender, and Jagalchi. While the baritone guitar certainly lends its register nicely during the heavies moments, years of writing and listening to music certainly have a way of drawing the same spells from the spellbook. Though other projects fully embrace the penchant for the grandiose, that lean into post-rock, with huge swelling, cinematic riffs, Inosuke does not shy away from this style. The beautiful riffing present in “A Thousand Years of Ash and Mist” sits on just this side of ugly, guitar on the edge of breakup, lacking that crystalline quality you’d expect with something like Envy and more in the vein of something like Buried Inside or Light Bearer. You can recognize something pretty in it, but there is no gossamer sheen.
Instead this track leans thematically into the crux of Brandon Sanderon’s Mistborn series. “As a concept album I wanted the lyrics and music to be evocative of the Mistborn books and setting but also be able to stand alone if you're unfamiliar with them. So that was the approach I kept in mind. The first novels are set in this sunless, dystopian, climate-disaster landscape ruled by an immortal totalitarian who enforces brutal class division.” We’ve all spent ouR time fascinated by the ugliness in the world. So here is Inosuke, bringing the ugliness in its punishing low end riffing, the pummeling drums, and a concept deeply rooted in a fantastic world which seems to mirror the grotesque world we occupy.
Inosuke finds an interesting marriage with the deeper tone and timbre of of Jason’s voice. Powerful and clear, sitting somewhere between post-metal and emotional hardcore, while blending seamlessly into the music, never jarring, or too up-front in the mix. You won’t be distracted by the heft of the voice, as it flows like another instrument, yet lyrically we’re afforded a certain clarity.
“THE SONGS ARE BLEAK AND ABOUT THE INEVITABILITY OF RUIN, MAN'S PENCHANT FOR EVIL, THE HORROR OF WAR AND THE OPPRESSIVE NATURE OF MODERN LIFE. SANDERSON'S BOOKS HAVE MUCH MORE POSITIVITY AND HOPE BUT, YOU KNOW, THIS IS METAL OR WHATEVER.”
- JASON KALLICRAGAS, @INOSUKEBAND
On the recording process, the duo stuck to the process of their earlier successes, home recording. “Erik has recording gear set up in his basement where we rehearse. We start with his drums which is a big task because he both writes insane parts and is a perfectionist. Then I track guitars through my live rig, then do a layer of overdubs with my tube amp distortion and lastly vocals. This is similar to the way we did 'rage/ruin' but we learned a lot about the process during that album and so things sound better this time and we knew more of what to expect.” Taking the lessons of the past and sticking with the tried and true formula of Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden for mixing and mastering.
The record is released on November 3rd, 2025 and is a joint collaboration between Zegema Beach Records, Oliver Glenn, Friendly Otter, New Knee and helladecent in North America. Dingleberry and Dancing Rabbit will own the release in Europe.
The band will play an album release show on November 8th, in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Foundry. Hundreds of AU, Closedown, braininavat, and Qualm will share the bill. Bring your copies of Mistborn and Demon Slayer to get signed. Remind yourself that Jason and Erik are effectively screamo hashira and they deserve all the flowers you can give them.
Inosuke is Jason Kallicragas on strings and vocals, Erik Anderson on drums.
Follow them on Instagram here : @inosukeband
Writer : @garevthistle
Editor : @just_reidz
10/27/25
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