Loud kei band DEZERT have dropped their latest digital single, ‘Welcome To The End / TOXIC’, alongside a music video, a visualiser, and a lyric video. The release comes ahead of the venue-exclusive CD ‘Alternate4’ and the band’s self-titled second major album.
The video for ‘TOXIC’ arrived with the single on September 1st, followed by a one-shot performance lyric video, including English translations, on September 5th. The video opens with the words “This is not a song about anger, it is a song about love” on screen before the track pushes into heavier territory. A nu-metal vibe flows throughout the verses, and a melodic, cathartic singalong chorus balances the heaviness. Vocalist Chiaki wrote the lyrics, while bassist Sacchan handled the music.
A visualiser for ‘Welcome To The End’ followed on September 3rd. Sitting even more deeply within nu-metal, the song has a dark and heavy feeling, with a slow, weighty guitar riff, crashing drums, and Chiaki growling and shouting. Its opening riff has already drawn Korn comparisons from listeners online. Chiaki wrote the lyrics, with music by drummer SORA.
Both songs appear on ‘Alternate4’, an eight-track CD sold only at DEZERT’s three-date hall tour, 15th ANNIVERSARY HALL TOUR 2026 “Welcome To My Beginning”. It goes on sale on September 12th at NHK Osaka Hall, then at Niterra Village Hall in Nagoya on the 19th and Tokyo’s Kanadevia Hall on the 27th. Joining ‘Welcome To The End’ and ‘TOXIC’ are ‘UtsuUtsuUtsu’ and ‘Elama.’, plus instrumental versions of all four.
It’s also the first DEZERT release on which every member has composed a song. Chiaki wrote ‘UtsuUtsuUtsu’, Sacchan ‘TOXIC’, guitarist Miyako ‘Elama.’, and SORA ‘Welcome To The End’, with Chiaki supplying all four sets of lyrics.
Explaining why the songs are only available on a disc at a venue, the band said in a statement that streaming and social media have made music available at the push of a button, and that it really is a convenient age. “But we want people to keep these four songs as something that stays in one form”, they continued, “and to receive them at a live venue, where music can be handed over”. They described the release as a prologue to the next album.
Second major album, ‘DEZERT’
On October 28th, DEZERT will release their second major album, ‘DEZERT’. Twenty tracks across two discs bring together recent singles ‘Hibana’, ‘Mushusei.’, ‘Ongaku’, and ‘Ordinary’ with all four ‘Alternate4’ songs and previously unreleased material. Two editions are available, a regular edition and a Saikyou (“strongest”) edition.
The regular edition includes an M-card with live video from DEZERT 47 AREA ONEMAN TOUR GRAND FINAL “Bokura no Ongaku ni Tsuite” (“About our music”), held at Makuhari Messe Event Hall on March 20th this year, totalling 22 songs across 148 minutes of footage.
Saikyou adds a third disc carrying a “secret bonus track”, along with a Blu-ray of the same live footage and an hour-long documentary, Bokura no “Ongaku” ni Tsuite ~Owaranai Kattou no Saki e~ (About Our “Music” ~Beyond the unending conflict~), which streamed on U-NEXT in February.
DEZERT will then embark upon their 15th anniversary live house tour, Ikite yukou ne (Let’s keep living), whose title track closes the new album. Starting on November 1st at CLUB CITTA’ in Kanagawa, the run takes in 13 shows across 12 venues, finishing with an X’MAS EDITION at EX THEATER ROPPONGI on December 25th. For dates and ticket info, visit the band’s official website.
Check out the video for ‘TOXIC’ and visualiser for ‘Welcome To The End’ below.
DEZERT
Welcome To The End / TOXIC
Release Date: 02/09/2026
Label: NIPPON CROWN
Stream: Links
DEZERT
Alternate4
Release Date: 12/09/2026
CD: Venue exclusive
DEZERT
DEZERT
Release Date: 28/10/2026
Label: NIPPON CROWN
About DEZERT
DEZERT are a Japanese visual kei rock band formed in September 2011 around vocalist Chiaki and bassist Sacchan, with guitarist Miyako and drummer SORA completing the current four-piece. The band built its early following without large-scale promotion, relying instead on an intense live reputation and songs that placed human pain and darkness inside deliberately grotesque language and imagery. That abrasive identity made DEZERT a distinctive presence in the 2010s visual kei underground, but their music has never remained fixed in one form. The line-up took its present shape in December 2015 when Miyako joined following the departure of guitarist Kira. Over the following years, DEZERT widened both their sound and ambitions. The rawness and heavy, nu-metal-leaning attack associated with their earlier work increasingly made room for melody and alternative rock, while the band moved from the live-house circuit towards larger venues. By 2019, they had undertaken their first nationwide hall tour and made their first appearance at ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL, extending their reach beyond the visual kei scene. That growth continued through the early 2020s. DEZERT played Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall in 2022 and sold out LINE CUBE SHIBUYA in September 2023, where they announced their move to the majors and their first solo Nippon Budokan concert. 'The Heart Tree', released through Nippon Crown in January 2024, became their first major album, before the band reached Nippon Budokan that December. Rather than treating the venue as an endpoint, DEZERT followed it with their first 47-prefecture one-man tour from June 2025, concluding at Makuhari Messe Event Hall in March 2026. DEZERT's appeal lies in the tension between heaviness and accessibility. Chiaki's writing can be confrontational, bleak, or vulnerable, while the band move between distorted rhythmic weight, alternative-rock melody, and songs built for communal release in a live setting. Composition has also become less centred on a single member over time, giving the modern catalogue a broader internal voice without sanding away the volatility that defined DEZERT's earlier work. As DEZERT mark their 15th anniversary in 2026, they are operating on a larger scale while retaining the independent-minded stance that has followed them since formation. Anniversary hall and live-house tours run through the year, while their self-titled second major album 'DEZERT' arrives in October, bringing together the heavy, melodic, and emotionally direct sides the band have developed across their career.
