Item: XV e.p. - Man With a Mission
Rating: 8
Author: Ruxandra Mindru

XV e.p. - Man With a Mission

Artist: Man with a Mission

Genre: Rock

Release Date: 12 March 2025

Has it really been 15 years? Have they really since played Download and Red Rocks Amphitheatre? I still remember seeing Man with a Mission in Manchester Academy 3 on the same day that Billie Eilish was sold out in Academy 1. There were maybe 200 of us, the band close enough to shake hands with and glimpse the shape of faces underneath the masks, so to see them achieve success outside their home country to the scale the five wolf-headed mavericks have is nothing short of heartwarming.

Their latest EP is a celebration of that success, of their extensive tours and loyal fanbase, with that particularly Japanese flavour of optimistic melancholy that make their songs adequate for all moods and life challenges. From the first song Vertigo, which goes maybe the heaviest I’ve ever heard from MWAM, with a drum pattern that made my jaw drop on the first listen, to an exhilarating collection of live recordings from their 2024 concert in Mexico, this is an album you put on after a bad day at the office, when you need that “Ganbatte!” energy to push through.

REACHING FOR THE SKY has all the makings of a great stadium performance, with its anthemic call-and-response and easy-to-follow chorus. While MWAM’s influences are still a feather boa they proudly wear around their metaphorical shoulders (from the Foo Fighters vibes inherited from their producers to some early Linkin Park turn-tabling soundscapes), there are surprises awaiting, here in particular with a heavier, almost nu-metal bass-driven ending, that’s sure to get a crowd going. It’s also the only of the four new pieces to include Japanese lyrics, which are slow enough and comprehensible to help you on your Japanese learning journey. I see you. I was you in a previous life.

One the other hand, Circles and whispers of the fake, with their softer energy, are perfectly fitting as an anime ending song. You can practically see the montage, the sidekicks smiling goofily at the camera, while the protagonist raises their head from their hands, as leaves swirl and a slightly unnerving crow flies overhead. The guitar work is noticeably more math rock on these pieces, as there is more space for a solo to breathe and tell the story.

From that reflective energy, the album cuts straight into the hype-machine that is INTO THE DEEP, from their Mexico concert, and it doesn’t let down from then on out.

Live recordings have two high standards to hit: capture the energy particular to music being performed live, with a cheering crowd and all the interactions, claps and moments of connection between band and audience, as well as, of course, deliver a clean recording of the songs for home and headphone users.

How do I know it succeeded? Because I could barely sit down listening. The urge was to throw my hands up and jump into an imaginary mosh pit, while also appreciating the complexity of the bass line afresh, the futuristic phaser effects on the guitar on Merry-Go-Round, the excellent march-like drumming on the snare. Hearing my personal favourite, Dead End in Tokyo, recorded live was its own trip down memory lane. I can still remember the Shinjuku street I was on when I first heard it, the skyscrapers towering white and gold and glassy above me, the heartache that I had only a few more days in Tokyo, after what had been a life-changing six weeks. Far from finding a dead end, living in Tokyo expanded my hopes of where I could go and do on my own.

And you can hear a similar hope in the cheers of the crowd, the shouts of “subarashii!” (wonderful) and “arigatou!” (thank you!), and you can hear it in the voice of Tokyo Tanaka, the explosive energy of a job well done fed by tens of thousands of people singing your music back at you. So much can happen in 15 years, yet Man With A Mission have made it, through so many changes in the music streaming industry, the rise of anime as a mainstream form of entertainment and their music reaching wider audiences.

We gotta keep on going on, as their joyfully minor-keyed anthems promise, holding our hands as we step into the sunset.

Tracklist