(Yesterday, TheMadIsraeli began what turned out to be a glowing review of a new album by a Japanese metal band named Shatter Silence with his opinion that, generally, “Japan’s metal scene sucks”. Here follows a response by our Japan-based contributor Phro, whose own blog is here.)
So, apparently if TheMadIsraeli doesn’t know anything about your scene, it sucks. While we probably shouldn’t spend too much time kowtowing to the whims of Internet badasses, here’s a list of some Japanese metal bands I found after 15 minutes on Google. Gee, that wasn’t so hard, was it?
(Obviously, this is hardly a complete list, nor is it in any way representative of the entirety of the Japanese metal scene. And it largely reflects my personal taste, though I’ve included some bands that I know are popular, even if I’m not necessarily a fan.)
Abigail
Anatomia
Bathtub Shitter
Birth Asphyxia
Butcher ABC
http://youtu.be/j71HGKkwIPs
Coffins
Dark Insanity
Detritum
Dir en grey
Double Dealer
Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation
G.I.S.M.
Gallhammer
GO-ZEN
http://youtu.be/fR9Yci03Vsk
Gore Beyond Necropsy
Gotsu Totsu Kotsu
http://youtu.be/w7RwL_j60ew
GSD
http://youtu.be/8DO_CDU6eJM
Hydrophobia
http://youtu.be/h-DsepVYN5c
Infernal Revulsion
Intesine Baalism
Loudness
http://youtu.be/-b4w08xusl8
Noise a Go Go
Rest In Gore
Satanic Heritage
Sex Machineguns
Sigh
Unholy Grave
Vomit Remnants
Yousei Teikoku
http://youtu.be/AvUZSjuTRc4
Zombie Ritual
29 Responses to “JUST A FEW JAPANESE METAL BANDS”
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love some of the bands you listed!!!!! great stuff 🙂
YOU FORGOT BABY METAL YOU PRICK
Also, a few others.
Undead Corporation
Blood Stain Child – Idolator is an amazing piece of melo-death.
Desacravity (Austin Weber covered them in his list)
GxSxD (God Send Death)
Yellow Machinegun
and there was one that I can’t remember for the life of me, it’s three Japanese dudes and an American guy who did the vocals and then would fly to the country to tour. It was brutal death metal and their name has floated me completely.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to think about Baby Metal.
scratch gsd, you found them, just didn’t list them as how I’ve known them.
Descravity. Such a tight band! Sigh is probably my favorite Japenese band!
I never really got into Sigh…but I’ve started enjoying black metal more this year, so I may be a good time to give them another listen.
I missed Descravity in your original post. Glad you guys pointed them out again. I love this style of tech death.
Oh, fuck, I did forget Baby Metal!!!!
Are you thinking of Death I Am? I’m not sure where their vocalist lives, but they’re a four piece with an non-Japanese vocalist. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Death-I-Am/107580735937884
Bingo.
I think I had meant to include them, actually. Not sure how I missed that…
MY WORK HERE IS DONE.
Volcano is also good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4dXe8Romec
and Sabbat rules them all (except Coffins, who may be my favorite Japanese band): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Iq4Q23JFA
That Volcano video was delightfully low-budget. The music was great though!
While I’m rambling, Dum Spiro Spero is such a fucking heavy disc for Dir En Grey. Literally did not expect it from looking at the cover art. I thought they were going back to an earlier sound. Then I heard shit like Decayed Crow (the video I linked is live, holy shit), Different Sense and Amon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbDlaolz0KQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG3U0tsiMwo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWUc1oK8bVc
I haven’t listened to Dir en grey since Uroboros came out. I’m happy that they’re taking things in a heavier direction, but I’m just not enjoying them as much as I used to…
Also the mighty BORIS! And a couple others- Church of Misery (love them) and Defiled (brutal death metal)
Is Boris metal? I thought they were a noise rock band. (I clearly am unfamiliar with them.
I know I looked up Defiled, but I must have forgotten to include them on the list.
I just looked up Church of Misery. FUCK YES.
Boris is kind of a whatever-the-fuck-they-want band. They started as drone and sometimes they drift into doom/sludge metal. Glad you liked Church of Misery!
Gonin-Ish is another. Insane jazz metal with a killer female vocalist:
http://seasonofmistcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/naishikyo-sekai
And there’s always Seikima-II (aka Seikimatsu) if you like traditional metal and don’t mind a little cheese sprinkled on top. Demon Kogure is definitely up there with Halford and Dickinson as a vocalist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1avX7yQh3no
Seikima-II was good, but I wanted a bit more heaviness to it. The vocals were pretty damn good, for sure.
Gonin-Ish is certainly interesting, but too jazzy for me. (I’ve never been able to enjoy jazz.)
S A B B A T http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2bTVV4pnjI
M E T A L U C I F E R http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGB1W5nmPhA
I really dug that Sabbat track. (The koto opening certainly didn’t hurt either.)
Metalucifer was super old school!
Fuck YES! Love Japan and all the crazy bands, some you may all enjoy:
Corrupted
Gorevent
State Craft
I liked the Corrupted tracks I found!
Gorevent was fucking great too!
State Craft was interesting. I usually don’t enjoy hardcore that much, but they had some good shit going on.
I would just like to bow my head in respect to all you motherfuckers in the comments above me (as well as Phro). There’s a shitload of metal knowledge floating around this site. Humbling to see it.
You should also check out Genocide from Japan. Totally old school heavy metal that makes a few nods to Mercyful Fate. Also some sick fucking Samurai artwork.
Thanks for the recommendation. They were a little too much Mercyful Fate for me though…
Sick samurai artwork? Try Shuriken Cadaveric Entwinement. I’m pretty sure that they aren’t from Japan, but one of their releases has an awesome Par Olofsson cover.
No Ritual Carnage?(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-HG3bxVV2A)
…Im afraid I cannot give this list my stamp of approval
Coffins is great, and so is Sigh. I loved Sigh’s new album, it’s one of my personal favorites from the past year. Vomit Remnants is awesome, but I can’t find their compilation on eBay, and if I did, it’d be really high in price. I remember you telling me about that G.I.S.M. track from a while ago, and it was great, I think I’m gonna look more into that band.