Japanese metal.

Japan.

I <3 it.

It's the only nation in the industrialized world where you could be a major rock star and a goth lolita fashion designer at the same time. It's also the home of some truly superb (if sometimes esoteric) metal bands.

I myself have a couple of favorites. And I'm sure you all do to. So, let's discuss them.

I'll start with Japan's premiere power metal band, Galneryus.





I'm also quite fond of a two-man symphonic black metal band called Followbane.

I liked Anthem alot back in the day

United sounded pretty good, thanks Ult

There ya go, thrashy!

UNCLE SAXON wrote:

There ya go, thrashy!

I give all the credit to you Unc for turning me onto them

Loudness, obviously.

Vow Wow..

This thread needs more Uncle Saxon.

One of my favorite bands of all time -

Outrage



And tops on my wants list

I think it was Uncle Sax who introduced me to these guys;



Absolutely love that song. Also, although I could never really get into X Japan, guitarist Hide's solo stuff was rather spectacular. Not always metal, but usually great;



I think it sounds better on record than live, but I couldn't find a good quality upload.

Boris & Eternal Elysum are to of my favorites. Coffins are another good band. There are a lot of good stoner bands from Japan whose names escape me right now.

I only know Loudness (and only recently). I have Thunder In The East which I really enjoyed and Heavy Metal Hippies that I just couldn't get into.

DallasBlack, here are some earlier Loudness tracks:

kmorg wrote:

Vow Wow..

This thread needs more Uncle Saxon.

I am preferring to watch from the sidelines for now, as to not cause any undue influence. But very much enjoying everyone's input for once!

And Bow Wow/Vow Wow kicked ass!

UNCLE SAXON wrote:

kmorg wrote:

Vow Wow..

This thread needs more Uncle Saxon.

I am preferring to watch from the sidelines for now, as to not cause any undue influence. But very much enjoying everyone's input for once!

And Bow Wow/Vow Wow kicked ass!

I have Bow Wows Charge album and it's pretty cool sounding and I also have a late 80s Vow Wow LP around here somewhere that I need to listen to again.

Church Of Misery

Sabbat!!!

JURASSIC JADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joe wrote:

Sabbat!!!

Haha, as far as I'm concerned, these guys are the wrong Sabbat ;P

I always found this Sigh song somewhere between awesome and hilarious;

Other than the aforementioned Loudness, the only other Japanese band I was ever really whole-hog for was EZO. They were somewhat similar to the "Americanized" Loudness stuff that was coming out around the same time. Of their two albums, I prefer the second one, 1989's FIRE FIRE.







After these guys split up, vocalist Masaki Yamada did a stint in Loudness for a number of years replacing Minoru Niihara. Unfortunately, the only Loudness disc he did that was worth a squirt was 1992's self titled. They simply got too weird and unlistenable from then on.

I don't know anything about japanese metal.

Does Jake E. Lee count?

I forgot King's-Evil!! Darn you, Lurideth, where are you when my memory's gone?