Japanese all female metal bands

Japan's metal scene is very isolationist (seemingly on purpose) in it's approach and very few bands make even a dent out here in the west.  The country has the second biggest music industry right behind the U.S.  While the metal scene is underground as far as bands 'breaking out', they still have a strong grassroots fandom that still attends shows. Both major and indie labels are putting out tons of releases every year. Yet 99% do not have any distribution outside the country and everything becomes an import at import prices, but I guess there are enough metal heads to allow the bands to make carreers within the nation.

While the bands and artists cover multiple sub genres like every scene, the sheer volume of super talented all 'girl' bands is nuts and they too cross all styles of metal. In this thread I am presenting both modern and classic bands from the past. Some bands are put together organically and some are industry talents that are brought together by labels (kind of like Frontiers Records). In addition, the number of female fronted bands is also large and which I may include later on.

With that out of the way, let's begin...

First band out of the gates is LOVEBITES. They are a power/thrash metal band that are all top notch players. They recently released a video for the single to their upcoming album and it immediately rose to to #1 on various Japanese metal charts, taking out Metallica's latest. They are a band that decided to sing in English to expand their audience. A band you may assume are a label project as they are studio pro material and all look like models, but got together in 2016 by the bass player and drummer. Soon this version started playing the Tokyo bar scene. Brought out a self released ep and the got signed to a major label "Victor Records". Following the Iron Maiden template, since 2017 the band has 3 full lengths, 3 e.p.s and 3 double live albums. You can tell these young ladies sure liked their eighties metal.
First video shows their symphonic metal side.  

Then live showing off their chops and getting a lot more thrash's oriented.

And a straight up thrasher -

I've tried to get into Lovebites, but they've never quite clicked with me. If they'd come along in the early 2000s when I was all into the new-jack power/symphonic metal thing I probably would've loved 'em, but I've moved on from such things.

They definitely have chops, though... and the singer (Japanese Mariah Carey?) is nice to look at

This is what Americans are up against

I have a Japan-sized hole in my metal knowledge.

I've been trying to find Animetal USA CDs at a decent price, but they are not Japanese nor female, but it's annoying how they are Japan-only releases.

I bet the CD stores there have tons of awesome metal to explore. Online it's a little hard without knowing the language.

Next band up is NEMOPHILA. They are a collaboration of a bunch of musicians from other projects and bands who got together to back up the singer at a gig and as a project after she left her previous band in early 2019. They all commented on how much they enjoyed playing with each other, that they started writing their own music. A band that leans a lot more into their Japanese culture in their music; these ladies made a name for themselves during Covid by posting great covers of all sorts of music on their Youtube channel. They then went on to self record and put out singles as an independent band shortly after they started the covers gig. First up is their 3rd single, first video from them with original music, sung in half English and half Japanese from early 2021                                                            They do killer covers and one of the cooler was Journey - Separate Ways. Not only musically, but the video itself. Someone in YT land edited the videos to match up

The band is making some big strides in such a short time; which means they have a lot of connections in the industry. Perhaps because the drummer is married to the musical director of the Silent Hill game franchise.

As an aside to Glowers post, that girl in that video Li-Sa-X is now in her late teens and has her own bands called Li-Sa-X Band and KAIOA. She shares guitar duties with the lighter haired player in NEMOPHILA in both of her bands.

Lari wrote:

I have a Japan-sized hole in my metal knowledge.

I've been trying to find Animetal USA CDs at a decent price, but they are not Japanese nor female, but it's annoying how they are Japan-only releases.

I bet the CD stores there have tons of awesome metal to explore. Online it's a little hard without knowing the language.

Sadly, I agree. Like I posted earlier, they whole industry does not seem to venture past their own islands. Odd. Add to the fact that most of their interactions are done in the Japanese language only, and you need to use Google translate to read through their press releases and online shops. There are a few bands that have reached some notoriety outside Japan, but they are the ones with NA/SA/EU distribution.

Next group up is a band that has their origins when the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist met in junior high and put together a punk rock cover band with a fellow student doing drums. As their abilities grew, as is par the course, the started to write their own stuff and started putting out originals. They started writing more complex songs and started having both the guitar player and bassist join in vocals. Music became heavier and skills improved. The new drummer has been with them for some years now.

The band in question is HANABIE (pronounced haw-nah-be-a). A true genre bending band that even here in late 2022 are only 21 years old. They hold their punk values in keeping with short songs. They also write some clever lyrics (in Japanese). They are playing the Dynamo Festival in the Netherlands in the summer of 2023. The first full length they have (new one in 2023) was a highlight in 2021- titled Otome Kaikuru ie. "Girls Reform Manifest".

First song is their biggest YT video to date. A song about addictions in a song called We Love Sweets  

Next video is a song about Tinder hookups and the like and their disdain for it. Creepy as she 'raps' on the bed as the hookup couple have sex on said bed

Last song is their longest and is still under 4 minutes. Track is called Lollypop Candy Girl.  

In the year 1989 I went to a local record shop and bought myself a copy of the first Phantom Blue release as they were on Shrapnel Records and that was a blind buy based on that alone, An all female metal band from Los Angeles, Phantom Blue were one of the first non male metal bands I ever heard, outside of Girlschool and Rock Goddess. A few weeks later I returned to said shop and was shown an import from Japan by another all female band. The owner played the record on the store record player and I was taken back by how great it sounded, but at the time, I could not get over the language barrier. Though enjoyable, it was not a buy for me.

Starting in 1982, the band SHOW-YA formed. They somehow recorded a song that was for Coca-Cola and used by the soda giant for an ad campaign in Japan. A label deal emerged and their first release was in 1985. 6 (!) full length releases were brought out in the next 3 years with little to no big impact. The label basically toned down their initial sound, and they were presented as a more a hard Jrock band with so much gloss and glean on the records than their  heavier edge disappeared. Getting a bit frustrated, the band stood up to the label and brought out their 7th record Outerlimits in 1989. It went platinum in Japan selling 1 million copies. 2 shows in the U.S., 1 in the U.K., and 2 in Russia followed.



The follow up was titled Hard Way and was also a massive seller for the band. Then the lead singer left for an ill fated solo career. The brought in solo artist Steffanie whom already had a large following to help them. They were then invited to play a festival in North Korea(?!) in 1991. And they played it.  Here they are with Steffanie -


Then the hiatus occurred in 1998 as neither parties were happy with the results and the band called it a day. Then in 2005, they got back together with the original singer just to have fun and play a few shows that promoters wanted to put on. Remained together since and bringing out 6 more releases, the latest arriving in 2021. All these ladies are in their 50's/early 60's and still are pulling big crowds.


The band has been putting on a festival called "Naon no Yaon" that is an all female fest for a long time - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naon_no_Yaon

This next band has the worst time with vocalists, no fault on them. They are currently on singer number four and that can only be seen as a detriment to the band's growth and trajectory. The latest singer is helping the band in live shows at the moment and has her own solo carreer in Japan. Next band is ALDIOUS.

Formed in 2008, first release was a self released ep in late 2009. Then followed a single and then the full length in 2010 and second in 2011. All releases up until then were handled by Rami, who fell ill after the tour supporting the number 2 full length and left all music for close to 4 years, in 2015 she reappeard as the vocalist of Raglaia and started a solo career as just Rami.  

After Rami's departure, the band brought in a vocalist known as Re:NO. She performed on 2 ep's, numerous singles, and  four full lengths while singing for the band. In late 2018 she was diagnosed with a condition known as PET - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patulous_Eustachian_tube and left the band for obvious reasons. She too has since had success in her recovery and has performed live in summer 2022 and has a solo release that came out in November of 2022.  



Next they brought in R!N, a half Japanese/ half Fillipino singer and proceeded to tour and record a number of new songs and a greatest hits collection with her singing on all the tracks (!?). A year or so into her tenure she started suffering from an undisclosed mental illness and was hospitalized. She currently is still in treatment. This revalation is shocking coming from a culture as closed as Japan is on issues such as these.   

No new music in a few years now, but ALDIOUS is currently still touring Japan and are known as a killer  live band and a touring machine. Latest singer is Maki Oyama and the band tours as Aldious featuring Maki Oyama. Maki's solo stuff is closer to a Lizzy Hale/Halestorm sound and she has a big following in Japan.  

On a brief aside, the drummer Marina is the step daughter of acclaimed session drummer Terry Bozzio (who has drummed for Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Debbie Harry, and countless others.)

A trio of all lady bands that are currently doing the Tokyo live circuit. Odd that in the (current) year 2023, that there is still a number of smaller venues around that bands can play every weekend if they want. Does not hurt that Tokyo metropolitan is 37 million people.

ARK ROYAL - newer band that are getting mentioned in the underground scene

PINKISH CROWN - duo singers with this band


PARADOXX - not much of an internet presence, but sure play a fair bit live; and the drummer has a day job as a welder

Another recent band that is hoping to make their mark - LUMiRISE

I find it awesome and amazing that there are so many: enough to be a category.
Metal!

scottmitchell74 wrote:

I find it awesome and amazing that there are so many: enough to be a category.
Metal!

It certainly is a pretty "out there" scene for sure. As I hope to eventually show in this topic, the amount of all 'girl' bands in metal/hard rock in Japan since the eighties is immense. And I have not even put a dent in the amount of bands.

SCARLET LOTUS - another new(ish) band

HAGANE - is a 5 piece shred/melodic power metal group out of Tokyo. Hagane means 'steel' in Japanese. Getting into their fifth year as a band, all these young ladies are all in their early twenties and all the instrumentalists have their own youtube channels displaying their talents. Oddly (or just very Japanese), the band has brought out 3 full length concert dvd/blu rays, 3 eps, and only in late summer 2022, their first full length.


The guitar duo in this band, Sakura and Mayto, are well respected in not only the metal scene, but the whole guitar hero/goddess fandom scene that is still quite big in Japan.

Up next for your eyes and earholes is a band that lasted just 4 years and were a staple on the Tokyo live scene from 2016 to 2020. There has never been a reason given for their breakup, and the members are on to new bands and projects. They did go through 4 or 5 guitar players in their run, and a couple of bass players. Add to the less than stable lineup, Covid I can guess played a part.   ZETTAI CLUB -



The singer and drummer are in a new band called Saisega. Pretty heavy band.
And the bass player is in a band called 'Garden of Illium" alongside the drummer of Hagane and one of the vocalists from Pinkish Crown. The guitar player is in Garden of Ilium plays with Vanquiet, another all girl band from Tokyo. Which I hope my memory will allow me to get to both bands.

EXIST TRACE have had the same line up for their 20+ years as a band. They have written songs that are melodic death to straight up rock. Quite proficient in output as they have brought out 9 eps and 4 full lengths plus a handful of singles every year of their existence; but latest new release was in 2020. Word is a new album in 2023, as the band has been playing new songs live for the last year or so.

GACHARIC SPIN has been a band since 2009; when the bass player reunited with an old high school friend who played drums. Another friend joined on guitar and a vocalist followed.  After a few line up changes, a permanent keyboardist was added in 2012 and the four main instrumentalists have been the same since. Many eras of the band exist in their short time together as the four would go through various singers and live stage performers. In 2019 they hired a new vocalist in 18 year old Angie, and drummer Hana moved to guitar adding a new drummer, and the latest era started.

You take the four main instrumentalists of Gacharic Spin and add the lead vocalist of Unlucky Morpheus and you get DOLL$BOXX. A side project that has brought out two releases, an ep and a full length.

A unique distinction that Japan has that other countries/cultures is that they include cosplay in a lot of their restaurants and cafes. One that is quite popular is the maid cafe, where young women dress as maids and serve their masters and mistresses in a setting that resembles more a home than an actual sit down establishment.
One band who took this look and ran with it as a visual motif (ala school boy look of Angus Young) is BAND MAID. More a hard rock band than metal, the cross over appeal is there. The band recently undertook a tour of the U.S. in the fall of 2022 and played venues from 2000 to 4000 capacity and sold out all dates but one. In Japan, they play up to 8000 capacity on their own. With no opening act, 2 hour plus shows. Singing both in English and Japanese in most songs, they can count even Jimmy Page as a big fan as he appears backstage at some shows.

- official video for Domination

- same song done live

At this point I am going to slide in a Youtube channel that covers many all female bands as well as many other metal bands that perform in the underground metal scene in Tokyo. TEAM A'THRASH is a video production team/channel that tapes shows around Tokyo. Due to copyright issues, the channel cannot show full songs.

I had mentioned ARK ROYAL a few posts back and this is one of the latest videos that they have put with TEAM A'THRASH



I enjoy this channel as a resource to see what is happening in the underground scene. I wish more scenes around the world would herald their local bands.

https://www.youtube.com/@TEAMATHRASH

Hot Japanese chics dressed as maids playing metal.

All that's left is for them to hand me a plate of donuts and bacon.

Up now is a band that has put itself on the live show circuit and have set themselves apart by playing it's late 70's inspired music in the very active scene. WHISKEY DUST

Started originally as a side project of a Van Halen cover band, WHISKEY DUST has solidified the lineup since early 2022.

This band was one of the first all female Japanese groups that I was first introduced to some time ago. They have over the last few years toured Europe multiple times. Latest track as of May 2024.

Track from the 2022 release.