We have already decided on the best metal band, but this does not mean that there are no other worthy bands in Japan. On the contrary, the metal scene in Japan is very diverse and is not inferior in quality to the West. Our selection of ten groups will prove this. But we don’t have a goal to remember all the cool Japanese bands in general - we can devote a separate website to this. So be sure to share your favorite metal bands from Japan in the comments!
X Japan (エックス・ジャパン)
In Japan, everything is great not only with avant-garde music, but also with classical metal. The Chiba-based band X Japan is one of the pioneers of heavy, power, symphonic and speed metal in the country. True revolutionaries of their time. Many people also classify X Japan as glam, calling the group the forerunners of the visual kei movement. The term itself, by the way, was coined by Yoshiki, the band’s drummer and keyboard player.
Despite the fact that the group was founded in 1982, it released only five full-length albums. But everyone is great! The songs of X Japan are the ultimate metal anthems and ballads, to which even the last battle will bring tears to your eyes. Even the language barrier does not interfere with their perception. It’s just a pity that the band hasn’t released any new records since 1996.
X Japan is a must-listen for all classic metal fans, of course. In 2021, a documentary film We Are X was released dedicated to the history of the group - you can watch it too. Respects there include, among others, Marilyn Manson, Gene Simons from Kiss and Richard Fortus from Guns'n'Roses.
Boris (ボリス)
Tokyo's kings of drone, constantly reinventing their sound. Since 1992, Boris have released more than twenty albums and tried themselves in almost all genres of music in general. The group is so experimental that it is difficult to say what exactly it can be recommended to fans of.
Everything Boris does within the framework of drone, sludge and stoner is especially good. But they also have ambient, and post-metal, and the wildest noise, and punk-heavy, and J-pop. And nowhere does the group openly fail. Today we write dream pop, tomorrow we will collaborate with Merzbow and Sunn O))) - this is Boris. The group is definitely worth recommending to fans of “atmospheric” music, fans of viscous half-hour (or even hour-long) opuses. In general, you can shuffle the entire discography of Boris and simply discover new directions of heavy (and not so heavy) music.
Japanese pop music
Popular and pop music of the land of the rising sun is abbreviated as J-pop, from the phrase “Japanese pop”. This name was first used on J-Wave radio to highlight the differences between Japanese popular music and pop songs from the rest of the world. But the Japanese often use the term J-pop to refer to other musical genres - Japanese rap, ska, soul, dance and electronic music. Among the singers, seiyuu stand out - actors who voice anime characters.
J-pop is an inseparable component of modern Japanese culture. This music has found its place in all areas of entertainment and public life: in business, cinema, radio broadcasting, television, computer games, anime. Most Japanese TV shows put J-pop in the credits. The tempo of J-pop is often extremely fast, which is why some people don't take it well. The music played in anime and TV shows constantly changes from season to season.
Japanese music in modern adaptation
The mass of released music makes Japanese pop music very volatile. Most musical groups present listeners with only one album and a series of singles, then cease to exist and become forgotten. Few groups manage to climb onto the podium and be known for decades. Southern All Stars, Chage & Aska, B'z, Tube, the pillows, and Dreams Come True gained enormous popularity not only in Japan, but also abroad.
Dir En Gray (ディル・アン・グレイ)
One of the most famous Japanese groups that you definitely know. But it would be unfair not to include them in the selection. Dir En Gray was formed in Osaka in 1997 and since then the composition of the gang has not changed. As in the case of Boris, it is impossible to clearly determine the genre of the group. There are too many absolutely polar experiments - from J-pop to barely listenable grindcore (within the framework of the genre this is a compliment). Somewhere in the middle, nu-metal also crept in - the band even went on the Family Values tour with Korn. Most often, Dir En Gray is labeled as avant-garde metal, or recorded as progressive.
The group took off largely thanks to Yoshiki from X Japan. He produced and mentored Dir En Gray back in the '90s. There are a million reasons to love the band's music, but the most noticeable feature is Kyo's vocals. He has an impressive range of five octaves, plus absolutely crazy extreme techniques. Kyo can not only do screams and growls, but also extremely low guttorals, from which he can easily transition even to pig-squill. And overlaid on all this is an easily readable Japanese flavor and even ethnicity. Well, Dir En Gray's videos are explosive.
First half of the 70s. Japanese New Wave.
In the 1970s, the New Wave era began in the West. The Japanese copied the sound and style of British and American groups such as This Heat, Talking Heads, New Order and many others. At the same time, they brought their own flavor and processed it in their own way.
The Plastics
Tokyo-based graphic designer Toshio Nakanishi designed and sent the design for the Talking Heads tour promotional book to their leader David Byrne. Along with the book, he sent several demo recordings of his band The Plastics. Byrne was interested in the recordings, and he passed them on to the B-52's manager, who subsequently invited Nakanishi to promote the Plastics. The group got its name because of the common opinion of the Western world about “plastic”, that is, low-quality Japanese goods, which were considered a low-grade counterfeit of really good American products. The Plastics did not deny American influence and often joked about it. They copied the style and presentation of Western performers, but the output was their own Japaneseized product. According to Byrne, the eccentric music of the pioneers of the Japanese New Wave had a serious meaning hidden behind external tomfoolery and frivolous behavior on stage. The group built their music around the symbiosis of an electric guitar and a synthesizer, accompanying the two overlapping voices of a man and a woman, dressed in jackets, shirts and ties. In the early 80s the group broke up. Several of its members created the group Melon, which also played new wave, but with elements of R'n'B, glam and did not limit itself to genre boundaries.
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Even before the creation of the group, all participants had extensive performing experience and a diverse repertoire. They performed in many bands, where they played classical, techno, j-pop and ethnic folk music. And the leader of the group, Hosono Harumi, began experimenting with electronic devices in the early 70s while studying at the Tokyo University of the Arts. He used the results of his experiments to create the first Japanese techno album. In 1978, the group released the group's self-titled album, which won the "Best Japanese Album of the Year" award and made YMO the most popular group in the country. Yellow Magic Orchestra performed danceable electropop and energetic synth-pop. Themes of cyberpunk and computerization in the lyrics were accompanied by sequencers, drum machines and a variety of electronic devices. After the album's release, Western performers became interested in them, including Michael Jackson, who recorded a cover of the song Solid State Survivor. In 1980, YMO went on tour in the US and UK, where they played to packed houses and sold out quickly.
Gotsu-Totsu-Kotsu (兀突骨)
Almost unknown outside of Japan are the samurai metal adepts from Kawagoe. The band was founded in 2000 and has been playing very upbeat death metal with pounding slap bass ever since. The lyrics (who will understand them?) are mainly dedicated to samurai honor and valor - that’s why the band defines itself as samurai metal. How serious all this is is the question.
There is nothing directly in the sound that gives away the Japanese in Gotsu-Totsu-Kotsu. There are no wild experiments in their music either. This is just very cool death metal, which, thanks to the funky base, pumps especially strongly.
Maximum the Hormone (マキシマムザホルモン)
Classics of Japanese nu metal from Hachioji. The group was founded in 1998 and is well known in the West. Nu metal is a very general description of the sound of Maximum the Hormone, if you break it down into its components, then there is heavy, hardcore, post-hardcore, pop-punk and, of course, pop. Melodic pop inserts interrupting very fast hard riffs and aggressive growl recitative are the main feature of the group. At the same time, the mood of the songs floats from blacker-like gloomy to completely sunny and humorous, sometimes within the same track.
Most often, Maximum the Hormone is compared to System of a Down - and in some places (very often) their songs really sound like Japanese covers of unreleased System tracks. The vocals and arrangements are similar. Even tunes similar to Armenian suddenly slip through. This, of course, is good, considering that Tankian and his friends will not release anything new.
Maximum the Hormone is a commercially successful band, not least thanks to their soundtrack to the anime Death Note.
Second half of the 70s. Protest music and awareness of problems.
In 1978, the Sex Pistols emerged in England with a nonconformist agenda and became idols for young people around the world. Most Japanese groups copied the style and presentation of the British, but there were those who tried to create their own projects, unlike Western ones.
Friction
Friction were one of the first to appear on the emerging rock scene in Japan. Before creating the group "Reck" and Tatsuya Nakamura lived for several years in the USA, where they played in the bands of Lydia Lynch and James Chance. They later returned to Japan and created the first punk rock band in the country. In 1978, guitarist Tsunematsu Masatoshi joined them. The team's first album, "Atsureki" (Japanese for Friction), was produced by Yellow Magic Orchestra keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto. Friction copied the style of American punks, but unlike the Americans, the Japanese made technically high-quality music. They knew how to play the instruments, the sound quality and mixing were at a higher level, and the musicians themselves behaved quite restrained on stage. And they looked more like rock and rollers from the 60s - multi-colored collared shirts, trousers and combed-back hair.
Inu
The Inu project (from Japanese dog) existed for several years and released only two albums. First album—Ushiwokamaru Name Tottarado Tsuitaru Zo! was recorded during semi-garage performances. Band leader Machizu Machida noted in an interview that critics considered the album's "raw" and "dirty" sound to be an avant-garde experiment, although in fact the musicians simply lacked skill in playing musical instruments. Typical Western-style punk rock - inarticulate screams, out-of-tune guitars and low sound quality - was complemented by instruments unusual for the genre - harmonica, bagpipes and electronic equipment, which was often used to record techno. Machida inserted various effects into the recordings—soldiers marching, gunshots, groans, and random lines from films—and also bleeped out individual words. A few years after the first, the band's only studio album, Mushi Kuuna, was released! This time the musicians took a responsible approach to recording and mixing the album. The sound became much clearer, the songs had a rhythm and theme. Despite its punk bent, the album was uneven. If in the first songs you can clearly hear a catchy pop motif, energetic percussion and rhythm section, then in the middle the music slows down, the guitars begin to grind, distortion drowns out Machida’s shouts, and the drums monotonously beat out the same rhythm. Towards the end of the album, the energetic, cleaner sound returns, the beat speeds up and the vocals become an incoherent drone.
Phew
One of the key figures of the Japanese avant-garde scene is Phew. The performer began her career in 1978 in Aunt Sally, a group that played a mixture of punk rock and psychedelia. Aunt Sally existed for only two years, having worked with famous experimental groups from Germany - DAF, Einstürzende Neubauten and Can. Rhythmic, monotonous vocals and melodic “childish” sounds of the harpsichord with an introductory drum march gave way to a fast cyclical motif, somewhat reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, and then turned into an avant-garde cacophony with a ragged rhythm and screaming vocals. In 1981, Phew began her solo career and released the improvisational album Phew that same year. Holger Szukay and Jaki Liebetsai from the German Can took part in the creation. The album was recorded and mixed in the studio of famous producer Konrad Planck in Cologne. The result is a minimalist post-punk album with an abundance of creaky electronic sounds, simple percussion parts with drawn-out monotonous vocals. Like many albums of that time, Phew was rediscovered relatively recently and received high praise from contemporary critics.
Jun Togawa
Jun Togawa was born in a country whose society rejected the past and did not allow open discussion of the problems of the present. Through music, Togawa sensitized audiences to two major taboo topics in Japan: historical revisionism and sexism. She began to study music when it became clear that changes were expected in Japanese society - Emperor Hirohito's health was deteriorating, the Showa era was coming to an end, and post-modernity was replacing modernity in Japanese culture.
In 1981, Jun joined Guernica, an avant-garde electro-cabaret group. The group members dressed in accordance with the fashion of the 40s: hair combed to one side, elegant suits for men and feminine dresses, jewelry and neat hair for Jun. The album covers were reminiscent of propaganda posters of the 30s - couples in love stand against the backdrop of large factories and look into the clear blue sky, dreaming of a strong, modernized Japan. The music of Guernica appealed to nostalgia for pre-war times while combining elements of popular German music from the first half of the 20th century.
Guernica criticized the state's attempts to rewrite history. The new state idea that “good conquered evil” - a new democracy overcame military militarism and renewed Japan - was supposed to replace the utopia of a powerful modernized empire. Through propaganda, the state tried to impose new ideas of national identity and teach the Japanese to perceive the past as an accidental misunderstanding that should now be forgotten.
The 1980s marked the beginning of the Golden Age of Japanese pop music. The most commercially successful projects were performers of kawai shojo (Japanese for “sweet girl”) - a sexualized image of an infantile girl, which was often used by "aidoru" - pop idols of the time. Jun herself considered herself the antipode of this image. A light, uplifting melody was superimposed on dark, nihilistic lyrics - gender inequality, menstruation, child abuse and cruelty were the leitmotif of Togawa's songs. The performer herself often used the image of an insect, sang on stage in a dragonfly costume and noted in an interview her love for parasites and worms, which for her personified freedom from human influence.
Her Name in Blood (ハー・ネーム・イン・ブラッド)
A Tokyo-based English-speaking band straight out of 2007 with very textured vocals. In the West, the group is little known and only released a metalcore cover of Pretty Fly from the Offspring. In the selection, the gang takes the rap for modern metal and metalcore.
The early work of Her Name in Blood is the most classic melodic metalcore in the spirit of As I Lay Dying. Not very well recorded, but soulful. You can listen to re-recorded songs from that era on the latest Bloodline collection. Since 2021, the group has modernized itself, moved away from the naive romance of 2007, and diluted its sound with post-grunge, heavy metal and pop rock. But the spirit of the underground, along with raw vocals, splashes of gentuha and grindcore, remained in place.
Crossfaith (クロスフェイス)
English-language transcore band from Osaka. They have been playing since 2006, but in the West they became noticeable only closer to the middle of the tenth. Crossfaith is not only one of the few bands that still makes transcore (in a very general sense - a mixture of metalcore and electronics), but they also don’t sound like it. Not like hello from 2007.
Crossfaith's international fan base expanded, wisely mingling with bands like Bring me the Horizon, Of Mice and Men and Enter Shikari. The group traveled around the world, supported iconic hardcore bands, and eventually became part of the “party.” However, they also have their place among fans of nu-metal - its influence in the music of Crossfaith is also clearly heard. And this is logical, because the band’s vocalist Kenta Koye started with covers of Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit. There is even a gorgeous cover version of Faint on the latest album of the EX_MACHINA gang. And we have to give Crossfaith credit – their live performances are very cool.
90s. A new generation of experimenters.
Tujiko Noriko
Noriko is often compared to Bjork. Both love to experiment and build viscous, spacious compositions with ambient elements. But the Japanese woman does not seek to create the image of an unearthly diva singing about inequality, victimization and mental anguish. Her music is more “childish”, does not carry a strong semantic load and does not edify. Noriko herself describes her work as “a slight departure from the laws of the genre.” She adds electronic effects, glitch and “pulsating” bass to the pop melody, which ultimately merge into hum and noise, from which it is difficult to isolate even synthesizer and drum parts. Over the years, the performer's music, which at the beginning sounded childishly naive, becomes more gloomy and melancholic.
Supercar
Supercar's lineup was assembled in 1995 through an advertisement placed in a local newspaper by Miki Furukawa, the band's bassist and vocalist. In their first albums, the musicians played a mixture of shoegaze and indie rock, but over time they plunged into experiments with electronic sound. If the first releases Three Out Change and Jump Up combined light pop melodies with simple lyrics, distortion of Western My Bloody Valentine and Ride and reverb atypical for Japanese rock bands, then after the third album Futurama the emphasis was placed on experiments with electronic devices. The harsh sound of shoegaze was replaced by soft and structurally more complex synth-pop. Guitars, as the main instrument, were replaced by synthesizers, and the lyrics became melancholic and poetic. In the last albums Supercar experimented a lot and added various instruments - violins, percussion and sirens.
OOIOO
OOIOO began as a side project of Boredoms drummer Yosimio in 1996. Each project album can be divided into sections, between which there is no connection. In the quartet's music, the rhythm constantly breaks and the processing of the voice changes. The melody may suddenly be interrupted and resumed in a completely different form. The group concentrates on improvisation and eclecticism in the studio, and during performances they shock with sound and keep the listener in suspense - it is not clear in what direction the melody will develop and how it will end. A slow, trance-inducing “groove” with an abundance of drums can suddenly turn into a psychedelic chaos of sounds, and an energetic ritual melody can be replaced by rough noise. It seems that music is created chaotically, and the musicians want to surprise the listener with unpredictability. But that's not true. In his interviews, Yosimio says that songs are created as a result of trying out various instruments and techniques. She takes work on tracks seriously. In the studio the band plays the way they would play live. Yosimio then reworks the recording and adds his own parts, often playing instruments that the band has not yet used.
Masakatsu Takagi
In the early 2000s, Masakatsu Takagi worked as an artist and videographer. He traveled a lot around the world and filmed the places he visited. Along the way, I recorded local music and unusual sounds. As a result of his travels, the Japanese collected many samples. He compiled them and then added piano and sequencer parts to them. This is how his first album Pia, recorded in the USA in 2001, turned out. The musician later moved to a mountainous area in Hyogo Prefecture. Living among the mountains greatly influenced Takagi's music. He began recording the sounds of nature coming from the window, the voices of passing people and flying birds. Takagi's music became famous in Japanese creative circles. The composer received offers of cooperation from theater directors and animators who wanted him to write music for their works. Among them are Studio Ghibli and director Mamoru Hosoda.
Takagi's concerts consist of a theatrical performance for which an orchestra of traditional and classical instruments, percussion and winds performs the music. Actors and musicians are constantly changing. The rhythm, mood and visual design, to which the musician pays special attention, also change.
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Crystal Lake
Another English speaking group from Tokyo. Crystal Lake formed in 2002 - now they play fashionable metalcore in the spirit of Architects. This trend is also in order on the Japanese stage. Perfect English, perfect mixing, perfect balance between djent heaviness, melodic solos and poppy vocals on the choruses. It's no surprise that the band is well known in the metalcore and progressive scenes.
If you suddenly want something in the spirit, but with a more noticeable bias towards pop, you can listen to Coldrain. They are also Japanese and are friends with Crystal Lake and Crossfaith.
Ladybaby (レディベイビー)
Babymetal actually founded the kawaii metal genre, but today they are not the only band performing in it. Very often, all-female bands like Doll$Boxx are classified as kawaii metal, even if there is nothing from idol culture in their music. In this regard, Ladybaby is much closer to the canon. There are four girls singing and dancing in the group, pop and metal are mixed in the sound correctly - this is real kawaii metal.
The group has existed since 2013, but it went viral in 2015 with the video Nippon manju. Then, as part of Ladybaby, Australian wrestler and stuntwoman Ladybeard, dressed in a dress, growled along with two schoolgirls. This, of course, was a golden time for the gang. In 2016, he left the group and since then four girls have already sung as part of Ladybaby - one of them, by the way, had the task of growling.
It’s better to get acquainted with Ladybaby’s work through the clips, but they also sound great. It’s a pity, the group doesn’t have much material, and in January 2020 it will disband.
WagakkiBand (和楽器バンド)
Tokyo band founded in 2013. The band plays rather soft rock with female vocals, leaning towards classic heavy metal. The main feature of the group is reflected in its name - the musicians use traditional Japanese instruments. Vocal parts are also often based on ethnic melodies. Among all the gangs in the selection, this is the most authentic. Often she completely abandons metal, completely immersing herself in Japanese folk. At such moments, WagakkiBand perhaps sounds best.
The group’s fame is also fine - their videos go viral on YouTube and deservedly collect tens of millions of views. Thanks to this, WagakkiBand is well known in the west.
WHO ARE BABYMETAL
Japanese folk music: national instruments and genres
Japanese folk music is a rather distinctive phenomenon due to the isolation of the Islands of the Rising Sun and the careful attitude of the people inhabiting them to their culture.
Let us first consider some Japanese folk musical instruments, and then the genres characteristic of the musical culture of this country.
Japanese folk musical instruments
The shamisen is one of the most famous musical instruments in Japan; it is one of the analogues of the lute. The shamisen is a three-stringed plucked instrument. It arose from sanshin, which in turn came from the Chinese sanxian (both the origin is interesting and the etymology of the names is entertaining).
Shamisen is still revered today on the Japanese islands: for example, playing this instrument is often used in traditional Japanese theater - Bunraku and Kabuki. Learning to play the shamisen is included in maiko, the training program for the art of being a geisha.
Fue is a family of high-pitched (most common) Japanese flutes that are usually made from bamboo. This flute originated from the Chinese pipe “paixiao”. The most famous of the fue is the shakuhachi , an instrument of Zen Buddhist monks. It is believed that the shakuhachi was invented by a peasant when he was transporting bamboo and heard the wind blowing a melody through the hollow stems.
Often fue, like shamisen, is used for musical accompaniment to the actions of Banraku or Kabuki theater, as well as in various ensembles. In addition, some of the fouet, tuned in a Western manner (like chromatic instruments), can be soloed. Initially, playing the fue was only the prerogative of wandering Japanese monks.
Suikinkutsu is an instrument in the form of an inverted jug, over which water flows, entering through the holes, it makes it sound. The sound of suikinkutsu is somewhat similar to a bell.
This interesting instrument is often used as an attribute of a Japanese garden; it is played before a tea ceremony (which can take place in a Japanese garden). The thing is that the sound of this instrument is very meditative and creates a contemplative mood, which is ideal for immersion in Zen, because being in the garden and the tea ceremony are part of the Zen tradition.
Taiko – translated from Japanese into Russian this word means “drum”. Just like drum counterparts in other countries, taiko was indispensable in warfare. At least, this is what the chronicles of Gunji Yeshu say: if there were nine blows of nine, then this meant calling an ally into battle, and nine of three meant that the enemy needed to be actively pursued.
Important: during drummers’ performances, attention is paid to the aesthetics of the performance itself. The appearance of a musical performance in Japan is no less important than the melody or rhythm component.
Musical genres of the Land of the Rising Sun
Japanese folk music went through several stages of its development: initially it was music and songs of a magical nature (like all nations), then the formation of musical genres was influenced by Buddhist and Confucian teachings. In many ways, traditional Japanese music is associated with ritual events, holidays, and theatrical performances.
Of the most ancient forms of Japanese national music, two genres are known: shomyo (Buddhist chants) and gagaku (court orchestral music). And musical genres that do not have roots in antiquity are yasugi bushi and enka.
Yasugi bushi is one of the most common folk song genres in Japan. It is named after the city of Yasugi, where it was created in the mid-19th century. The main themes of Yasugi Bushi are considered to be key moments of local ancient history, and mythopoetic tales about the times of the gods.
“Yasugi bushi” is both the dance “dojo sukui” (where catching fish in the mud is shown in a comic form), and the art of musical juggling “zeni daiko”, where hollow bamboo stems filled with coins are used as an instrument.
Enka is a genre that originated relatively recently, just in the post-war period. In enke, Japanese folk instruments are often woven into jazz or blues music (an unusual mix is obtained), and it also combines Japanese pentatonic scale with European minor scale.
Features of Japanese folk music and its difference from the music of other countries
Japanese national music has its own characteristics that distinguish it from the musical cultures of other nations. For example, there are Japanese folk musical instruments - singing wells (suikinkutsu). You’re unlikely to find something like this anywhere else, but there are musical bowls in Tibet, too, and more?
Japanese music can constantly change rhythm and tempo, and also lack time signatures. The folk music of the Land of the Rising Sun has completely different concepts of intervals; they are unusual for European ears.
Japanese folk music is characterized by maximum proximity to the sounds of nature, a desire for simplicity and purity. This is no coincidence: the Japanese know how to show beauty in ordinary things.
Author – Arthur Viter
