Japanese metal recommendations

[speedmetalpunk]

P.S. Am i the only one who likes the debut album of SABBRABELLS?

i enjoy it


also, i dont think anyone has mentioned the best japanese metal band of all time

SABBAT!

if you have forgive me for being lazy and not reading the earlier posts =P

haha

[omen of hate]

P.S. Am i the only one who likes the debut album of SABBRABELLS?

I've found their 1rst album lately on Soulseek, it seems rather interresting.

We didn't mention here Genocide ("Black Sanctuary") which sounds like German metal à la Running Wild.

[Fils Du Metal]

To get to the top. REALLY the best record I ever heard from Japan the last years is the PROWLER 7"...
who has it and sells it/trades it to me!? This record and the band PROWLER is a HAMMER........

[DaN]

To get to the top. REALLY the best record I ever heard from Japan the last years is the PROWLER 7"...

Their own 7" or the split-7" w/ YOKE OF STEEL? I'd love to hear both.

[Fils Du Metal]

Hi Dan,

I mean their Back Fire 7"..the flexi I still did not own until now
It will break your neck!

[Azaras]

I'm not to familiar with the Japanese Metal scene from the 80's and was wondering if these following bands are worth getting:

EX DANGER
PARANOIA
WOLF
DEAD END
BELLZLLEB
CASHBAH
HELLEN

Thanks in advance !!

I think all of those are generally good. I rather enjoy HELLEN quite a bit.

[Azaras]

Of the many, many traditional metal bands from Japan, I'd recommend one called RAJAS first (if we are ignoring the famous ones everyone's heard - ANTHEM, SABBRABELLS, etc). RAJAS (I think they were all female? Or some of the band was female?) look like a glammy act and their lyrics are often trite and totally not metal ("why don't you love me?", etc etc). That's all unfortunate, as they have all the right smokin' valves and their JUDAS PRIEST down quite well. Woah.

The best full-length I've heard so far is BREEZE LEAST's only LP. You might have trouble finding an original, but this is seriously an album everyone should at least try to get on mp3 or cdr. Killer NON-commercial melodic Metal!

GREAT band. I have the LP and the 7" as well. The lyrics - especially for "Breeze Least" and "Dread To Death" - are pretty cool and ghastly (though they have a bit of the "Engrish" thing going on). The live versions on the 7" are almost better than the LP. Really a great band. Epic/doom/whatever in the best possible way.

SEIKIMA-II did a few good ones as well. Pretty european-sounding trad HM, although most Japanese hard-core metalheads seem to hate them because of their image.

On repeated listenings I loathed this band... just like LOUDNESS, whose VAN HALEN moves I enjoyed at first but couldn't stand after a time. Both bands are "nice" to listen to it. They sound "nice". It starts to grate on my graveyard ears.

I have the "Russian Roulette" 7" '86 by CASBAH. It's pretty kool deathlike Thrash. I would love to hear their 1st live flexi from '85. Their later material is more American sounding thrash.

CASBAH is a terrific band, I have a great deal from them. Probably the heaviest of the old '80s death/thrash/black/speed scene from Japan, including aces like DOOM, UNITED, SABBAT, JURASSIC JADE, SACRIFICE, DEMENTIA, SHELLSHOCK, ROMMEL, ZADKIEL, RAGING FURY, GROUND ZERO, OUTRAGE and so on. Their "Chain Gang" demotape is a great piece of real-sounding death metal - in my opinion - and their "Russian Roulette" single smokes. I have a live show from them opening with a fucking WEIRD intro... a Scottish/Classical music thing... sounds familiar to me.

I can furnish you with the songs from that Flexi '85, if you give me time to make mp3s. One of the songs is an absolute slow pounder that crawls along at morbid pace and dispatches any bullshit in its way.

ZADKIEL is an awesome band for people wanting deathrash that is purely MOTORHEAD whoreship and GROUND ZERO show a bit of the same spooky weirdness in their song about the "Beyond" that SABBAT did on their ESSENTIAL Hellfire/Immortality single. Just strip the "Japanese horror" sound off SABBAT and put some vaguely American-style thrash in its place.

As far as GENOCIDE goes, I will have to respectfully disagree with anybody who calls them "thrash". I can understand why one might think to call them such, but... it always felt to me that they were more MERCYFUL FATE-styled heavy metal, or KING DIAMOND influenced. It isn't just the vocals, it's the song-writing too. They have a tad bit of thrash to them, but it's in the "half-thrash-riffing-mixed-up-in-heavy-metal" style, that mix-up mish-mash that was so prevalent in the late '80s. Umm... maybe I am not making any sense at all.

[Azaras]

To get to the top. REALLY the best record I ever heard from Japan the last years is the PROWLER 7"...
who has it and sells it/trades it to me!? This record and the band PROWLER is a HAMMER........

ANYBODY who digs TRESPASS, PRAYING MANTIS, DARK STAR, and so on OWES it to themselves to get MAGNESIUM's demo '93 (or '94, one of those years...). It's great melodic metal with a really heavy crunch and melodices that get stuck in your head for hours afterwards. The singing is of course heavy on the Japanese accent, but I think it works.

[Azaras]

While we're on the topic of Japanese metal, what a great '70s heavy metal scene. Some of the best bands ever! There's too much of that to mention. From the famous ones like the incandescent FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND, mighty BLUES CREATION, FLIED EGG, SPEED GLUE AND SHINKI, APRYL FOOL, MIKI CURTIS & SAMURAI, to the obscure & later GLOOMY LANTERN & GREEN MAGUS, there was some brutal heaviness and some totally dark weiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirdness there.

BLUES CREATION's "Demon & 11 Children" record... woah...
"BLAAAAACK LIGHTNIIIIIING!"

[ION BRITTON]

While we're on the topic of Japanese metal, what a great '70s heavy metal scene. There's too much of that to mention. From the famous ones like the incandescent FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND, mighty BLUES CREATION, FLIED EGG, SPEED GLUE AND SHINKI, APRYL FOOL, MIKI CURTIS & SAMURAI, to the obscure & later GLOOMY LANTERN & GREEN MAGUS, there was some brutal heaviness and some totally dark weiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirdness there.

IMO, it's quite mileading calling that music scene ''70's heavy metal''. Yes, those bands were bloody heavy and had that creepy, dark vibe but i am not so sure about the metallic-ness of their sound. Don't misunderstand me as i find many 70's heavy rock outfits great and i don't doubt about their quality, but i prefer to call metal something more speedy, harsh, aggressive and epic. The masters JUDAS PRIEST first gave the definition. We might be playing with words right now, but you see sometimes all these hundreds of terms end up being really confusing. A ''70's heavy metal'' genre can easily become ''60's and 50's heavy metal'' etc, but how exact and close to the truth might that be?

[omen of hate]

On a more brutal edge, MESSIAH DEATH released two excellent demo tapes in the late 80's : "Immortal Kingdom" and " Invocated Unholy Souls".
There was a official rehearsal tape too "Gore of the Crucifix".

Their music was a blend between German Thrash and Death Metal. Too bad, they've never had a record deal.

[Azaras]

MESSIAH DEATH was pretty cool!! I prefer NECROPHILE a bit more though (despite the very thin sound of their production sometimes). Late '80s Japanese death metal bands are too numerous, and not all are great (of course).

[Azaras]

IMO, it's quite mileading calling that music scene ''70's heavy metal''. Yes, those bands were bloody heavy and had that creepy, dark vibe but i am not so sure about the metallic-ness of their sound. Don't misunderstand me as i find many 70's heavy rock outfits great and i don't doubt about their quality, but i prefer to call metal something more speedy, harsh, aggressive and epic. The masters JUDAS PRIEST first gave the definition. We might be playing with words right now, but you see sometimes all these hundreds of terms end up being really confusing. A ''70's heavy metal'' genre can easily become ''60's and 50's heavy metal'' etc, but how exact and close to the truth might that be?

In my opinion heavy metal is a bit more slow and... well, heavy, and it was first made by BLACK SABBATH. JUDAS PRIEST, and more aggressive stuff like, say, MORBID ANGEL, is more abrasive and faster than, say, BLACK SABBATH, but BLACK SABBATH (by virtue of how sluggish and weighty their songs are written) are probably heavier. A lot of those bands I listed sound at least as heavy and metallic (to me) than "Black Sabbath" or "Paranoid", two of the most heavy-hitting (and the original) metal albums.

I understand your point, but I did not recommend FAR EAST FAMILY or some other stuff. The bands I recommend were the metal ones (I think). Songs like "Atom Bombs Away" of BLUES CREATION are heavier and more sluggish than anything JUDAS PRIEST ever laid down, though JUDAS PRIEST's stuff would be faster or more brutal by far. I don't know which is more metal. I think both are.

It all comes down to personal definitions.

It's the difference nowadays between doom metal (which is influenced by the heavy bands of the '70s, playing heavy music that bludgeons people with its sloth) or speed/epic/etc metal (which worships at the altar of JUDAS PRIEST, essentially). Maybe this is right?

[omen of hate]

Ground Zero "Gate of Death"

[Azaras]

thats a cool one. I like "Etherealize" and the split flexi with JURASSIC JADE a bit more but the lp is still good.

A live album with old gigs came out a while ago, featuring some otherwise unreleased tracks I think.