Category: metal

JPU Records launches new website by introducing ELFRIEDE

ELFRIEDE band pic

JPU Records is proud to introduce brand new Japanese rock band ELFRIEDE! The quartet will release their debut album “real-Ize” in April, with full details about the band, the album and their music videos are available on the brand new JPU Records website.

ELFRIEDE consists of Ryo Yamabuki (guitar), Rina Hoshino (bass), Yu-yan (drum) and Mikuru (vocal). Ryo has been featured in several of Japan’s top guitar publications, including YOUNG GUITAR and Player magazine and is also a popular cosplay icon with over 100 thousand followers on Twitter. Bass player Rina also has a solo career in jazz fusion and both members have supported bands on stages across Japan. It was from doing this that Ryo and Rina could meet drummer Yu-yan and vocalist Mikuru and complete ELFRIEDE’s electric line-up.

Despite ELFRIEDE’s short history, the band has formed a solid and eager fanbase amongst Japan’s indie rock scene. The initial pressing of their self-released EP –LOVE &- sold out despite only being available at gigs and via their website, and more recently when the group set up a crowdfunding campaign to hijack the streets of Shibuya for a video advertising campaign, they succeed their goal by 229 per cent! The campaign will see their promotional video blast across seven giant screens in Shibuya, from the famous scramble crossing up towards Tower Records (one of the biggest CD shops in the world) as well as on trucks with video screens and speakers on the back.

JPU Records’ edition of real-Ize will feature an extended booklet containing the album’s lyrics and English translations and transliterations and will be released on CD from 3 May 2019. Its digital release will be simultaneous with its Japanese release on 24 April.

LOVEBITES Announce First European Tour: November 2018

Japan’s power metal heroines LOVEBITES have announced that their debut European headline tour will take place this November. The all-female five-piece, who recently won the Best New Band Award at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards, have joined British agency X-Ray Touring and will return to the UK and Germany for the tour, and perform in the Netherlands and France for the first time. Continue reading →

BAND-MAID Begin World Tour, Latest Album Available World Wide

BAND-MAID image

BAND-MAID has released latest album Just Bring It in America and Canada on CD ahead of the band’s world tour, which includes San Fransisco this weekend and the UK, France, Germany and Spain in November. The album and their previous material has also been made available in Spotify for the first time outside of Japan, as well as latest double A-side single Daydreaming / Choose me.

On the CD release in America, guitarist and vocalist Miku comments, “We’re happy and very excited that Masters and Princesses overseas are enjoying our music. It fills our hearts with excitement and joy! We’re also excited about returning to America, the first country we served overseas!”

Regarding the tour, Miku adds, “We’re looking forward to see Masters and Princesses, new and old! And also for shopping and eating lovely food in each city – we can’t wait!”

BAND-MAID WORLD TOUR 2017
Burn! Burn! BAND-MAID Moe Moe Cune

(Sun) 10 September: JPOP SUMMIT, San Francisco. USA 🇺🇸 [tickets]

(Fri) 3 November: O2 Academy Islington, London. UK 🇬🇧 [tickets]

(Sat) 4 November: La Boule Noire, Paris. France 🇫🇷 [tickets]

(Sun) 5 November: Zeche, Bochum. Germany 🇩🇪 [tickets]

(Wed) 8 November: Bi Nuu, Berlin. Germany 🇩🇪 [tickets]

(Thu) 9 November: Backstage, Munich. Germany 🇩🇪 [tickets]

(Sun) 12 November:  Salamandra, Barcelona. Spain 🇪🇸 [tickets]

Just Bring it

BAND-MAID Just Bring It cover art

Buy on CD:

Amazon: 🇺🇸USA // 🇨🇦CA // 🇬🇧UK // 🇫🇷FR // 🇩🇪DE // 🇮🇹IT // 🇪🇸ES

WOWHD: 🇺🇸USA / 🇨🇦CA / 🇬🇧UK / 🇫🇷FR / 🇩🇰DK / 🇩🇪DE / 🇮🇪IE / 🇳🇱NL / 🇸🇪SE

Download from:

Amazon Music: 🇺🇸USA // 🇬🇧UK // 🇫🇷FR // 🇩🇪DE // 🇮🇹IT // 🇪🇸ES

CRYSTAL LAKE Announce UK Headline Tour: 23-27 October

CRYSTAL LAKE pic

“Dishing out apoplectic mosh-starters… worthy of global recognition” – Rock Sound

“I saw them at KnotFest. Hoo boy, they were good.” – Daniel P. Carter, BBC Radio 1 Rock Show

Japan’s metal heroes CRYSTAL LAKE have revealed their exciting anniversary plans for this October, including a string of shows across England. The band will celebrate their 15th year by throwing their own festival in Tokyo, dropping new single APOLLO, and conducting their first UK headline tour before finishing the month off with an appearance at a metalcore festival in Germany.

For a decade and half, CRYSTAL LAKE have been cranking out some of Japan’s most explosive heavy rock. Blending elements of metalcore, hardcore and hard rock, the band has created their most ambitious and dynamic album to date with TRUE NORTH. The release is out now in the UK and Europe courtesy of JPU Records, and in America via Artery Recordings, and is also the name of the UK Tour.

CRYSTAL LAKE – OMEGA music video

CRYSTAL LAKE on tour with Aviana and All Faces Down in October 2017:

23 Oct: London 229 The Venue

24 Oct: Manchester Satan’s Hollow

25 Oct: Birmingham The Flapper

26 Oct: Plymouth Underground

27 Oct: Southampton Talking Heads (CRYSTAL LAKE only)

28 Oct: Cologne MoreCore Festival

More dates to follow.

Back home in Tokyo the band will mark their 15th anniversary by throwing a festival under their name and inviting 15 of their favourite bands to perform, including Japan’s coldrain, America’s Fit For A King and Taiwan’s Emerging from the Cocoon, as well as a number of names from Japan’s punk, hardcore and metal scenes, such as SHADOWS, SAND and NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST.

CRYSTAL LAKE will release latest single APOLLO in Japan from 11 October, including two new songs and a remix of Dreamscape by dubstep producer PhaseOne, as well as a DVD featuring footage from their sold out tour finale earlier this year.

BAND-MAID Release Just Bring It in Europe

“Wailing guitar solos, huge choruses and punching hooks: They’ve got the attitude of Guns N’ Roses and the pomp of Def Leppard.” – Metal Hammer

“A cracking slice of catchy pop metal with some deceptively technical guitar work” – Huffington Post Blog

“They dress like maids and they definitely rock” – MetalInjection.net

After blasting in to the international rock scene last year, BAND-MAID return with their hotly anticipated first major album. Entitled Just Bring It, the 13-track album, released under Nippon Crown in their homeland of Japan, will hit the UK and Europe from 10 February 2017 through JPU Records in two editions; the regular edition and a CD and T-shirt bundle. Continue reading →

Yoshiki Announces New York Concert with Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

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Yoshiki — songwriter, drummer/percussionist, classically-trained pianist and the creative force of the rock group X Japan — has announced a special concert event presented by Knitting Factory, “Yoshiki Classical Special Featuring Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra”.

The special classical performance will take place on January 12 and 13, 2017, at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage in New York City. Tickets, priced at $105/ $85/ $75/ $65/ $55/ $40, will be available at 11am (EST) onSeptember 29th at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling Carnegie Charge at 212-247-7800 and Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org. Continue reading →

The Greatest BABYMETAL Tracks Since The Beginning Of The Universe

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Recently Mental Hamster ran a top ten BABYMETAL tracks OF ALL TIME!!!!!!! and over here at Najinsan I was all like “Eh? That looks like they’ve cobbled together ten tracks at random as a simple exercise in clickbait” and then I was all like “I bet I can make a better list simply by putting in one extra song and suffixing with MORE HYPERBOLE!

Which I totally did. Continue reading →

While Wandering Around

I ran into this album on Youtube by obscure American rockers, The Rods. The album cover features two metal monkeys and the Silver Surfer in the middle pointing a sword at a plate.

I recall enjoying this album where it was tagged onto the end of a Vow Wow bootleg my school mate brought over from Dubai. If you like Dio, AC/DC, Anvil, Cobra etc then you will enjoy this.

Additional enjoyment features include daft lyrics like “I was born to raaawk!” etc.

Anvil Are Touring Europe!!

As many readers of my Japanese-flavoured rock blog know I am a fan of old school rock and the first band I ever got into was a band called *Vow Wow. This has absolutely nothing to do with Anvil touring Europe but tangentially Anvil are touring Japan very soon. Erm.

Anyway, Lips from the band is plugging the tour so I thought I’d share the dates:

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I’m totally going to the Edinburgh show where I hope to chat with the band and if YOU have any questions leave ’em in the comments or hook me up on Twitterererrerrrrr.

*Vow Wow yeaahhhhhhhh!

VISUAL JAPAN SUMMIT 2016 Powered by Rakuten is officially confirmed!

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Japanese Visual-Kei rock music has captured the hearts of rock fans worldwide.

Amidst the glut of festivals across the country comes the announcement of an enormous event to top them all: VISUAL JAPAN SUMMIT 2016 Powered by Rakuten.

The first artists to be announced are X JAPAN, LUNA SEA, GLAY, hide with Spread Beaver, and Golden Bomber. Dozens more will be announced soon.

It’s been nearly thirty years since the birth of Visual-Kei in Japan, and the event will be Japan’s biggest-ever Visual-Kei festival, bringing together bands from across the country for an estimated audience of 100,000 people.

xjapan

X JAPAN, who have been on hiatus since the sudden hospitalization of their guitarist PATA, will make a full return at the festival. The festival will also incorporate a revival 24 years later of Extasy Summit, the legendary event that began in 1988, and was last held in 1992 at the Osaka Castle Hall and Nippon Budokan. And plans are being made for live viewing abroad, with details to be announced later.

VISUAL JAPAN SUMMIT 2016 Powered by Rakuten October 14th (Fri), 15th (Sat), and 16th (Sun), 2016 at the Makuhari Messe Hall halls 9-11

Official websites
Japanese: http://visual-japan.com　English: http://visual-japan.com/en

Tickets 
Tickets available from August 10. Ticket inquiries call Rakuten ticket customer support
Phone：050-5817-9070 (weekdays 10:00-17:00).