Hi all

Basically am making this thread because I find it so hard to find good Japanese metal that also have Japanese lyrics. Most of the good bands that i find usually have English lyrics which is really annoying and doesn't help me with immersion. Hopefully we can share some good bands with each other. (^_^)

Here are some of my favorite non-Japanese bands to give you an idea of my taste:

Dimmu Borgir
Rammstein
Nightwish
Cradle of Filth
Amon Amarth
Children Of Bodom
Pain
Within Temptation

Some Japanese Bands l found so far with Japanese lyrics:

Detroit Metal City
Myproof
Maximum The Hormone
Liv Moon - Japanese version of old Nightwish
Magane - Black Metal
Metal Safari
モノノフ (mononofu) - thrash metal

please can anyone share some more j-metal bands.

よろしくお願いします (^_^)b

I noticed the absence of Sex Machine Guns in your list, so...
Also in case you don't care about the lyrics being half Japanese half English (for the most part) Anthem is pretty good.

There's also what I call Anime Metal, but I'm pretty sure these bands don't suit your taste. (think Dragon Force + female vocals)

Sigh (サイ) is pretty damn amazing from what I've heard, but I've only heard stuff off a couple of albums from them, so I'm not sure to what extent they've released stuff in Japanese.

For non-Japanese metal you should really start listening to Opeth. That is the band most sorely lacking on your example list.

I had the same problem as you. I used to listen to a lot of death/black metal bands. I tried to find some Japanese ones that sounded cool and would match my taste. But I couldn't find any that I liked. So I decided to just stick with listening to English bands and develope a different persona under Japanese with Japanese music.

Japanese rock music is not so bad. They have guitar solos and everything you would find in an English band. ( Maybe not like Amon Amarth or Cradle of Filth ) After listening to Japanese music for a long long while it all becomes just natural to listen to. Soon you will be air guitaring those cheesy guitar solos. ( I will admit that ). I often don't find myself listening to a lot of English metal music lately; just Japanese music. But every now and then I will shuffle things up with Ansur or Judas Iscariot.

Oh and more thing. There is this Japanese black metal band called "Galhammer". All the members in the band are chicks. They are actually a pretty good band, black metal-wise. Now being able to clearly hear the singer is a whole different story.

Ask, and ye shall receive. Metal, that is.

Although, admittedly, I haven't found a whole lot of Japanese metal that particularly fits my tastes (probably the polar opposite of dave's, and I mean no offensive by that ), quality over quantity is fine by me, and there's some real quality J-metal out there.

Some of my favorites:

Birushanah
Osakan sludge metal with traditional Japanese percussion (and trashcans, among other things), fretless bass, and some of the heaviest riffs and loudest screaming you could ever hope for. Their songs tend to be incredibly long, dense journeys into the oppressive... heavy... recesses of crushing...ness. I ran out of doom metal cliche words. :/

五人一首 (Gonin-Isshu / Gonin-Ish)
Progressive death metal act with a ferocious (yet adorable) female lead vocalist. Somewhat comparable to a lot of the bigger prog metal bands such as Opeth, but with a decidedly Japanese aesthetic. One of the coolest things about 五人一首 is the copious use of ye olde 日本語 in their lyrics.

Sigh
As Tzadeck mentioned, Sigh is pretty rad. They began as a pretty straight-ahead black metal band with keyboards (when keyboards weren't cool in black metal), and have gradually evolved into an entirely different, experimental, somewhat avant-garde (but every bit as awesome) beast. It's worth noting that 99% of their material is in English, because Mirai thinks that metal just doesn't sound right in Japanese. I disagree, but at least his English is good!

(early, black metal Sigh)

(circa 2005, experimental Sigh)

Boris
To be clear, I don't consider most of their material metal, as they're a bit more in the realm of stoner/garage rock, but screw technicalities. They've covered more ground than any other band I can think of, from drone metal to hardcore punk to ambient to desert rock and back again. They're probably my very favorite band.

(drone metal BORIS)

(stoner rock Boris)

Galneryus
Not too big on being smothered in layers of riffs? Perhaps you're gearing up to slay dragons and prefer to listen to something a little more uplifting and energetic? Galneryus might be just the ticket! Fun, flashy, frenetic power metal with just a touch of VK, Galneryus will melt your face. As with Sigh, most of their material is in English, but there are some exceptions in this case.

I'll have to come back later with more suggestions if I can think of them.

Is there no love here for Envy...?

bebio Wrote:Is there no love here for Envy...?

Envy is one of my very, very favorite bands! However, they live in a world far removed from that of metal. In a cold, lonely and often misunderstood world known as "screamo" that many awful bands have all but ruined for everyone else. Envy is totally awesome.

To be honest the above bands don't do it for me. Sorry am really fussy with music.
Is there any Japanese bands that have songs as powerful and epic as these:

i like a lot of the non-japanese bands that you mentioned so maybe my taste would be somewhat similar to yours...

For Japanese The Gazette seems right:

I like Hyde and D'espairs Ray a lot as well

dave141190 Wrote:To be honest the above bands sound fairly average to me. Sorry am really fussy with music.

I don't think there's much I can do for ya, then

Quote:Is there any japanese bands that have songs as powerful and epic as these:
「...」

Might wanna give 夢中夢 a shot - they're not exactly metal, but have plenty of heavy moments. Operatic vocals also, a little similar to Nightwish when they were halfway listenable!

(sort of a gory PV, FYI)

I'm more into the hardcore/punk scene with japanese but its all good!
Lip Cream, ***** on the Beach, Gauze, Kuro

I'm so glad this thread was made! I need to listen to more metal

I seem to remember batcave being pretty heavy.

Erubey Wrote:I'm more into the hardcore/punk scene with japanese but its all good!
Lip Cream, ***** on the Beach, Gauze, Kuro

I'm personally not a fan of punk/hardcore, but I met a heavy punkish/hardcore band in Japan called IQ20. They have about 3 albums out and did a small tour in America and Japan, theres a few live gigs on youtube and if you google their band name it will get you some non live songs. + they are awesome guys so if you like them go to one of their live concerts and talk to them, funny guys!

Yeah I'm pretty sure that everyone who posts about music is very picky and selective.

There's a difference between being selective and having a superior musical taste to everyone else, just for the record (for anyone else who wants to make another 'recommend me x music' thread and intends to trash everyone's recommendations, confused, however temporarily, into thinking that their own taste is elite rather than simply different). ;p

I really like D'espairsRay - Mirror, myself, it's very rare that bands like these can sing with the growly/cookie monster vocals and I don't literally burst out laughing. I don't know, I guess that style of singing is just too gimmicky and superficial to me, like professional wrestling compared to MMA--doesn't evoke emotions or moods in me at all compared to other styles. But that's just my opinion! ^_-

That band Envy sounds good from what I'm hearing so far, thanks for the tip.

Vajra has some nice tracks as well: http://www.last.fm/music/Vajra (You'll notice some similar artists on that page that aren't really metal, but they are heavy and noisy and I'm quite fond of some of them, including Les Rallizes Denudes--everyone should listen to Night of the Assassins and Romance of Black Grief at least once, preferably from 'Heavier than a Death in the Family' and 'Mars Studio 1980', respectively--try We Have No Zen's blogspot.) Actually looks like that last.fm page confused the Vajras, heh: http://www.last.fm/music/%EF%BC%B6%EF%BC...2%EF%BC%A1 - I actually heard the Haino group first...

I don't pay much attention to music genres, but using D'espairs Ray as a guide line, you might like Sadie, Sel'm, Deadman, or Dir en Grey. Those are some of my favorites. For something a little weirder, I like Rentrer en Soi.

Deadman

Sadie

Dir en Grey

Sel'm

Rentrer en Soi

The Back Horn are cool
Acidman too

龍5150

Pizuya's Cell x MyonMyon

Thousand Leaves

Yousei Teikoku

Ootsuki Kenji

Jimang

Sound Horizon

ordered by relevance.

nest0r Wrote:Yeah I'm pretty sure that everyone who posts about music is very picky and selective.

There's a difference between being selective and having a superior musical taste to everyone else, just for the record (for anyone else who wants to make another 'recommend me x music' thread and intends to trash everyone's recommendations, confused, however temporarily, into thinking that their own taste is elite rather than simply different). ;p

I like you very much nest0r.

liosama Wrote:

nest0r Wrote:...

I like you very much nest0r.

Oh, you!

If anyone could find me the japanese lyrics to Envy albums, especially the Jesu split, I'd be forever grateful.

FOREVER

I liked alot of the bands you listed, was really into metal and ive found the the Visual kei music was perfect for me with a perfect blend of growls and clean vocals. Bands like the Gazette, -Oz-, Nega, Sadie, Lynch and Deathgaze to name a few i have been listnin too. The japanese has quickly out weighd the english quicker than i thought. Only ever listen to english at the download festival.

Not metal but I'll use the serendipity: Anyone here familiar with this song or who wants to listen now:

(The Mad Capsule Markets - Systematic) want to tell me if it sounds familiar to them? Mostly the verse/chorus style. I swear, it sounds like something I've heard before (or vice versa), but I can't figure out what, and it's driving me crazy.

At first I thought it was Bergin's Trust Obey project, some track from that, then I thought perhaps something more mainstream and from the same era like White Zombie or Ministry, then I thought it might be something more industrial and obscure, now I'm thinking it might be something more modern and 'nu metal', something I might not have even liked when I heard it. Maybe it's something from Tool, perhaps Undertow. Though the only similarity I keep hearing there is perhaps this sort of vocal style influenced Tool's 'Hooker with a Penis' from Aenima.

I don't like them but I found a band called "モノノフ" who's lyrics are all in Japanese for anyone who likes a bit of thrash metal.

Some I can recommend (not necessarily Metal, but mainly with some sort of guttural singing):

Skywings
Power Metal

SPINALCORD
Power Metal with some Screams (Formerly: Aushvitz)

Vent of Against
Badass screams.

exist†trace
V系, though.

Gallows the Villain
Hardcore

Heaven in her Arms
Try it if you like Envy.

Irrivaly
Post-Hardcore

Metal Safari
Metalcore. They provide all their lyrics on their website. The lyrics are incomprehensible, though.

Nervous Light of Sunday
Post-Hardcore

パナップォ
Not a band, actually, but a Nicovideo user.

Foreground Eclipse
Post-Hardcore. The screaming is in Engrish, sadly.

Arise in Stability
"As actual as a desire" is their only Japanese song as far as I know.

Azn Steez
Some metal with clean vocals.

キバ　オブ　アキバ
Post-Hardcore

傷痕

Not sure if Japanese lyrics:
ENEMA / Immortal Sense

Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but if you like metal (and comedy), then you need Detroit Metal City in your life! There's a film, and anime series and a manga, all highly recommended. Oh, and an OST

This is the 'theme song'

This is one of the best songs in the film

edit:
trailer