I was at Hyper Japan yesterday, spent the weekend looking up Japanese bands mentioned, and some time on the JPU stall. As a result I’ve splashed out on some new CDs.
I’ve never been a fan of clean singing in metal, especially with male/western singers, to the point that I don’t really listen to it, even though i love the guitar work/melodies, especially in the power metal world, stuff like Firewind, and I just cringe and die when i hear Dragonforce lyrics. Also in the West the female singers on metal bands tend to be a bit operatic so I’ve rarely ventured into Scandinavia on that front.
What I’ve now discovered is a whole genre of Japanese girl metal bands which combine the best of both worlds. Yay.
and the added bonus of not having to watch some unwashed hairy blokes in the vids.
Aldious
and yeah, Japanese Metal Elsa is very… watchable.
Mary’s Blood
I may well be ever so slightly obsessed with Saki now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jap8hWAX6VU
Band-Maid are more hard rock, but probably getting the most play time on my ipod at the moment. There was a maid cafe at Hyper Japan, so I’m an expert on Japanese maids.
Bridear are bit more metalcore and technical.
Guitarist Misa is fab
and Cyntia
and hey, unlike Babymetal you get to enjoy Japanese metal without feeling bad about venturing into the disturbing world of exploited idols.