Japans answer to Hard Rock/Heavy Metal?

[Hokuto-shinken]

[font=Fixedsys][color=DarkOrchid]Are there any good Japanese rock bands out there? I like music which is melodically sound, with highs, lows and jaw dropping guitar solos. Not mindless screaming RE; 4 loops.[/font][/color]
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Any thoughts would be much obliged.

Thanks

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[AssKissinger]

You might go in for B'z and X-Japan.

[jdm-justin]

You may also want to try Sex Machineguns... Or if you're feeling old-school: Loudness.

[Hokuto-shinken]

You might go in for B'z and X-Japan.

[color="DarkOrchid"][SIZE="4"][font="Fixedsys"]Yes, I like a bit of X-Japan. Probably the most famous Japanese rock band ever. Not sure about B`z though, I few songs I have listened have not sailed my ship. Might try to listen to a few more of their songs. Thanks AssKissinger.

B`z
X-Japan [/font][/SIZE][/color]

You may also want to try Sex Machineguns... Or if you're feeling old-school: Loudness.

[color="DarkOrchid"][SIZE="4"][font="Fixedsys"]I don`t know that much about the sex machineguns and Loudness, I will check them out.

Cheers guys

Loudness
Sex Machineguns [/font][/SIZE][/color]

[Oradea]

Luckily, I brought all my Maiden cds with me, although I have picked up earlier CDs of the following bands and found them to be listenable....
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
The Mad Capsule Markets

Enjoy, and let us know what you pick up eh? you might find something thatd interest us...

[Red Floyd]

Guitar Wolf.

[Hokuto-shinken]

Luckily, I brought all my Maiden cds with me, although I have picked up earlier CDs of the following bands and found them to be listenable....
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
The Mad Capsule Markets

Enjoy, and let us know what you pick up eh? you might find something that’]
[SIZE="3"][color="DarkOrchid"][font="Fixedsys"][SIZE="4"]Hi Oradea, man you’re lucky to have Maiden CDs with you. I had no room to take my vinyl records with me. It is so expensive to send things to Japan.

　I must confess, I am not a big fan of `The Mad Capsule Markets`. Hope this won’t offend you, but I feel it sounds like drum and bass meats heavy metal. I think they are not to bad, but not　 my cup of 　green tea.

Thee Michelle ...These names are getting stranger and stranger. Actually I think this band is good, but not sure if I would want to see them live.

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
The Mad Capsule Markets [/SIZE][/font][/color][/SIZE]

Guitar Wolf

[color="DarkOrchid"][font="Fixedsys"]Nice band, I think they are more on the PUNK ROCK side, which is still good. Still like more of a kick and more of a melody, but thank you.

Guitar Wolf

If you feel my taste is bad, please feel free to tell me!
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[CrankyBastard]

[color="DarkOrchid"][font="Fixedsys"]If you feel my taste is bad, please feel free to tell me!
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I think the font colours are a bit iffy:roll3:

[Oradea]

Houkto San,

About the mad capsule markets, I hear what your saying, but if you go back to their eralier stuff, Good morning japanese people etc, I yhink you will find more guitar and less machines.....Im not a big fan of their latest stuff either.

[AssKissinger]

What Japanese band do you think has 'more of a kick' than Guitar Wolf?

[Hokuto-shinken]

Houkto San,

About the mad capsule markets, I hear what your saying, but if you go back to their eralier stuff, Good morning japanese people etc, I yhink you will find more guitar and less machines.....Im not a big fan of their latest stuff either.

[color="DarkOrchid"][font="Fixedsys"]Oh, ok Oradea san, I will try to find some of their older stuff. Thanks for the tip. I guess there is no real Japanese Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden are a only of a kind.[/font][/color]

[Hokuto-shinken]

What Japanese band do you think has 'more of a kick' than Guitar Wolf?

[color="DarkOrchid"][font="Fixedsys"]
Sorry, I think my choice of words was a bit out. I admit Guitar Wolf, do have kick. I think they are a good band, but there music is like only Punk. If you listen to the Sex Pistols or the Romones or some other old Punk band, their music is very similar. Guitar wolf do rock, but not the band I am looking for.

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[Hokuto-shinken]

[YT]EzyW3tihPXo[/YT]

[color="Purple"][font="Fixedsys"]Sex Machineguns - Soko Ni Anataga[/font][/color]

[Ptyx]

Try Boris
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[Captain Japan]

Like Pizzicato 5, Cibo Matto, etc. etc. etc., if Boris weren't Japanese they'd be absolutely nobody. I think they know that and that is why they are so successful. Most of their music is nothing special.

[AssKissinger]

I think Boris' popularity is completely justified. Are you into the sludge/doom genre of metal at all? If you are, can you honestly say to me that Boris doesn't hang tight with comparable American bands like Earth and Sunn0)))?

Cibo Matto?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFpvaxN25gs

I like this song alone enough to put them heads-and-shoulders above 99.99999% of the competition.

And Pizzicato 5 write catchy songs with excellence musicianship.

It's hard to understand all the factors as to way a band comes to be famous but location is always huge. If Soundgarden had been from Atlanta they probably wouldn't have grown beyond the local club scene but who knows? But being from somewhere is only going to carry a band so far. All three of the bands you mention have maintained their popularity through quality musicianship.

[Ptyx]

Boris have been doing their thing for almost ten years now, if american critics were looking for a japanese darling they could have pick them up a long time ago.
I agree with Ak the fact they're now famous is completely justified.
Ok, the fact that sludge metal became fashionable again with the coming of Sunn 0))) has something to do with it but Pink is a great metal album in its own right.
It has been so long since anyone have put out a record with guitar solos and riffs as righteous, heavy and furious as Boris dashes out in Pink.
It was the heaviest shit to come from anywhere last year, and nothing has come close yet.
They're like the kids of High Rise and Mainliner, except that they don't have to make us listen to half and hour of improvisation before putting out their killer riffs.
Now it's not the most original stuff, but it's done as right as it can be.
That said, i think Pizzicato Five and the whole shibuya-kei thing was crap (except maybe for one or two records of Cornelius) and it rightfully died a few years after it gained its 2 seconds of limelight in the western music press.
I put Shonen Knife in the same category by the way.
I never really understood cibo matto, and they never stroke me as japanese, it's like saying Blonde Redhead is a japanese italian band. Do they even sing in japanese ?

Boris is whole different kind of band, they belong right next to Guitar Wolf, Boredoms and Acid Mothers Temple as bands that happens to be japanese on top of being awesome.
And yes, I sound like a a dumb fan because i am.

[Captain Japan]

I don't think Boris is bad. The album with Kurihara, "Rainbow," has some good stuff on it. But I really thought some parts of "Heavy Rocks" and "Pink" were embarrassing. I just think that if it weren't for the irony of a Japanese band making '70s sludge rock there'd not be much appeal for most people. Ok, how about this: If Boris were a trio from California do you really think they could sell of the album with SUNN O))) ("Altar") as a triple LP for $100?

[Captain Japan]

As for Cibo Matto, when their debut came out in '94 or '95 I couldn't read a review which didn't say how great it was because they used food as a metaphor for sex. Every critic bought into the mystique of the east bullshit and pumped them up. But in truth the music simply wasn'nt any good. I saw them live once as an opening act and all the songs were nearly 100% pre-programmed. Maybe they got better after that but I wasn't paying attention.

[Ptyx]

If Boris were a trio from California do you really think they could sell of the album with SUNN O))) ("Altar") as a triple LP for $100?

First i don't think they sold a lot of copies, second i honestly think that if Boris were californians they would still get props in the indie press.
There's a kind of 70's rock revival these days and it didn't start with Boris, it just happened that within that revival they're pretty much the heaviest band.
Death From Above and Comets on Fire got a lot of press way before Boris did.
Also i don't think it's that ironic, trends in music come and go, the begining of the 00's were pretty much dominated by pretty and intelectual pop music, dumb metal was pretty much obliterated in the 90's, so we didn't hear it for sometime it's only natural for it to come back as a reaction now.
So clearly the fact that Boris got big has something to do with the 70's, sludge, heavy metal or whatever you want to call it revival that's going on these days but not so much with the fact that they're japanese.
Of course it adds some exotism for westerners, but it's just the cherry on top of the cake.

The big surprise for me, rather than Boris success, was how Sunn o))) got so big.
Who could have predicted that drone metal was going to be the hot shit of the mid 00's.

[AssKissinger]

Besides Sabbath what bands from the '70's do yall think inspired Sludge?

[Buraku]

Besides Sabbath what bands from the '70's do yall think inspired Sludge?

Something gay like the Ramones, Pentagram or Amebix