back from the grave

luke

Messianic Subliminal Mind
May 2, 2001
760
0
16
Soapland
Visit site
Well, I've been off the boards long enough to be proclaimed dead. I'm sure there've been some killer discussions going on while I was dragging my wretched corpse up and down Honshu, I'll just have to catch up later.
For the time being I'd like to offer a review of the Beast Feast festival last weekend in Tokyo.
I should start off by saying that I live in a very small town in Northern Japan, and haven't been to a concert in just about a year.
The biggest dissapointment was that I had to work Saturday, and didn't even make it into the city till Sunday afternoon. Just in time for Morbid Angel. They played a lot of older material (just as well, seeing as I haven't really listened to them for about 5 years.) but the sound quality was poor, and over distorted. I could hardly tell which song they were playing. Then came a bunch of Japanese and American bands which I wasn't familiar with, and didn't do much to impress me. However, there were some very sexy metal babes present, whom with I took the opportunity to make aquaintance.
One Minute Silence (the singer sounded Irish???) did a very annoying and repititous 45min set. which after a couple more Japanese bands (Bat Cave was decent, very offensive vocalist by Japanese standards) and then came the headliners...Machine Head and Pantera. I used to listen to these bands in high school, and am familiar with their early material.
Preface: I went to karaoke the Friday night previous to the concert.
Conclusion: Yours truly may be tone deaf, but the way Mr. Flynn was crooning into the mic last Sunday was enough to make your dog hide under the back porch.
Pantera put on a good show, and was joined by various other artists throughout their performance. I was glad they played lots of the older shit that I knew too.

Dissapointments: Machine Head, not seeing Slayer
Highlights: Pantera, the metal babes

Looking forward to the Candiria/Cryptopsy show in October.

take it easy
 
Welcome back mate!

The highlight of this week was breaking the 10'000 posts barrier before the dreaded Blaze forum. Those spammers.. :heh:
 
Hey Luke! Glad you're back.

I'm curious about how metal is so popular in Japan. Is it that the younger generation is rebelling against the "uptight" impression that I have of Japanese culture? Or is it somehow kept separate from that, i.e. *normal* Japanese kids listen to it just like any other bands, and without upsetting their elders? Japan just seems like the last place on earth that would embrace the metal scene. Granted though, I've never been there. So enlighten me!
 
Its kind of weird how metal is so popular in Japan. I mean there are so many live albums in japan. Arch Enemy, In Flames just to name a couple. I think its maybe cause japanese kids actually have a taste in music. I mean the majority of Americans listen to shit music like Linkin Park or Drowning pool. Im sick of it too. They call Drowning Pool the coming back of metal. Is the state of Metal that sad that they have to call Drowning Pool the saviors of metal?!? i dont know :( . Oh well, every time i see that stupid crap on tv it just makes me want to listen to my music more.
 
I wouldn't go so far as to say that people here have good taste in music. Nobody would once they've heard Morning Musume. (crap teenage girl band of immense popularity). Japan is confusing place as far as music and fashion are concerned. Some of the girls were the most hideous outfits concievable, and as long as it's cute, everybody loves them. The music here is a strange melange of blatant ripoffs and combinations of style that wouldn't have much appeal to western audiences.
My favourite is the genre called J-reggae.
It seems as though the local metal scene here, as well as other parts of Asia lacks in originality. Excepting the inclusion of traditional instruments, there haven't been many Asian metal bands to grab me by the ass and make me say, 'I haven't heard anything like that before' in the past couple years that I've been here.
In terms of population, I'd say that the percentage of people into metal here is much lower than that of say Australia. If the kids are rebelling, they sure don't use metal as their vehicle of choice. I think the difference is that metal artists are more accepted by the public and not dismissed as Satanists or something stupid like that. Most people don't have much of a concept of what metal is (most of them think of the hair bands that we all know and love) and there doesn't seem to be the stigma attached to listening to metal and being a delinquent.
There is a famous Japanese metal band called SEKIMA II (sekimatsu) who'S style would best be likened to Judas priest (???maybe???) Tey like to dress in a crossover of Black metal and Kiss fasion. The singer is a fellow called Daemon Kogure, who professes not to be human and spews anthropomorphisms... while leading a not so secret second life which allows him to host cooking shows and variety shows on TV in his full Kiss/corpse paint. It'S very disconcerting to see him jump from channel to channel, first tasting a batch of Mabo Tofu and then singing karaoke (beatles, deep purple, top 40) and then having a chat with somebody using very formal Japanese. And when he claims to be inhuman nobody blinks an eye. He's just an entertainer, so it's pefectly normal for him to say things out of the ordinary.

As for all the bonus tracks and live CD's that come out just for Japan, they are a bit of a mystery. It could be that CD's cost so fuckin much here that they feel it should be made up to the fans, but it could also be a marketing scheme.

guess that doesnt really answer your question, but maybe gives you avague idea of the scene over here.
 
Welcome Back

Make sure you wipe all of the dirt off from your dead and buried body - and take a shower.

Japanese Metal: I'm trying to remember bands I used to listen to from Japan - I think they were

EZO
Tokyo Blade
Loudness
 
Hey man, there ya are! Welcome back! There were metal babes?

THE UPDATE:

- Satori and Xtokalon have been battling in the "Is there a God" thread (on to, like, 14 pages long now... and we thought the "stirring the pot" threads were long), and many other theological debates have gone down (nothing new).
- Dan Swano updated his webpage
- Thales' webpage got a facelift
- Anton Maiden is now the forerunner for the lead singer for Thales (heh)
- Windom Pearl's band, "Farmakon", as some MP3's up on mp3.com - they rule
- Opeth live video is now up and it rules http://www.bootlegmania.8m.com/opeth/index.html
- the singer Aaliyah is dead
- Anders Nordin and Lee Barrett have been sharing some old stories from their days with Opeth
- It was decided by Opethians that the fourth dimension is, in fact, time

(how long have you been gone?)

- Opeth released their fifth record "Blackwater Park"... the cold war is over... scientists now think pesticides may be harmful to humans... they now believe there may be such thing as a "female orgasm"...
 
Cheers for the update

I've actually only been off the board for about 1 month of 4th dimension. I wish my computer had a soundcard so I could listen to some of those MP3's. Oh well, my boss bought the thing for me, so I shouldn't really complain.

Female orgasm, eh? What'll they think of next, popcorn you can cook in the microwave?
 
Hellspawn - All that, and you neglected to include the continuing story...that was classic.
As for Sigh, I could write a long description of their latest (already have on this BB), but I think the review and interview on Ultimate Metal, both by a close acquaintance of mine, will get anyone interested.
 
Funny you should mention that, Demonspell, I actually ended up writing that post twice due to a browser crash (arrgghhhh!!) and I forgot to include the story the second time around. I think I wrote something to the effect of "and, we wrote this really crappy story that Orchid, Xtokalon, Demonspell, and I attepted to salvage near the end, but ultimately failed"