Japanese avant-garde metallers dir en grey return to the UK this May, ready to perform tracks from their brand new album ARCHE for the first time live in the UK.
The band will be performing at the O2 Academy Islington in London on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 May 2015 as part of the European leg of their TOUR15 THE UNSTOPPABLE LIFE tour, which also includes shows in Germany, France, Holland, Poland and Belarus. Regular tickets are on sale now from TicketWeb with a face value of £28.12. VIP tickets are available from See Tickets and start at £80.
Bold and sensitive, chaotic and melodic, over the course of nine albums, dir en grey have become one of the biggest names in Japanese rock to break outside of their home country. Embraced by the international rock media, support for the band has been overwhelmingly positive, especially in the UK, where they became the first (and so far only) Japanese band to appear on the cover of Kerrang! Magazine.
New album ARCHE is out from 2 March on double CD from Gan Shin Records (order from Amazon), and is also out now digitally on Amazon MP3, iTunes and partically on Spotify.
Rising Japanese metalcore force Crossfaith dropped the official music video to The Evolution, taken from their latest album APOCALYZE. The video packs pyrotechnics, bearded hacker-types from the future and a retro-esque stormtrooper look-a-like baddy that’s going around slapping stickers on young ladies’ lips. The nerve…
Currently Crossfaith are on tour of the UK with Limp Bizkit as part of the Kerrang! Tour 2014, and will return this summer for the Download Festival.
[L to R:] Sohei (bass), Lidy (vocals), Kouichi (guitar, programming)
FEAR FROM THE HATE have been representing Japan’s metalcore scene for the past few years, regularly playing the country’s festivals for loud music, including SCREAM OUT FEST, MOSH IT LOUD and GEKI ROCK, often accompanied with foreign bands. Now the fierce electronic-metal trio are taking the first step at breaking out of Japan by signing with OKAMI Records for a European release of their latest single Silverwalker, out from digital outlets from 15 January 2014.
The group’s biggest success so far has been the music video to their early song PAINT A TRIP PARTY, produced with the maxilla team (they also did Crossfaith’s Omen video, NOISE MAKER’s NEW ERA PV, and plenty of others). The video, right at this very moment, has achieved a mighty 900,000+ views. Click the song title to have a watch. The band themselves say the PV features ‘dance, heavy music, and pop culture with an original Japanese flair’, which also acts as a pretty accurate description of FEAR FROM THE HATE’s sound too.
We’re looking forward to see how their upcoming album shapes up, and cross our fingers for a European tour sometime soon. Until then, here’s the lyric video Silverwalker:
If you’ve been following Japan Underground this month, you’ll have seen we’ve been talking to the staff at JPU Records on their favourite albums of the year, Japanese or otherwise. Today’s the last of these features as we check out the five biggest albums of the year according to JPU and Japan Underground founder and head honcho, Tom Smith. Any words on the selection, Tom? “Circles and triangles were in this year when it came to cover design, weren’t they? Anyway, a number of people ask me what kind of stuff I listen to outside of ‘work’ – this should give you an idea! I had to be careful not to fill this list entirely with JPU releases… so I’ve been good and only included one… and it’s also my favourite album this year.”
Ling tosite sigure – i’mperfect “This album. It’s not only at the top of my personal five favourite albums of 2013, it’s also in my top ten albums this side of the millennium. It took me well over a year for the LTS sound to click with me, but once it did, I was HOOKED. I’mperfect reminds me a lot of another favourite album of mine; Relationship of Command from At The Drive-In (listen on Spotify) – yet Sigure sound nothing like ATDI, but the energy of that album is present here too. Scratch that, imagine Relationship of Command condensed to 4 minutes and you have Ling tosite sigure’s ‘Sitai miss me’. My only problem with this album is that it’s over far too soon.” Outsanding tracks:abnormalize, Beautiful Circus. Buy from Amazon:Regular Edition, Digital Edition Buy direct from JPU Records (worldwide shipping)
Bring Me The Horizon – Sempiternal “BMTH first appeared on my radar years back when friends were going crazy over ‘Pray for Plagues’ and ‘[I Used to Make Out With] Medusa’. I didn’t really get the fuss, but that didn’t stop them ramming BMTH down my throat for the next few years… as a result I never really looked into the band much, which, looking back, is a shame. It was thanks to a different force shoving BMTH my way that I did eventually get into them; Youtube, with its barrage of Sempiternal ads earlier this year. I decided to listen on Spotify, and then buying the album after my month’s listening limit was used up just from playing it over and over. It still gets a lot of play today too.” Outstanding tracks:Can You Feel My Heart, Shadow Moses. Buy from Amazon:Regular Edition, Vinyl Edition, Digital (Deluxe) Edition.
Enter Shikari – Rat Race EP “Much like Bring Me The Horizon, Enter Shikari are another band my friends have been going bonkers about for years, especially as they’re local boys. I’d seen more than my fair share of human pyramids at Shikari shows over the years but never felt the need to buy an album. That was until I heard RADIATE on BBC Radio 1’s Rock Show. In fact, RADIATE is probably my favourite song this year, from anyone. I love it and it always lifts my mood. From there I worked backwards, and a month later I was the proud owner of all of Enter Shikari’s studio albums. Now they’re one of my favourite bands, and if this was a list of top 5 albums listened to during 2013, Enter Shikari’s A Flash Flood of Colour would be number one by a long way.” Outstanding Tracks:RADIATE, Paddington Frisk. Buy from Amazon:Digital Version
Crossfaith – Zion EP
“Yep, the EP and not APOCALYZE, their newest album. That’s not to say APOCALYZE isn’t a lot of fun – it’s just too much for me. It’s like eating chocolate cake, with a side helping of chocolate cake, with extra chocolate cake on top. Sure, I live chocolate cake but in moderation, man… Zion, is just the right length, and full of nothing but killer tune after killer tune. I’m listening to it while I write this and I want to go out and jump around.” Outstanding tracks:Jagerbomb, Monolith. Buy from Amazon:Regular Version, Digital Version, +1 Import Version
NOISEMAKER – DOUBLE COLOR SHEEP
“I went to a live show severely hungover while in Tokyo, just to see my mate’s band Silhouette from the Skylit support the amazing JAWEYE. Except, for some reason JAWEYE was on first and I totally missed them from rolling in late… instead NOISEMAKER were headlining, and despite hurting from the night before, their live set brought me back to life and rocking down the front with everyone else. They gave me their album, and I haven’t stopped listening to it since. They remind me a bit of what would happen if SPYAIR went heavier… mixed with the stuff I used to listen to as a teenager. Anyway, awesome band, and now I’m seriously thinking about releasing this album in Europe – so do tell me what you think and have a listen to the tracks I link below. Plus their cover of Rhianna’s Rude Boy is also genius.” Outstanding tracks:THE NEW ERA, platinum shoes. Buy from iTunes
It took its sweet time coming, but Girugamesh‘s sixth album has now been released in the UK and Europe courtesy of Gan Shin Records. It follows in the questionable footsteps of the band’s 2011 effort GO. Sure, single COLOR had its moments, but for the most part the whole album went the way of INOCHI NO KI and stripped the power and aggression that powered some of Girugamesh’s greats over the years. If you were looking for something to rival Break Down, Owari to Mirai and our personal favourite volcano, you’d probably GO [ahem] right off this album… thankfully, MONSTER redeems all the wrongs of recent years and brings the electro-metal quartet right back to their former glory.
The album starts in standard Girugamesh style (like most of Danger Crew’s releases for that matter) with an upbeat electronic track that leads directly the first proper song. The transition is perfect and Drain sets the pace for the rest of the record, as well as Girugamesh’s progression. It’s clear they’ve been listening to a bit of Skrillex recently, but that’s no bad thing. MONSTER’s electronic elements are their most mature, proper sounding efforts to date. If you felt some of their previous efforts fell flat, MONSTER’s electronic parts have found that much needed oomph. Similarly, production this time round is perhaps at the band’s most solid. The double kick pedal gives the kind of thick, deep thud that very few Japanese bands seems to achieve, while the lower end riffs on guitar and bass feel powerful yet clean. In a nutshell; this is the Girugamesh album we’ve all been waiting for for years. Let’s hope it persuades them to return to the UK for another live show soon.
Our top 3 tracks: takt, Live is Life, Drain.
MONSTER Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Drain (Music Video)
3. VOLTAGE
4. INCOMPLETE (Music Video)
5. Zantetsuken -MONSTER ver.- (Music Video)
6. antlion pit (Live Video)
7. Resolution
8. BAD END DREAM
9. Live is Life
10. Zecchou BANG!! -MONSTER ver.- (Music Video)
11. Another way
12. ALONE
13. Limit Break (European Bonus Track)
14. takt (European Bonus Track)
Summary: MONSTER is a great album. If we had to compare it to anything, we’d say it falls somewhere between the GazettE and Crossfaith, while sounding nothing like either. Essentially it’s party metal with substance. 7/10
If you’ve been following Japan Underground this month, you’ll have seen we’ve been talking to the staff at JPU Records on their favourite albums of the year, Japanese or otherwise. Today’s the last of these features as we check out the five biggest albums of the year according to JPU and Japan Underground founder and head honcho, Tom Smith. Any words on the selection, Tom? “Circles and triangles were in this year when it came to cover design, weren’t they? Anyway, a number of people ask me what kind of stuff I listen to outside of ‘work’ – this should give you an idea! I had to be careful not to fill this list entirely with JPU releases… so I’ve been good and only included one… and it’s also my favourite album this year.”
Japan Underground | JPU Records Ltd. 