japan

For 20 years, Sigh have been pushing musical boundaries by combining black metal, krautrock, jazz, and classical arrangements into their ever expanding and always mutating sonic palette. The new burger of the month from Kuma’s Corner pays tribute to these Japanese blackadelics in a form of a burger that is an accurate representation of their […]

Church of Misery are obsessed with serial killers. When Macabre wrote about Albert Fish, it matched their death metal sound. But when this Japanese four-piece does it, their ’70s grooves throw the lyrics off balance. They sing of infamous serial killers over groovy riffs. On this album, they make raging shotgun slayers sound fun and […]

Photo by iamdonte To celebrate their 10th anniversary, Japan’s Mono played a one-off show last Friday at New York’s Society for Ethical Culture. Originally, it was to be their only North American date to support their new album, Hymn to the Immortal Wind. However, it sold out, causing the addition of a second date. People […]

by Cosmo Lee Metal is like a drug – repeated consumption leads to higher tolerance. Fast becomes slow, and strong becomes weak. Virtually all of what’s called “extreme metal” now is hardly extreme. Behind the yelling/growling/shrieking and blastbeats, calcified templates are at work. Extremity by numbers is oxymoronic. It’s ironic that so much metal is […]

by Jess Blumensheid XXX Maniak and Coffins make a bizarre couple, but this split rumbles with monstrous intensity. In true grind fashion, Maniak punch the gut with 30-second songs; titles like “Raped by a Retard,” “Hot Nazi Sluts Have Hot Steaming Guts,” and “Perpetually Exploding Uterus” speak for themselves. “Aroused by the Rape Trial” is […]

by Cosmo Lee Since 1996, Tokyo’s Coffins have honed an instantly recognizable blend of death and doom metal. Other bands have similar girth and fuzz, but few have such command over momentum. One gets the image of a massive mecha machine building up a head of steam. Commonly cited reference points include Autopsy, Winter, and […]

Throw NWOBHM, Voivod, Eddie Van Halen, and ’70s prog into a blender, and you’d get Terror Squad. The Tokyo thrashers beat the NY rappers to the name by six years, but Chaosdragon Rising (Worldchaos, 2006) is the first I’ve heard from them. It blows me away. Any band that cites Bulldozer, Converge, and friggin’ Jake […]

I have a yoga teacher who starts her classes with forced meditation. It’s forced because nowadays, it’s almost impossible for minds – mine, at least – to be still. She tells us to empty our minds, and makes us sit…and sit…and sit…and sit… Of course, my mind refuses to empty. In fact, it goes into […]

Holy crap! This shit is insane! It’s Jon Chang from Discordance Axis! Over ’80s thrash and power metal! At twice the speed! Evidently, “Hayaino Daisuki” is Japanese for “I love speed”! I’d believe it! Only one guy in this band is Japanese! The guy from Mortalized! But their MySpace says they’re from Kyoto! But Metal […]

Birushanah are one of the stranger bands I’ve come across. Even at 924 Gilman St., an intimate venue that reduces icons to mortals, they puzzled me. Their setup consisted of drums, fretless bass, guitar, vocals, and makeshift oil drum percussion. Songs were long and intricate, yet seemingly randomly thrown together. Vocals teetered between yowling and […]