Archive
220 articles so far
August 2026
- Aug 22 Foreign Eyes on Japan Lost in Translation, Lost in Genre: How Alternative Press Never Quite Knew What to Do With One Ok Rock
- Aug 22 Band of the Day Band of the Day: SABBRABELLS
- Aug 22 Band of the Day Sabotage Organized Barbarian: Why SOB Still Hit Like a Truck
- Aug 20 Foreign Eyes on Japan What Napalm Records Heard When They Looked East
- Aug 18 Foreign Eyes on Japan What American Doom Saw When It Played Japan
- Aug 18 Band of the Day Boredoms: Osaka's Noise Architects Who Rewired What Metal Could Be
- Aug 18 Band of the Day Hanatarash: The Osaka Noise Act That Rewires Your Brain
- Aug 16 Live House & Bars Hiroshima BACK BEAT: The Hardcore Heartbeat of Western Japan
- Aug 16 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Sacrifice (サクリファイス)
- Aug 15 Scene Decoded The Hidden Cost of Starting Over: How Japanese Metal Bands Actually Rebuild After a Label Split
- Aug 15 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Fact
- Aug 13 Scene Decoded Why Japanese Drums Sound Like That: Pearl, Tama, and the Hardware Behind a Nation's Metal Tone
- Aug 12 Live House & Bars Shibuya CLUB QUATTRO: Where the City's Best Rock Nights Happen Above the Noise
- Aug 12 Band of the Day Tears of Tragedy Are Doing Symphonic Gothic Metal on Japan's Own Terms
- Aug 12 Band of the Day Death Side: The Burning Spirits Hardcore Band You Need to Hear
- Aug 11 Scene Decoded The Used Bin That Built the Underground: How Disc Union Shaped Japan's Heavy Music Economy
- Aug 10 Scene Decoded Why SHELLSHOCK Got the Call: Japan's Opening-Act Aristocracy
- Aug 10 Scene Decoded Japan's New Melodeath Wave: A Field Guide
- Aug 10 Foreign Eyes on Japan Lost to Japan: How Western Metal Media Covered Marty Friedman's Departure and Disappearance
- Aug 10 Scene Decoded Why Japanese Rehearsal Studios Quietly Built One of Metal's Most Open Scenes
- Aug 09 Band of the Day TAIJI: The Genius Who Built X JAPAN's Foundation
- Aug 09 Band of the Day Yoshiki: The Man Who Willed Japanese Metal Onto the World Stage
- Aug 09 Band of the Day Toshl: The Voice That Survived Everything
- Aug 08 Foreign Eyes on Japan Through a Glass Darkly: How Guitar World Framed the Japanese Guitarist
- Aug 08 Band of the Day Bitoku: The Architect Behind Sailing Before The Wind
- Aug 08 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Lonesome_Blue
- Aug 08 Band of the Day Band of the Day: DOLL$BOXX
- Aug 07 Band of the Day PATA: The Stillness at the Center of X JAPAN
- Aug 07 Band of the Day hide: The Color in X JAPAN's Chaos
- Aug 07 Band of the Day HEATH: The Professional Who Made X JAPAN's Second Act Possible
- Aug 06 Band of the Day JURASSIC JADE: Four Decades of Thrash Without Surrender
- Aug 06 Band of the Day Koh Morota Was Too Good: DOOM's Fretless Prophet
- Aug 06 Band of the Day BASSAIUM Is Back: The Return of a Tokyo Extreme Institution
- Aug 05 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Unarmed Crowd
- Aug 05 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Ode to the End
- Aug 05 Band of the Day Band of the Day: A Ghost of Flare
- Aug 05 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Bathtub Shitter
- Aug 04 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Gorevent
- Aug 04 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Desecravity
- Aug 03 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Galundo Tenvulance
- Aug 03 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Desolate Sphere
- Aug 02 Band of the Day Band of the Day: METALVERSE
- Aug 02 Band of the Day Band of the Day: KOIAI
- Aug 01 Foreign Eyes on Japan Flyers Across the Ocean: How European Zines Remembered Japan's Tape-Trading Underground
- Aug 01 Scene Decoded The 22-Year Cliff: How Japan's Hiring Calendar Breaks Up Bands
- Aug 01 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Unholy Grave
- Aug 01 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Sacrifice (Osaka)
July 2026
- Jul 31 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation
- Jul 31 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums Unpredictable — Shellshock
- Jul 29 Band of the Day Vivisick: Tokyo Crust That Plays to Stockholm as Much as Shibuya
- Jul 29 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Swarrrm
- Jul 28 Band of the Day Balzac Are the Dark Heart of Japanese Horror Punk
- Jul 28 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Mass of the Fermenting Dregs
- Jul 28 Band of the Day Gargoyle: The Thinking Person's Japanese Thrash
- Jul 27 Band of the Day Infernal Revulsion: Japan's Slam Standard-Bearers
- Jul 27 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Mortalized
- Jul 26 Band of the Day GRUBBY on Record: A Hunter's Guide to an Out-of-Print Catalog
- Jul 26 Band of the Day Band of the Day: GRUBBY
- Jul 26 Band of the Day The Art of Mankind: Every First-Timer Question, Answered
- Jul 26 Band of the Day Where to Start With The Art of Mankind: A Listening Map
- Jul 26 Foreign Eyes on Japan Lost in Translation: How British Rock Press Frames Fuji Rock's Heaviest Acts
- Jul 26 Band of the Day Vomit Remnants: Japan's Brutal Death Standard-Bearers
- Jul 26 Band of the Day Gyze: Kabuki Steel and Northern Ice
- Jul 25 Scene Decoded The Split Record as Diplomatic Currency: How Japan's Metal Underground Uses Shared Wax to Build Bridges
- Jul 25 Band of the Day Metalucifer Are the Underground's Best-Kept Secret, and That's Exactly How They Like It
- Jul 23 Scene Decoded Paledusk and the New Japanese Heaviness
- Jul 23 Scene Decoded Fukuoka Made Paledusk: How a Port City Builds a Sound
- Jul 22 Foreign Eyes on Japan What Western Fans Get Right (and Wrong) About Paledusk
- Jul 22 Foreign Eyes on Japan How the World Found Paledusk
- Jul 22 Band of the Day Why Paledusk Hits Different
- Jul 22 Scene Decoded Why Japanese Outdoor Festivals Pay Heavy Bands Less — And Why Heavy Bands Keep Saying Yes
- Jul 22 Band of the Day Butcher ABC: Japan's Goregrind Purists Who Got There the Hard Way
- Jul 21 Band of the Day What Genre Is Paledusk? Wrong Question, Great Answer
- Jul 21 Band of the Day The Two Voices of Paledusk
- Jul 21 Band of the Day Where to Start With Paledusk: A First-Timer's Map
- Jul 20 Band of the Day What a Paledusk Show Actually Feels Like
- Jul 20 Band of the Day Paledusk: The Questions Everyone Asks, Answered
- Jul 20 Band of the Day Paledusk's Visual World: Why the Videos Matter
- Jul 19 Scene Decoded Why BURRN! Outlived Every Rival: Japan's Metal Press Survival Story
- Jul 19 Band of the Day Band of the Day: SPANAM
- Jul 19 Band of the Day SLANG: Sapporo's Hardcore Voice You Should Already Know
- Jul 18 Band of the Day Band of the Day: PUBLIC DOMAIN
- Jul 17 Band of the Day LOYAL TO THE GRAVE Are the Kind of Hardcore Band That Reminds You Why You Got Into This
- Jul 17 Band of the Day Minor League (マイナーリーグ): Japan's Hardcore Underdogs Who Mean Business
- Jul 16 Band of the Day Jigokuguruma Are the Kind of Hardcore Punishment You Don't Walk Away From Easily
- Jul 16 Band of the Day Band of the Day: GERONIMO
- Jul 15 Foreign Eyes on Japan What Anthrax and Megadeth Knew About Japan That the Rest of the World Didn't
- Jul 15 Live House & Bars Osaka Fandango: Shinsaibashi's Punk and Hardcore Heartbeat
- Jul 13 Band of the Day Band of the Day: BASSAIUM
- Jul 13 Band of the Day Band of the Day: AT ONE STROKE
- Jul 13 Foreign Eyes on Japan What Mikael Åkerfeldt Gets Right About Japanese Audiences (And What He's Still Figuring Out)
- Jul 13 Band of the Day BAT CAVE: Japan's Hardcore That Hits Like a Closed Fist
- Jul 11 Scene Decoded No Tour Bus, No Problem? The Economics of Touring Japan by Bullet Train and Highway Coach
- Jul 10 Foreign Eyes on Japan What the Foreign Press Saw (and Missed) at Loud Park
- Jul 10 Band of the Day Betrayer: Japan's Thrash Underground Done Right
- Jul 07 Foreign Eyes on Japan How Kerrang! Learned to Read X Japan (And Why It Took So Long)
- Jul 07 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Crow
- Jul 07 Band of the Day Systematic Death Are the Real Thing
- Jul 04 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums Hit or Miss — Cokehead Hipsters
- Jul 04 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums Black Holiday — Wrench
- Jul 03 Band of the Day Ruins: The Two-Man Wrecking Crew Japan's Avant-Garde Underground Can't Shake
- Jul 02 Band of the Day Zeni Geva: Tokyo's Noise Rock Weapon
- Jul 01 Band of the Day Survive Said The Prophet Are Tokyo Post-Hardcore Done Right
June 2026
- Jun 30 Band of the Day The Mad Capsule Markets: Tokyo's Digital Hardcore Detonators
- Jun 30 Band of the Day Pay money To my Pain Are the Tokyo Metalcore Band You Should Have Found Years Ago
- Jun 29 Band of the Day Show-Ya: Tokyo's All-Female Heavy Metal Institution
- Jun 28 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums Nothing Solves Nothing — Shellshock
- Jun 27 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums Immortal Warriors — Survive
- Jun 25 Scene Decoded Kansai Grit, Kanto Grid: How Japan's Metal Scene Split Into Two Minds
- Jun 23 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums Noise, Violence & Destroy — SxOxB Kaidan
- Jun 23 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums 825 — Rise from the Dead
- Jun 22 Band of the Day Shudan (集団) Are the Grindcore Gut-Punch You Needed Today
- Jun 21 Scene Decoded Why Japanese Grindcore Occupies Its Own Category in Every Serious Collection
- Jun 21 Band of the Day NEON ONI: Visual Kei's Teeth Are Still Sharp
- Jun 21 Band of the Day HOTOKE: Doom From the Deep End
- Jun 21 Band of the Day ASTERISM Are Proof That Three People Can Shake a Room
- Jun 20 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Hell Freezes Over
- Jun 20 Band of the Day Broken By The Scream Are the Band That Shouldn't Work — and Absolutely Does
- Jun 20 Band of the Day Sailing Before The Wind Are the Metalcore Act You Need to Know
- Jun 19 Band of the Day Terror Squad Are the Speed Metal Kick in the Face You Needed
- Jun 19 Scene Decoded Scene Decoded: How Sabbat Became Japan's Most Unlikely Global Black Metal Cult
- Jun 19 Band of the Day Phantom Excaliver Are the Japanese Power Metal Band You Should Already Know
- Jun 19 Scene Decoded You're Buying Your Own Show: The Noruma Ticket System Explained
- Jun 19 Band of the Day CASBAH: Japan's Heavy Metal Underground Has Been Sitting on This One
- Jun 19 Band of the Day DEXCORE Are the Band Making Visual Kei Feel Dangerous Again
- Jun 19 Band of the Day VOLCANO: Japan's Thrash Underground Has a Live Wire and Its Name Is VOLCANO
- Jun 17 Scene Decoded Cold Storage: Why Sapporo's Extreme Metal Scene Hits Different
- Jun 17 Band of the Day KANDARIVAS Are the Band You Should Already Know About
- Jun 17 Band of the Day MELT4 Are the Metalcore Band You Need to Know About
- Jun 17 Band of the Day Serenity In Murder Are Tokyo's Melodic Death Metal Secret Worth Knowing
- Jun 14 Scene Decoded Nagoya Thrash and the City That Refused to Follow Tokyo
- Jun 13 Scene Decoded Before the Kawaii Storm: The Hidden Prehistory of Idol Metal
- Jun 11 Scene Decoded Three Decades of Women in Japanese Metal, and Why It Never Stopped Mattering
- Jun 10 Scene Decoded The Line Hi-Standard Drew: How AIR JAM Built a Generation That Refused to Disappear
- Jun 10 Band of the Day Kokeshi: The Japanese Hardcore Name Worth Tracking Down
- Jun 10 Band of the Day Coaltar of the Deepers: Tokyo's Most Beautifully Broken Metal Band
- Jun 09 Scene Decoded Why Lovebites on the Wacken Main Stage Was Never Just a Big Deal — It Was a Structural Shift
- Jun 09 Band of the Day Unlucky Morpheus: Tokyo's Doujin Power Metal Secret Worth Finding
- Jun 09 Band of the Day E.Z.O.: Sapporo's Heavy Metal Export That Deserved More of Your Attention
- Jun 08 Band of the Day UNDEAD CORPORATION: Tokyo's Doujin Metal Outliers Who Actually Rip
- Jun 07 Scene Decoded Two Roads to the Stadium: How Loudness and Babymetal Conquered the World on Their Own Terms
- Jun 07 Band of the Day Savage Greed Are Fukuoka's Best-Kept Hardcore Secret
- Jun 06 Band of the Day Band of the Day: GMF
- Jun 06 Band of the Day Band of the Day: RISE FROM THE DEAD
- Jun 06 Foreign Eyes on Japan How the West Finally Noticed Loudness (And What It Got Wrong)
- Jun 06 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums Skull Thrash Zone I — Ground Zero, Rose Rose, Doom, Shell Shock, X, Jurassic Jade & Others
- Jun 06 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums Metronome — Switch Style
- Jun 06 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums Human Zoo
- Jun 06 Essential Japanese Heavy Metal Albums Far East Hardcore — Wrench
- Jun 06 Scene Decoded Sacred City, Savage Sound: Decoding the Heavy Underground Around Kyoto's ROTTENGRAFFTY
- Jun 05 Band of the Day TJ MAXX: Japanese Hardcore With Something to Prove
- Jun 05 Band of the Day United: Tokyo's Missing Piece in the Japanese Thrash Puzzle
- Jun 05 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Wrestling Crime Master
- Jun 05 Foreign Eyes on Japan When Two Worlds of Doom Actually Touched: Sunn O))) and Boris
- Jun 04 Band of the Day Band of the Day: a crowd of rebellion
- Jun 04 Band of the Day Aggressive Dogs: The Hardcore Lifers You Should Already Know
- Jun 04 Band of the Day ANIMETAL: The Band That Proved Anime and Metal Were Always the Same Thing
- Jun 04 Band of the Day Band of the Day: BACK DROP BOMB
- Jun 04 Band of the Day Brahman: Tokyo's Hardcore Lifers Who've Never Once Flinched
- Jun 04 Band of the Day Hanabie. Are Japan's Metalcore Secret Weapon
- Jun 04 Band of the Day Her Name In Blood Are the Japanese Metalcore Band You Need to Know
- Jun 04 Band of the Day Knosis: Japan's Hardcore Force That Demands Your Attention
- Jun 04 Band of the Day Slight Slappers Are the Grindcore Gut-Punch Japan's Underground Keeps Secret
- Jun 04 Foreign Eyes on Japan Lost in Translation: Reading Metal Injection's Japan Coverage From Tokyo
- Jun 04 Scene Decoded Shimokitazawa's Hardcore Kilometre: How One Walkable Neighbourhood Became Tokyo's Heavy Music Engine
- Jun 03 Live House & Bars Conpass, Osaka: The Underground Stays Underground
- Jun 01 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Carcass Grinder
- Jun 01 Band of the Day Defiled Are the Death Metal Force You Should Already Know
- Jun 01 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Indication
- Jun 01 Band of the Day Band of the Day: NUMB
- Jun 01 Band of the Day Band of the Day: The Stalin
- Jun 01 Band of the Day Band of the Day: UP HOLD
May 2026
- May 29 Band of the Day Band of the Day: 324 — The Japanese Grindcore Force That Will Rewire Your Brain
- May 29 Band of the Day Band of the Day: GARLICBOYS — Osaka's Heavy Metal Secret Weapon
- May 29 Band of the Day Multiplex: The Band That Breaks Your Life in Half
- May 29 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Nunchaku (ヌンチャク) — The Kashiwa Kids Who Redefined Japanese Metal
- May 27 Band of the Day Band of the Day: COKEHEAD HIPSTERS
- May 27 Band of the Day Band of the Day: CORRUPTED — Japan's Most Unsettling Doom Force
- May 27 Band of the Day Band of the Day: Merzbow
- May 27 Band of the Day Band of the Day: SUPER JUNKY MONKEY
- May 23 Band of the Day Band of the Day: GASTUNK
- May 23 Band of the Day Band of the Day: WRENCH
- May 22 Band of the Day Loudness: The Band That Kicked the Door Open
- May 21 Live House & Bars Zepp: Japan's Temple of the Mid-to-Large Metal Show
- May 20 Band of the Day Band of the Day: david stormer
- May 20 Band of the Day Band of the Day: hellchild
- May 20 Band of the Day Kamomekamome Are the Stylish Collision You Didn't Know You Needed
- May 20 Band of the Day Band of the Day: View from the Soyuz
- May 20 Live House & Bars Namba Hatch: Osaka's Gateway for International Heavy Acts
- May 20 Live House & Bars Roppongi EX Theater: Where the Scene Gets a Little More Dressed Up
- May 19 Band of the Day EEVEE (ミミレミミ): Fukuoka's Most Violent Jazz-Nightmare You Haven't Heard Yet
- May 18 Band of the Day Sigh Are Tokyo's Most Gloriously Unhinged Black Metal Band — and the World Is Finally Catching On
- May 16 Band of the Day Survive: Japan's Secret Weapon You Haven't Heard Yet
- May 16 Band of the Day Switch Style: The Kashiwa Kids Who Rewrote the Rules of Japanese Hardcore
- May 15 Band of the Day Envy: The Tokyo Band That Rewrote the Rules of Screamo
- May 15 Band of the Day Band of the Day: SOB – Osaka's Hardcore Punk Wrecking Crew
- May 15 Live House & Bars Antiknock, Shinjuku: Sweat, Hardcore, and Zero Compromise
- May 13 Band of the Day coldrain Are Nagoya's Best-Kept Secret — And the World Is Finally Catching On
- May 13 Band of the Day Outrage: Nagoya's Thrash Titans Who've Outlasted Almost Everyone
- May 12 Band of the Day Sable Hills: The Band You Need to Hear Right Now
- May 12 Band of the Day Thousand Eyes: Two Guitarists, Zero Limits
- May 11 Band of the Day Abigail: Japan's Black Metal Outlaws With a Global Cult Following
- May 11 Band of the Day Church of Misery: Tokyo's Serial Killer Doom Machine
- May 11 Scene Decoded Why Visual Kei Finally Got Its Metal Press Pass
- May 10 Band of the Day Band of the Day: COCOBAT
- May 10 Band of the Day Pulling Teeth, the NWOJHM Band Whose Name Is the Promise
- May 10 Band of the Day SHELLSHOCK: Japan's Technical Thrash Secret Weapon
- May 10 Live House & Bars Toyosu Pit: Tokyo's Go-To Room for International Acts
- May 09 Band of the Day Crossfaith Are the Osaka Outfit That Rewired What Japanese Metal Could Sound Like
- May 09 Band of the Day Galneryus Are the Osaka Power Metal Machine That Europe Didn't See Coming
- May 09 Band of the Day MAN WITH A MISSION Are the Wolf-Headed Band You Need in Your Life
- May 09 Band of the Day Ningen Isu: Japan's Doom Legends Who Rewrote the Riff in Their Own Language
- May 09 Live House & Bars Club Citta, Kawasaki: The Stage That Demands Everything You've Got
- May 09 Live House & Bars Shibuya O-East and O-West: Tokyo's Mid-Size Sweet Spot
- May 09 Scene Decoded Why Tokyo Underground Shows Cost What They Cost
- May 06 Band of the Day Crystal Lake, twenty-plus years of metalcore that survived its singers
- May 05 Band of the Day DOOM, Tokyo's 1985 thrash freaks who never sat still in a single genre
- May 05 Band of the Day ENDALL drag thrash into the present with a beer in each hand
- May 05 Band of the Day The Art of Mankind play melodic death metal that only Tokyo could write
- May 04 Band of the Day Paledusk pulled metalcore through a Fukuoka basement and out the other side