Ryoji Shinomoto of RYUJIN: Hokkaido Melodic Death Metal With Matthew Heafy in Its Corner

If you knew a Japanese melodic death metal band called GYZE and lost track of it, here is what happened. It became RYUJIN. The person at the centre of both is guitarist and vocalist Ryoji Shinomoto.

Sapporo

The band formed in 2009 in Sapporo, on the northern island of Hokkaido, under the name Suicide Heaven. It was started by two brothers: Ryoji on guitar and vocals, Shuji on drums. In 2011, after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, they renamed it GYZE.

Four albums came out under that name: Fascinating Violence (2013) and Black Bride (2015) on the Italian label Coroner Records, then Northern Hell Song (2017) and Asian Chaos (2019). The band played Summer Breeze Open Air in Germany in 2016, and in 2018 became the first Japanese band to play the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise. Our earlier piece on the band, under its former name, is here.

The New Name

On 31 January 2023, GYZE became RYUJIN and signed to Napalm Records, the Austrian label. The announcement came with a notable name attached. Matthew K. Heafy, frontman of the American band Trivium, became the band’s manager and producer.

The self-titled album Ryujin followed on 12 January 2024. Heafy sings as a guest on two of its songs, “Raijin & Fujin” and “The Rainbow Song.” The band’s own name for its style is Samurai Metal: melodic death metal with traditional Japanese instruments and melodies written into it.

The Tribute

On 8 April 2025, Shinomoto released a solo album on Napalm, Children of Bushido. It is a collection of Children of Bodom songs, rearranged with Japanese instrumentation, and it is a tribute to that band’s late guitarist and singer, Alexi Laiho.

A melodic death metal guitarist paying his respects to Laiho is not surprising. Doing it with a whole album, in his own band’s idiom, is a serious gesture.

Why It Matters

Japanese bands have long looked to the West for heroes. This is a case of one of those heroes looking back: an American frontman with Japanese roots putting his name and his time behind a band from Hokkaido.

Start with Ryujin, then go back to Black Bride.