The Musicians of Japanese Metal

Leader and only constant member since 1981 — through a breakup, six years in LOUDNESS, a reunion, and stomach cancer.

From Actor's School Hiroshima to Wembley, Tokyo Dome and the O2 — and, since 2022, a lyricist as well.

She joined at eleven. She has stood beside SU-METAL as one of three, as one of two, and as one of three again.

She came from the same idol group as the other two, filled the empty position from 2019, and got the name on 1 April 2023.

A major-label debut in 1996, the opening theme of The Prince of Tennis in 2003, and a career spent in several bands at once.

Same five members since 2007, every song in English, an eighth album on Century Media, and BLARE FEST in the home city.

He took an Osaka band to Reading, Download and Warped Tour. With Crossfaith on indefinite hiatus, he started again as AFTERVOID.

Chosen from about 250 applicants, John Robert Centorrino fronted Crystal Lake for three years and one album. What that chapter was, and how it ended.

Four vocalists, six albums, more than twenty years — and the same founding guitarist through all of it. The case for Yudai Miyamoto.

The founding vocalist who took visual kei deathcore to Tokuma, Latin America and Europe — and then to Universal.

He joined in 2017 as a seven-string guitarist who also sings. Since 2024 he has been the band's only guitarist.

The one constant in every DEXCORE lineup since 2016, heading for the band's anniversary show after its hardest twelve months.

Vocalist and lyricist since 1997, founder of sukekiyo and Petit Brabancon, and still releasing albums through repeated damage to his hearing and voice.

One half of a two-guitar partnership unchanged since 1997 — and, in DECAYS, a frontman with a violinist beside him.

Violin at three, a national competition placing in high school, then rock, anime covers, DECAYS, Morfonica — and East Of Eden.

Eight years as the main vocalist of predia, the national anthem at professional baseball games — then a rock band with a violin at its centre.

A childhood YOSHIKI fan knocked sideways by Yngwie Malmsteen — and the leader of one of Japan's leading power metal bands since 2001.

In 1992 he had a million-selling single and a slot on NHK's New Year's Eve show. In 2009 he became the voice of GALNERYUS.

He joined by audition, the band went silent for two and a half years, and the comeback sold out six shows in a row.

She writes the words and delivers the shout — the vocalist who took a high-school club band from Kichijoji to European metal festivals.

Guitar, clean vocals and the songs themselves — the member who writes Hanabie.'s music and sings the half you can hum.

The Kami Band bassist from Hokkaido, and the story of Kari Band — the trio that lost its guitarist and kept its name.

The voice of Crystal Lake stepped away in 2022. Then came Knosis: a duo, two EPs and an album on SharpTone Records.

Paul Gilbert saw her play his own song and offered her a scholarship. A decade on, she chose a band over a solo career.

A founding member of NEMOPHILA whose departure was set for 12 October 2026 — and one half of KOIAI's twin guitars with Li-sa-X.

From a teenage idol band to the first Japanese metal act on a major American label — and still there forty-five years on.

He arrived in Tokyo in 1981 with one banknote, sang on the albums that broke America, was pushed out in 1988 — and returned in 2000.

Sixteen years of classical ballet, backing vocals for VAMPS and UVERworld — then a demo tape that made her the voice of a power metal band.

She arrived as a support player and became a full member in 2017 — guitarist, keyboardist and one of the band's writers.

She started the band with a former bandmate from Destrose — and learned her drumming from Helloween records.

Vocals, six strings and little brother — the member who writes nearly everything Maximum the Hormone plays, and decides how it reaches you.

A founding member who drums and sings at once — and the reason the band has twice stopped and waited.

She started NEMOPHILA in 2019 and took it to the Budokan. After three departures in three years, she and the bassist are carrying on.

Bassist, singer, leader and writer of most of the songs — the man who decided Japanese metal should sing about Japanese monsters.

Lead vocalist since 1999, the singer of the Basilisk theme — and the reason at least one of Japanese metal's best-known voices took up singing.

From a Fukuoka metalcore band to arranging and producing for one of the biggest rock bands on earth — the three BMTH songs with DAIDAI's name on them.

There from the first rehearsal in Fukuoka — the vocalist who has fronted Paledusk through every signing, tour and reinvention.

The rhythm section left in 2022. The next August, the singer and the guitarist stood at Wacken as Metal Battle champions.

He watched Crystal Lake at a festival in Busan in 2016. Ten years later he is their vocalist, and he still leads his own band.

The band once called GYZE changed its name, signed to Napalm Records and took on the Trivium frontman as manager and producer.

He started the band with his brother in 2015. Seven years later they took first place at Wacken Open Air.

FRONTLINE FESTIVAL at Club Citta, run by the band itself — four editions, with Unearth, Darkest Hour and All Shall Perish flown in.

The one constant member since 1989, from Ehime, who made Japan laugh and headbang at the same time — and played the Budokan doing it.

He started SiM in 2004 with a guitar round his neck. Eighteen years later "The Rumbling" reached number one on Billboard's Hot Hard Rock Songs.

A seven- and eight-string guitarist with a quarter-century behind him, and four albums in five years with violinist Saori Hoshino.

A debut album at twenty with Richie Kotzen and Mark Boals on it — and, from 2013, a place in the backing band the whole metal world ended up watching.

One of Japanese metal's busiest guitarists stepped out of two bands and released her first solo album, PLUVIA, in June 2026.

She found metal through X JAPAN, decided to sing because of Onmyo-za's Kuroneko, and has written the words to more than a hundred songs.

The guitarist who writes and arranges everything, started the band as a doujin circle in 2008, and changed guitars to protect his hand.

Violin from the age of three, a degree from Tokyo University of the Arts — and, since 2015, the sixth member of Unlucky Morpheus.