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Wow...ok so i am mostly a metalhead with a huge collection of rock/metal (literally over 1K physical albums) that run the gambit from power metal to gothic to folk and even come black metal from around the world, plus my rather sizable soundtrack collection (mostly anime). as such i rotate through the CDs in alphabetical order by type so i don't miss anything.
These are most of my favorite bands in my collection-
Currently i am in the G/H section of japanese bands so i just finished off gogo 7188! and hard gear. working on a band i saw live in tokyo called headphones president.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2020/03/30 11:21:38
Nope not love bites but i have heard metal lucifer IIRC they do their songs in english. both seikima II and show-ya have done some songs/mini albums in english . most of the brillaint greens first album is in english. this is the final track live-
this is one of my favorites from tommys solo work away from the brilliant green over a decade later-
there are so many japanese metal bands i have heard over the years that were good but not favorites vigilante, anthem, loudness (of course), fate gear etc...with the size of my collection i need to be pretty picky. i have a smattering of other bands that i never really got into where i picked up an album to try out, some quite popular-stratovarius, falconer, jagdpanzer, leaves eyes, wizard, gamma ray, imagika, torture, lullacry, ashland, tvangeste, nevermore, vision divine etc.... when i do find something that clicks i usually end up buying the entire back catalog like i did with powerwolf, sabaton, van canto, celtica and testament.
Then there are a few one shot wonders that were fantastic but nothing ever came of them like hellmasters, phantom blue (built to perform album was amazing), and victimizer
freedom call is often called the happiest band in metal. something about the vibe is very positive and the musicianship is top notch.
I forgot to add fatima hill to my list...need to fix that.
I'll leave you with something a bit heavier-
This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2020/03/31 12:08:18
I have moved on into the Os i will be with the fantastic
ONMYO-ZA for a while since i have 10+ albums
Hard to believe i started listening to them back in 2000 or so when they were still on an indie label and hard to find outside japan(indie labels used to not ship outside japan). i found them by accident and i am glad i did. got most of their early stuff from an indie store in shinjuku when i went to japan some 20 years ago.....man how time flies
This is on their official channel. lots of great videos
Well i am finally through all the Onmyo-za albums, so now i am in to the Ps
starting off i picked up a solo album from the X-japan guitarist pata "raised on rock"
Its a very blues rock album. also pata reminds me of a Japanese slash...its the hair, minus the top hat.
Next in line is a guilty pleasure and some nostalgia. one of the first non-anime related bands i started listening to in the early 90s an all female Jrock group known for TV commercial songs
Tobias Sammets avantasia is always a good choice. i remember when i got hooked on his original band with the funny name "edguy" back in the late 90s when they were fresh out of high school and were told "nobody wanted to listen to that kind of music".
Good thing they didn't listen. vain glory opera was the first album i picked up and i have been a fan ever since. they also have a great sense of humor (the life and times of a bonus track comes to mind).
Over the years before youtube and many internet assets to check out new bands i picked up a smattering of japanese bands from the well known like anthem, to the less well known like fatima hill.
One of these that i am now listening to is sheena ringo. i only got her first 3 "solo" albums and kind of lost interest after that as i am primarily a rock/metal guy and she started working on other music styles.
We are talking 1999 here and still she always struck me as akin to Haruka from FuriCuri(maybe it was the nurse outfit for that music video).. a bit strange with an edge of crazy.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/05/01 06:51:02
This is the big block with some of my favorite bands.
To start off with it will be Seikima II (holy devouring demon/the end of the century). i have been a fan for over 2 decades myself.
formed in 1982 they have sold more than 10 million albums in japan alone.
I like to think of them as a cross between judas priest and king diamond a mix of skilled heavy metal music combined with dark themes as the theme behind the band is that they are all demons or akuma-with a heavy reference to kabuki theater
Been a while since my last update. grinding through all the seikima II albums and then demon kogure's (seikima IIs singer) solo album collection took some time, very enjoyable time
Now i have moved onto the SEX MACHINEGUNS
They are a fantastic band with a solid basis in classic bay area mid-late 80s thrash/speed metal in the vane of testament, exodus, overkill, old metallica etc.. with the added benefit of a bit of humor akin to steel panther in the lyrics department.
Not surprised....it is alestorm afterall. they have a great sense of humor along with bands like Edguy (the life and times of a bonus track is epic) . there are some other great covers i would rank up there as better than the originals-
.Jagdpanzer-wreck of the edmonds fitzgerald
.lacuna coil-careless wisper (yeah a depech mode song)
.frog leap studio-rains of africa
10 masked men-stayin alive (well any of their covers are great)
Moving on to the next big section. another of my favorite japanese bands i have been listening to since the 90s
SHOW-YA
One of the biggest and most well known all female hard rock/heavy metal groups in japan. their early influences were inspired by deep purple, the doors, the beatles and the like.
They got their start in the early 80s as almost a pop rock band and competed directly with another all female group called princess princess. the latter being more pop. show-ya's earlier works did have a jem here and there that foreshadowed the heavier sound they would adopt. with songs like fairy. they really hit their stride on the 5th album immigration. keep in mind this is the japanese music market forcing them to churn out high rates of albums. the debut album was 1985, they hit that 5th album a mere 2 years later in 1987.
The lead singer decided to go on a solo career stint in the early 90s but reformed with the band in the early 2000s and they are still putting out new albums since the reunion. still rocking into their 50s they are also well known for promoting female rock acts with a nearly yearly event concert called naon no yaon.
I rate them right up there with classic judas priest and similar groups.
good call there on pretty reckless, a good blues rock sound, my wife likes them alot.
I appreciate you and your "associates" could arrange that for us.
I won't even "look up into your lifeless eyes and wave...just like this"
Back in the late 90s i was watching quite a bit of Japanese entertainment shows like HEY!HEY!HEY! music champ.
That got me listening to many great bands including some of the more mainstream rock acts including Aikawa Nanase and this guy-
T.M.R. or T.M. revolution (Takanori Makes Revolution) with is blending of rock and electronica/techno, he also likes to wear some impressive stage costumes.
i am currently listening through his catalog in my collection now.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/06/25 06:42:59
slight sidestep it is the 4th of july- as an american, here my playlist for the USAs birthday includes the following soundtracks-
.patton
.the great escape
.band of brothers
.glory
the marches for
.when johnny comes marching home
.dixie's land
.battle hymn of the republic
.star spangled banner
.anthems of the 5 military branches
and not to be forgotten the fantastic iced earth album -the glorious burden
including the 30+ minute epic of the 3 day battle of Gettysburg (july 1-3 1863)
P.S. and some sabaton songs as well
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/07/05 09:51:00
in the late 80s and early 90s THE band that dominated was X-japan
which is next on my play list.
X-japan is the band that is best known for really kicking off the visual kei scene. with the band leader/drummer looking like the iconic pretty boy that could have walked off the pages of a girls comic.
They had an incredible run with their first 3 albums, from that point on the bass player left the band citing musical differences, they then released an epic 30 minute EP and finally a 4th full album that consisted of mostly ballads and studio tracks that were cut from the previous album. after this point things went south for the band. the singer left, one of the guitar players committed suicide, and even though they were still hugely popular the band ceased to exist for a time. they later re-united with the singer and started releasing new material, but by this point i had stopped listening to them. so my collection is limited to the first 5 releases.
Not as well known as big hits like silent jealousy, but one i enjoy off the first album-rose of pain. an 11 minute epic with some impressive tempo/time changes.
A little update as i cruise on through my soundtracks
Up this week
.bill and ted's excellent adventure
.braveheart
.crouching tiger hidden dragon
.galaxy quest
.highlander soundtracks 1,3,4 (not the queen album the actual background music)
As a long time anime fan starting back in the early 80s with star blazers/space battleship yamato i have a huge collection of soundtracks, some of which are classics or had to come by or from excellent but now little known series. starting this off alphabetical
.AD police (the original 3 part series) spin off from the original bubblegum crisis. based on the tony takazaki manga
.aldnoah zero
.arpeggio of blue steel-ars nova
the anime and game soundtracks for
.bastard (the explosive wizard) based on the long running manga by hagiwara
Funny side note, hagiwara is a huge metal head and easter eggs heavy metal references throughout his manga. most of the main characters are named after band members (the main character "Dark schiner" is named after the original ACCEPT singer Udo dirkschnider for example), and all of the magic spells (and some locations like the kingdom of metallicana) used are the names or variations of names of bands.
Next up we have another of hagiwaras creations the rare and little known gem of an anime that spoofs anime troupes
.bakuen(combustable) campus guardress
and then some better known series
.berserk
.black lagoon
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/08/21 16:15:14
Well it took a while since my last post, this ones going to be a big one.
So back in the late 1980s anime was virtually non-existent in the USA outside of bastardized things like robotech.
as it so happened i found a bootlegger that was selling copies of all sorts of anime from the original laser discs. One of my first loves and addictions was a new series at the time called bubblegum crisis.
Silly name aside it was heavily influenced by blade runner. it was also the first collection of soundtracks that got me into collection anime soundtracks with the iconic opening song konya wa hurricane (there is a hurricane tonight)
At the time i was addicted with all things related to bubblegum crisis(hence my previous entry of the AD police files). the original series soundtracks started out well enough with rock and instrumental tracks, however by the 5th episode in the series-while having one of the best story arcs and great animation for the time-started suffereing from the "image song" craze. basically a bunch of filler pop songs that were never used in the series.
After the 8th episode in a planned 12 the series was canceled, it was later picked up by another studio including 3 of the original main voice actresses who all went on to have huge careers in the industry. the voice actress for the 4th and most loved character of priss Kinuko Ohmori did not desire a career as a seyuu (japanese voice actress) and left after the original series ended to focus on a career as a pop singer.,
We come to bubblegum crash. as i said before i bought the soundtracks straight away before seeing the series and well lets say it was lackluster. the animation quality was poor in many ways and the characters were not acting in their developed roles.
Still the soundtracks did have some gems with more of a musical focus on electronic music. it still suffered from the "image song" problem.
last on the list of the series was the complete re-boot in the form of bubblegum crisis 2040 the TV series. considering it was a completer re-do i was pleased with the result. the soundtracks featured more of a techno/rock/electronic fusion
So that is what i have been listening through lately.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/08/28 05:58:24
Well it is a little funny now that i think of it, but in a good way. a large portion of my anime soundtracks either were made entirely by or partially by Yoko Kanno, one of the most impressive modern composers in the league of john williams.
My collections spans from her first inroads from the mid 90s with macross plus and vision of excaflowne to her later works in macross frontier, ghost in the shell, wolfs rain and others. Her ability to span the styles across things like techno, classical orchestra, choir chant, funk and jazz as well as western, rock, and Jpop is most impressive.
The current place i am in the listening list
.brainpowered
i was never really a fan of the anime style but the soundtrack was understandably fantastic.
Next up is one just about everybody knows
.cowboy bebop
After that one that i both love and hated at the same time
.legend of crystania
It is the direct follow on story to the record of lodoss war novels more accurately portrayed by the ending of the lodoss war TV series. as far as the story goes it is quite good, with some fine background music. the down side is that the minimalist animation design style, character designs and quality were devastatingly bad especially since this was at the time the only continuation of the record of lodoss war story line after the iconic OVA series of the early 90s.
