It still surprises me that in a city as large as Tokyo, there is no underground metal scene. Maybe I just haven’t found it yet. Or maybe my tastes are just too ordinary. Death metal, black metal, thrash metal. Yawn?
I caught a show last night at Crescendo in Kichijōji. Really glad I did. This might have been the closest I’ve been to the local metal scene. I entered the live house and my eyes immediately burned from all the cigarette smoke filling the air. I was engulfed in a sea of dark clothing, long hair, and tattoos. This was what I had been looking for.
The reason I went to this show was to see a band called Gonin-ish. They’re not straight-up metal, but I had heard good things about them. Like many other independent Japanese bands, they play live very rarely. The evening’s original lineup was: Gonin-Ish, Wheel of Doom, XECSNOIN, Early Cross, and Iowit. I arrived a little late, so I missed the first two bands. There were also some changes to the lineup, so I’ll just review the bands that I actually saw.
Gonin-Ish
Progressive Metal with Traditional Japanese Music Elements
I heard about this band from a friend. I looked them up on YouTube and saw some pretty insane stuff. Truth be told, any band that features a female vocalist performing death metal growls gets my attention. Case shut. Turns out that metal is only about 10% of what this band can do.
Before their set began, a large black curtain was drawn. You could hear the musicians scuffling about on stage, getting set up, connecting pedals and electronics. Out of nowhere, a few blazingly fast sweep-picking arpeggios came flying from the stage. There certainly was electricity. A few more minutes and everything went silent. A staff member slowly drew back the black curtain and it was showtime.
Four of the five band members stood on stage in traditional Japanese yukata. Their hands held together as if praying. Ambient sounds and eerie keyboard tones droned on from behind them. The stage was decorated with a few planks of bamboo displaying ancient Japanese calligraphy that I couldn’t read. The aura was almost mystical. It felt like a crowd of metalheads had unknowingly wandered into a Buddhist funeral ritual.
The final member of the band, Gonin-ish’s drummer, began to hobble across the stage using a bamboo staff as a crutch for guidance. He slowly approached one side of his drum set, but he couldn’t get to his throne so he simply dropped the bamboo stick and walked to the other side normally. Both the crowd and band laughed at him. It broke the solemn ambiance, but it was pretty funny.
The band played for about an hour, including a one-song encore. Aside from a few glances from one member to the other for reassurance, everything went smoothly. Pretty impressive considering this was their first show in four months. The music itself is difficult to describe as it meanders between genres quite often. All I know is that I really liked it, and Gonin-ish got the most genuine applause from any audience in Japan I’ve seen thus far.
After seeing them live, I can say that I am still very intrigued by Gonin-ish. This is a band whose material is going to take some time to digest.
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Iowit
Thrash metal from Nagoya, Japan
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this band. Before they went on, I saw the lead singer walking around the club wearing sunglasses. I don’t know why, but that kind of behavior seems arrogant to me. You’re not a vampire. And if you are, then fuck! Stay away from me! Anyway, turns out that he was wearing the sunglasses to hide the eyeliner he was wearing. The dressing room was literally a hole in the wall with a door, so there was no way he could properly apply it there. He wasn’t being pompous after all; he was trying to keep it a surprise for the show. I can respect that. It’s funny how making a snap-judgment is generally a horrible idea.
Lately, it’s rare when metal can truly impress me. I think I’ve just listened to too much of it. Straight to the point, I found Iowit’s music largely forgettable. Might need another listen, but I didn’t catch anything earth-shattering the first time. That doesn’t mean that it’s bad. It means that it’s derivative.
On the other hand, Jesus did they put on a great live show! The lead singer constantly jumped up on the plastic-grip banisters, screaming his lungs out, and violently shook the curtain rod. I swear, he almost ripped it out of the socket a few times. The guitarists jumped around on stage a lot, hit into each other – everything short of jumping headfirst into the crowd. This band had energy!
After the first song, I was almost bored. But about halfway through their set, I was having a great time. I didn’t care that the music was bland to my elitist ears. They had won me over. A true testament to the power of “live tension” as they call it in Japan (or at least one of my friends did).
I gotta show my support for this band. Once they find a unique voice in their music, they’ll be going places.
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Xecsnoin
Thrash metal from Tokyo, Japan
What can I say? This band needs some cocaine.
Awesome ’80s thrash riffs and technical guitar solos? Check. Cohesive sound and engaging songs? Check. Live tension? Uh…
This band is like the inverse of Iowit. Their sound is fine. It’s pretty good, actually. It’s just their live performance that is underwhelming.
Ok, I’ll admit there were a few impressive moves. One time, a guitarist did a full 360 spin in less than a second. They also had a choreographed move where the two guitarists on either side of the stage would run and switch sides. That was cool, and they did this only two or three times which kept it from getting stale.
Despite that, the band didn’t move around the stage much. For a group of five serious thrashers, you’d expect to see a little chaos, right? It seemed like they thought of the performance as a chore. I don’t know, maybe I naturally expect unjustified amounts of aggression from a thrash band. To me, the music was saying one thing and the performance another. I felt like I wasn’t supposed to move around despite wanting to.
Still, the music rules and that’s hard to deny. When Xecsnoin is able to match their stage presence to the brutality of their music, then they will be a band that absolutely must be experienced live. Until then, you can buy their albums.
[One small personal note about clean vocals in metal - stop that! Unless you're Bruce Dickinson or Mikael Åkerfeldt, might as well give it up.]
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