Dome doujin stuff like Vice Principal I found pretty neat. Mind you, that song is closer to melodeath than power metal - they need to crank the electro elements more though. オレオレウサギ is another one on the right track here too. Stylistically, they're all over the place. Satanic A La Mode is another one that throws electronic (and other) elements in, and it works out well, oddly enough. How come all doujin seems to be female-fronted?

[edit] Playing that Vice Principal now, not really electronic sounding. Not sure what I've been smoking haha The overall album has some electronic elements though (namely track #4 "Timeless Encode").


My experiences has been quite positive too. Sure there's the occasional half-baked debut, but that happens everywhere. Japan's the only country that's making power metal that I enjoy these days (Europe dried up years ago). Another thing - most of these bands will continue to improve too. Their scene seems to facilitate growth too (ie, tons of lives, supportive fans, etc)

I probably should delve more into their progressive scene sometime.


I just found it a barrier, but I eventually overcame it. Before this, the only non-English bands I ever listened to were black and folk metal. With Japanese stuff, I think I focus more on tone/vocal lines now - I don't even pay attention to lyrics.


I got side-tracked badly with Galneryus (I wanted this done late August), but I'm finally getting that taken care of. Anthem and Inugami Circus-Dan are the next bands with lots of CDs I'm considering tackling next.


The other two things that impressed me are: 1) Being able to take seemingly incompatible ingredients and making it work 2) Taking ingredients that I hate and making it something I like. There's plenty of Japanese bands I like where a western band would do something similar and I'd hate it. Like, Blood Stain Child's "Epsilon" I like a lot and I absolutely detest Amaranthe.


Indeed, I'd almost buy it for that alone haha I can't remember if I linked this or not, but here's a PV snippet. Bouncy as hell, and it unfortunately stops once it starts getting into some neoclassical goodness.


As funny as it sounds, the drumming was one of the first things that leaped out at me with Galneryus. Shred guitar I'm quite used to, but most power metal drummers kinda suck.

After that MinstreliX, the next big title for me is Mahatma "Re:Generation". They're a "related" band to Light Bringer (I think Hibiki does session bass on this album). They're a weird mix of prog rock and J-pop. Not really metal though (even though they have elements of that). They're probably closer to Art of Gradation in sound than Light Bringer. Still excellent, nonetheless. Actually Art of Gradation I wouldn't be shocked if they have a new album this year too. Their guitarist posted a couple instrumental/demo versions of new songs on their youtube channel.

I never could really get into any of the doujin stuff. I dunno; it's never really clicked for me. Not that it's bad, but my attention just isn't grabbed. I'd imagine most doujin is female-fronted because the audience probably has a significant amount of otaku (not that I mean anything bad about that. I'm just saying). You know, given the association with video games and anime and stuff like that.


Yeah, European power metal is mostly meaninglessly to me too. If I want good power metal, I turn to Japan first. Maybe it's a result of the culture of “cute things” over there, but they really know how to make hypermelodic, poppy stuff sound really good. Western power metal bands inserting pop-influence into their songs usually results in disaster. But Japanese people putting jpop into their metal works out really well a lot of the time. I know it's a horribly unfair comparision, but you compare Light Bringer to say Skylark and the difference in quality is pretty obvious.

Dunno if you ever heard of Gonin-ish, but they play some pretty wacky extreme progressive metal. It's really brilliant. Give it a listen if you haven't. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh7pKvpU3Q4


I've stopped paying attention to lyrics eons ago, so I'm pretty sure that helped me out in that regard.


I've already got two gargoyle albums on the way. Waiting eagerly for my next paycheck to drop some more cash on some more stuff. I'm normally way more frugal, but eh, it's okay to splurge every now and then right?


Oh man, western versions of Blood Stain Child would all be some sort of bad metalcore/trance abomination. Yeah, I can agree with you those two points for sure. The one metalcore band I like (Deluhi) is Japanese.


I've been hunting down a bit of their earlier stuff and do you know if they had a different vocalist for the first couple of albums? The tracks I've heard sound like female vocals singing in mostly pretty good English. It was good and surprising.


Constant double bass blasting seems to be the norm unfortunately. It did take me a while to realize how good Galneryus's drumming was though. It is a really nice touch. I also really like Versailles's drumming as well. It's a different style, but plenty of fills to be found.


Sounds pretty interesting. I'll look into it.

I think girls are into that stuff as much as the guys over there. I find with doujin it was natural for me to get into that since a lot of it is related to many of the power metal bands I listen to (eg, Light Bringer, MinstreliX, Knights of Round, Lightning, etc). Hell, even Yama-B is into that stuff bigtime too (I think one of Galneruys' ex-bassists is as well). Not sure how much of Iron Attack!'s stuff you've listened to, but he did vocals on a few. If you haven't heard Heaven's Sword, give that a whirl. Hell, I think I liked the solo almost as much as Yama-B's vocals.


I honestly can't think of too many (recent) Euro power metal bands that can use pop hooks without sounding like crap. A lot of the 90s ones got away with it though (mind you, a lot of those bands inspired many of the Japanese bands I'm listening to right now). Its a nasty think to say, but I think the biggest problem with Euro-power metal these days is just a flat-out lack of talent. Of course I'm a bit bitter because bands which I felt had talent ended up breaking up. I guess I completely bailed on Euro-power metal due to being unable to find any new album where I could get past one to two songs without deleting it due to sheer boredom. I still support the old existing bands who I always have, but no more new bands. Also, I ran into so many Japanese bands I like I'm pretty much forced to specialize now.


Indeed haha Or worse, Wonderland. Dear god that band sucks. Italy has been epic fail for power metal over the last decade or so. One thing I find disturbing: why on earth is Skylark actually popular in Japan? It makes no sense to me whatsoever


I own their second album (Japanese pressing, actually) - great stuff. I wish they'd reissue their debut and make a 3rd album. I think they may be recording, dunno. They're still alive and kicking, thankfully.


Indeed hehe I'm actually glad I quit drinking and smoking a few years ago, that's certainly helping out here. Also, I barely buy international titles anymore (and if I do, I get the Japanese pressing like the pedantic jackass I am haha). Mind you, I should, there's a few titles like Slough Feg and Anubis Gate I need to get.


I normally avoid metalcore like the plague, but some Japanese stuff actually ain't bad. Now, I can't quite pinpoint what they're doing right and what the US stuff is doing wrong. I guess by playing crap like that Arch Enemy replacement vocalist's old band posted in that Arch Enemy thread kinda reminded me why I avoid that stuff (god, its so forgettable I forgot their name along with their music ).


MinstreliX had a female vocalist named Lola on their first two albums. She eventually left and was replaced by Leo Figaro on that "Rose Funeral of Tragedy" EP. "Reflections" should be findable (and its a nice album too), but "Memoirs" is out of print and will cost an arm and a leg to get. I wish they'd reissue it.


He's super fast too, when he wants to be. But there's a lot of variation in his drumming. I watched a Galneryus DVD last night (bonus DVD on one of those Ironheart comp thingies) and it was awesome. Yuhki and Syu's interplay is insane. They're also one of those bands that get better every time I listen to them. I find that a lot with most of the Japanese bands I listen to - I keep noticing more nuances and details.


Art of Gradation (as you may know by now) is Kazu (ex-Light Bringer)'s current band. No idea why Light Bringer lost half their band - they don't really seem like the type of people for major drama or anything. Could be a good chance they didn't like being on a major label or only wanted to do this part time. Remember, Light Bringer is essentially a top 30 band over there. I'm curious to see how well their next album does - Cyntia's latest cracked the top 10 (they previously charted as high as Light Bringer).

I suppose somebody would have to do a demographic study or something to be sure. Hmm, that track was pretty cool. It reminded me a little of demetori.


Haha, I guess I don't have really much to add here other than “I agree."


Italy has indeed been a pretty miserable place for power metal. Skylark still existing after all these years is pretty disappointing.


Yeah, a reissue and more material would be really nice. I'm cheap so I just have the Season of Mist version. Oh well.


I'm too cheap to buy Japanese pressings. I'll just miss out on those bonus tracks like most of the world.


I couldn't really tell you where it's going wrong either. I dunno; the music usually sounds like really bad melodeath (which I'm already not a huge fan of) with bad vocals. I'll be happy to miss out on that kind of stuff as well.


These independently released, out of print debut albums are killing me. Well, maybe some other time in the future then.


Oh man, I keep noticing new things too. The other day at work. I suddenly find new drumming patterns in Galneryus that I haven't heard before. It's pretty great how you can listen to this stuff for years and still find new things.


Oh wow, I didn't know they charted really high. That's pretty neat. Does this mean that Japanese people currently have the best taste in music on average? (Well there's still the Skylark thing though...)