The Empress

Saki released a new video on YouTube yesterday called “The Empress”. Beautiful instrumental, great video. Today we have the new Saki EP “Germinans” as well, so make sure to order that (there are, as mentioned earlier on this blog, two versions of this). “The Empress” is a track from said EP. The title track of the EP was released as a video four months ago. Also, her final release as a member of Nemophila, the new live DVD from the Budokan show, is also out in Japan now. I hope to receive my copy within a few weeks on import. Fans will be able to see Saki perform in Okinawa next (see June 3 post “7th Heaven Summer Festival 2024”). Lucky bastards.

(EP cover is from official platforms, the small image is a screenshot from the new video – now go and check it out!)

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Hanabie On The Road

Japanese high energy attitude rockers Hanabie has Scandinavian dates coming up in early July. They are constantly on the road and they also have a North American trek with Jinjer coming up in September/October. Their video for “Pardon, I Have To Go Now” has notched up over 7,000,000 views on YouTube. If you check out live clips on YouTube it is obvious that people love them. Very high energy. It is like a party rolling into town. It is all happening in Japan.

(Ads are from official platforms)

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All Hail The Kings And Queens

Babymetal released another live video today shot at the recent Fox Festival in Japan (just prior to the current European dates), “Brand New Day”. It features Polyphia members Tim Henderson and Scott LePage. Polyphia collaborated on this song on the 2019 “Metal Galaxy” album, and were invited to Japan to participate at the Fox Festival. Nice to see this collaboration video, and it has already notched up over 90,000 views in less than five hours. Meanwhile, we have a new video uploaded to the Bridear YouTube page as well today, a cover version of Rainbow´s classic “Kill The King”. It features Bridear drummer Hatsumi as well as members of Re-Arise, Superblood, Galneryus and X-Ray. Looks like this video was shot at a Rainbow tribute concert. The new Bridear album “Born Again” is out in late June, early July, depending on where you live. The countdown is on.

(Seen here is the Babymetal “Metal Galaxy” CD over a Rainbow 1976 spread in my publication Deep Purple Forever! issue 19 – snapshot of Hatsumi from the Rainbow video and the cover of the new Bridear album inserted)

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The Bruce Lee And Babymetal Connection

If anybody has spotted this connection before, I have not seen it. I watched a fully restored (as in longer) DVD release of the Bruce Lee 1973 masterpiece “Enter The Dragon” (best ever martial arts action film, hands down) yesterday and in one of the scenes at the beginning of the movie he is tutoring a young man and suddenly he says “Don´t Think. Feel”. I nearly fell out of my chair, because this is a much beloved quote that Su-metal used for the narration part of the rather epic pre-recorded Babymetal lore at the beginning of the shows on the “Metal Galaxy” tour. It is captured in all its glory on the “Live At The Forum” DVD (recorded in 2019, released in 2020). It is a very powerful introduction, and the “Don´t think. Feel” line is the last right before they launch into “Da Da Dance”. Now we all know that the Babymetal lore has been riddled with all sorts of references from the world of art (music, movies, probably a bit of everything under the sun). I have to think that Kobametal (manager Key Kobayashi) is largely responsible for the lore. There should be no surprise then that he might be a fan of Bruce Lee (I mean, he is a guy!), and perhaps of this film in particular. As I said, it is a masterpeice. I doubt very much that this is a coincidence.

(My shot of said upgraded edition of “Enter The Dragon” and the rather wonderful “Live At The Forum”)

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Talk Of The Day (Tommy Bolin, Risky Melody)

TOMMY BOLIN FESTIVAL

The 30th (!) Tommy Bolin Festival takes place in Sioux City (Iowa) at the Marquee on August 3. Billed as the “Last Ride” it features many prominent guests, not least singer Jim Dandy from Black Oak Arkansas. I think it is rather wonderful that they celebrate Tommy Bolin like this.

RISKY MELODY

Japanese rockers Risky Melody has played a lot of concerts in Japan this year in order to commemorate their 10th Anniversary. The tour will end at the Zepp Shinjuko venue in Tokyo (a 1,500 capacity hall) on January 17 2025. I hope that we get a live DVD out of this tour. I feel that they are gaining some traction.

(Ads from official platforms)

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Spice “X” (Limited Edition)

Got one of the Trident “Spice “X”” Limited Edition five track mini albums on import (there exist a full on album as well), with bonus DVD (“Bite The Bullet” video shoot) and trading card (did not spot that until I had already taken this image, very cool though). I like Trident, they are a very competent rock trio and they have their own thing going. It is actually very hard to answer the question “What does so and so sound like” when you talk about Japanese bands, they really operate in their own Universe. Trident rocks but they are not afraid to take the small roads, sonically speaking. That makes the journey all the more fun. If Western rock and metal has become rather stale and predictable, there is very little of that on the Japanese scene (well, there may be some that hold on to the past and that is fine), but the younger generation really is quite fearless. I quite enjoy the music of Trident. My collection started with this release. No going back now.

(My shot of said release, snapshot of bonus DVD content inserted – visit the international shop on their official homepage for cool stuff)

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10,000,000 Hits And Counting

The May 23 Babymetal/Electric Callboy video for “Ratatata” has notched up over 10,000,000 views on YouTube. The official live version well over 1,200,000 in 10 days. Nice.

(My shot in Stockholm 2023)

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Talk Of The Day (Broken By The Scream, Koiai, Ayasen)

BROKEN BY THE SCREAM

This Japanese Idol Metal outfit has been going since 2016. They have a European Tour coming up in August, with dates in France, Germany and Austria.

KOIAI

I mentioned their first DVD on this blog not long ago. It sold out within hours. A major label needs to pick this band up, and fast. Some really good live videos can be seen on YouTube.

AYASEN

Japanese singer/song rider (you will get it in a second!) Ayasen will play at the Swedish NärCon Sommar Festival in Linköping this summer. The festival is set to take place between July 25-28. Ayasen will perform on the 25th. She has songs about motorcycles (spot that guitar!) and has an interesting niche going. It is not the first time that she will play in Sweden, she was here in 2022 (in capitol Stockholm) as well. NärCon Sommar Festival is working annually with the Swedish-Japanese Performers Association. 15,000 happy people attended the festival in 2023 in one way or another, according to their offical site. Loads of fun stuff going on. Games and cosplay, everything under the (rising) sun.

(Ads and images are from official platforms, thumbs up from Ayasen regarding her shot)

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Risky Melody

First Risky Melody product to arrive from Japan is this 2024 CD EP. Four tracks. The title of this release is “Itai Itai Ai”, not that I can see it on the cover… I like Risky Melody though. They were formed in 2014 so they have been around for a decade. I really would like to get my hands on the last two albums, “Reflection” and “Esperanza”. Not available in my neck of the woods at the moment. I will have to see if these pops up over here eventually.

(My shot of said EP)

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Rainbow In Malmö 1980

I too, watched a concert once that was cancelled mid-show (like the Babymetal performance at Download the other day), but these things happen. I had travelled quite far to see Rainbow in concert in Malmö (Sweden) a week prior to the first Monsters Of Rock concert in the UK that they were about to headline. The band got to play maybe two thirds of the show before the rain started to really pour down. Don Airey (now the keyboard player in Deep Purple) did his keyboard solo and the last notes was “Singin´ In The Rain” and then the show was cut short. Up until then it had been a fantastic show, amazing version of “Stargazer” (and rare, never heard them perform it again personally). Rainbow were riding high at that time, they had the hits from the “Down To Earth” album and they had a lot of respect in the rock community. Short lived version of the band but I managed to see them twice with singer Graham Bonnet. Experiencing a concert that has to be cut short is a sad occasion for all parties concerned. At the end of the day it is all about safety. In the last few years in Europe alone there has been incidents at rock concerts in which many has been struck by lightning. This is not to be taken lightly, and hard decisions has to be made that nobody really wants to go through. I am sure it was the right decision in Malmö back in 1980 and I am sure they knew what they were doing at Download in 2024. Life goes on.

(1980 press clippings seen here as reprinted in Deep Purple Forever! 26 back in 2000, rare Rainbow bootleg from the show inserted as well)

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