Rokku-Sokuho Awards 2023 – The Results Are In

Ladies and Gentlemen (and others, to quote Jon Lord), The Jury has spoken and the winners of the first annual Japanese Rock Rokku-Sokuho Awards has been decided. First, let us remind ourselves who the nominees were in the four categories…

Instrumental: Mari – ”Forbidden Red” / soLi – ”Hidden Formula” / Nakayoshi Metal – ”Cerberus”.

Music video: Hanabie – ”Tousou (Run Away)” / Babymetal – ”Metali!!” / Release Hallucination – ”Vanitas” / Gravity / グラビティ / 終わっちゃんちゃん ( its all over now)” / Mad Jamie – ”Show More”.

Album: Ningen Isu – ”Shikisoku Zekuu” (色即是空) / Mari Hamada – ”Soar” / Isiliel – ”Moonbow Genesis” / Onmyo-Za – 龍凰童子 / Lovebites – ”Judgement Day”.

Best song: Jiluka – ”Venom” / Lovebites – ”Soldier Stands Solitary” / Zsasz – “Hangover Girl” / East of Eden – ”Evolve (Extended version)” / Ryujin – ”Gekokujo”.

And the winners are:

Instrumental: Mari – “Forbidden Red”.

Music video: Hanabie – “Tousou (Run Away)”.

Album: Lovebites – “Judgement Day”.

Best song: East of Eden – “Evolve (Extended version)”.

Congratulations to Mari, Hanabie, Lovebites & East Of Eden.

(Top shot of stage lighting rig is from a Over The Rainbow gig, Lovebites singer Asami inserted – many thanks to Rokku-Sokuho for the enthusiasm and the support for Japanese rock)

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Talk Of The Day (Isiliel, ABBA)

ISILIEL

Tickets for the show in Norway at the Vinger Blues & Rock Club in September is for sale. First live performance in Europe with full band. And tonight we will know if Isiliel wins the Best Album Award at the first ever Rokku-Sokuho Awards for her “Moonbow Genesis” album (she is nominated, which is very cool).

ABBA

50 years ago, ABBA took the world by storm with the hit song “Waterloo”. Still a fantastic song, like so much of their catalogue. I remember this single, with “Watch Out” on the flipside. Loved that song. Got to love their outfits too. Awesome nostalgia.

(Isiliel ad is from official platforms, ABBA single is from Germany 1974)

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First Rokku-Sokuho Awards Coming Up

The newly established platform for Japanese Rock, Rokku-Sokuho, will present the results of the first Japanese Rock Rokku-Sokuho Awards 2023 next Tuesday (March 19, 21:00 Swedish time). A hand-picked jury of huge fans of Japanese rock (I am not one of them) from all over the world has voted in four categories. The nominees are:

Instrumental: Mari – ”Forbidden Red” / soLi – ”Hidden Formula” / Nakayoshi Metal – ”Cerberus”.

Music video: Hanabie – ”Tousou (Run Away)” / Babymetal – ”Metali!!” / Release Hallucination – ”Vanitas” / Gravity / グラビティ / 終わっちゃんちゃん ( its all over now)” / Mad Jamie – ”Show More”.

Album: Ningen Isu – ”Shikisoku Zekuu” (色即是空) / Mari Hamada – ”Soar” / Isiliel – ”Moonbow Genesis” / Onmyo-Za – 龍凰童子 / Lovebites – ”Judgement Day”.

Best song: Jiluka – ”Venom” / Lovebites – ”Soldier Stands Solitary” / Zsasz – “Hangover Girl” / East of Eden – ”Evolve (Extended version)” / Ryujin – ”Gekokujo”.

(My shot of Babymetal, Stockholm 2023 – info is from Rokku-Sokuho)

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Talk Of The Day (Babymetal, Rokku-Sokuho, Good Store)

BABYMETAL

Babymetal has added two additional Stateside shows with Dethklok in San Francisco on April 24/25 at a place called The Masonic (3,000+ capacity). DragonForce will be opening. Also, the Bring Me The Horizon single “Kingslayer” (that features Babymetal) has been certified Silver in the UK.

ROKKU-SOKUHO

I mentioned the Rokku-Sokuho news site about Japanese rock a few days ago on this blog and I had a nice chat with the guy behind it (David Örnberg) yesterday. He has just opened up a YouTube page for weekly news updates as well (films in both Japanese and in English). It is obvious that Rokku-Sokuho is going to be a major platform and so today I have added a tag (“Rokku-Sokuho News Promo”) on this blog for posts regarding this operation. I just want to support this venture.

GOOD STORE (iMusic Denmark)

Sitting here in Sweden, it has been pretty hard to collect Japanese artists, but I discovered an outlet called iMusic Denmark that should be of interest for fans in my neck of the woods. Only store that I have seen that has the latest Murasaki album available, not to mention loads of stuff with Roselia (top image here shows guitarist Kudo Haruka in full flight from one of their DVDs). The CDs (or as in the case of Babymetal, the Vinyl) you can see in the top image are all available from this store. They do bring home stuff, including some DVDs (spotted a Nemophila release that I was not even aware of) on import from Japan. Looks like they are on to the fact that Japanese rock is going places.

(Top image is a computer screen shot from one of the incredible Roselia DVDs, with inserted releases from Lovebites, Babymetal, Bridear and Roselia for effect)

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Rokku-Sokuho Is The Go To Place For Japanese Rock

There is a site dedicated to Japanese rock called Rokku-Sokuho. It was created not long ago by a Swedish guy called David Örnberg. He was interviewed a few days ago on the Metal & Rock Zone YouTube page regarding this project of his. Hundreds and hundreds of bands (rock, metal, some punk etc) are already represented on the page, with links to everything. There is even a bi-weekly radio show, Radio Rokko Sokuho. I was not aware about this until I saw the interview with David the other day, but clearly this needs to be supported and word needs to get out. This is yet another sign that old school rockers in the west is paying notice to what is going on in Japan. Job well done.

(Babymetal shot by Seth Nilsson, shot from said interview on the Metal & Rock Zone inserted – I never link to stuff but you find the link in the top image here)

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