We'll start with a song for a video that appears on the above playlist:
Hard Blow by Flatbacker
Flatbacker released two albums before moving to America and changing their name to EZO (say the letters separately—sounds like easy-o) and releasing two more, the first of which was produced by Gene Simmons.
This video is from their VHS release War is Over and is a masterclass on how to make a rock video:
- opens in a quarry (lots of rocks)
- explosions
- the drummer is playing a rock at one point
- setting moves to what looks like some kind of oil refinery (lots of metal)
- B-footage of the band playing on screens in malls and the street
- final setting is a warehouse and there's lots of tube TVs set up and being smashed
Closed Minds by TELECiDE
I love how the Japanese use English.
It's never outright wrong, just a little unusual; here you can see the liberal use of caps in band names.
Around 2014 a trend began in metal music in Japan where there were suddenly a lot of bands popping up that were all-women, and TELECiDE was a metalcore act from the period that didn't last.
Closed Minds is a track from their second EP, and their best video:
Now, personally I think this is a great track for the gym, especially BJJ, but most the playlists I put together are with the intention of being crowd-pleasers, or at least not distract from the task at hand. The death growl is something that causes non-metal heads to stop what they're doing and look around in confusion.
This track is in the hopper for a future metal playlist that I'll save for quiet open mats or mornings where there's fewer people of narrower musical tastes.
In the meantime, you can still add the track to playlists of your own, and you should.
Because it's badass.
Let's look at more metalcore:
DISSENSION (Live) by NEMOPHILA
NEMOPHILA caught my eye (ear?) with the incredible vocals on this performance, and when I looked closer I recognized the guitarist (SAKI) from Mary's Blood (who later left the band in March 2024—"differences in direction") and the drummer from a bunch of session videos I'd seen over the years uploaded to YouTube.
A lot of the lady metal acts that are popular have some sort of loud visual gimmick that contrasts with my notion of what a band should look like and interferes with my enjoyment of the music—NEMOPHILA aren't one of them.
They look like a metal band.
Again, you should go ahead and add the above song to playlists of your own, or go check out the rest of their music, because a lot of it is pretty good.
Get the Playlists
The track from the first video above appears on one Sampler, and one Session playlist here:
- J-Rock Sampler no.1 - a 100-minute long playlist
- J-Rock Session no.1 - a 200-minute long playlist