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Masayoshi Yamashita
is a Japanese heavy metal band formed in 1981 by guitarist Akira Takasaki and drummer Munetaka Higuchi. They were the first Japanese metal act signed to a major label in the United States. Loudness subsequently released 26 studio albums (five licensed in America) and nine live albums by 2014 and reached the ''Billboard'' Top 100 during their heyday as well as charting on Oricon dozens of times. Despite numerous changes in its line-up, with Takasaki the sole constant member, the band continued their activities throughout the 1990s, finally reuniting the original line-up in 2001. This incarnation released a further seven albums until November 30, 2008, when original drummer Munetaka Higuchi died from liver cancer at a hospital in Osaka at age 49. He was replaced with Masayuki Suzuki. Biography 1980–1984: From Lazy to Loudness The band was started by guitarist Akira Takasaki, bassist Hiroyuki Tanaka and drummer Munetaka Higuchi, coming off the split-up of the rock band Lazy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 million in the 2020 census, it is also the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, which is the second-largest metropolitan area in Japan and the 10th largest urban area in the world with more than 19 million inhabitants. Osaka was traditionally considered Japan's economic hub. By the Kofun period (300–538) it had developed into an important regional port, and in the 7th and 8th centuries, it served briefly as the imperial capital. Osaka continued to flourish during the Edo period (1603–1867) and became known as a center of Japanese culture. Following the Meiji Restoration, Osaka greatly expanded in size and underwent rapid industrialization. In 1889, Osaka was officially established as a municipality. The construc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Vescera
Michael Vescera is an American heavy metal singer for various bands and projects like Loudness (''Soldier of Fortune'', ''On the Prowl'', ''Live at the Budokan''), Obsession (''Marshall Law'', ''Scarred for Life'', ''Methods of Madness'', ''Carnival of Lies'', ''Order of Chaos''), Yngwie Malmsteen (''The Seventh Sign'', ''Magnum Opus''), Dr. Sin (''Dr. Sin II''), Roland Grapow (''Kaleidoscope'') or his own band MVP (''Mike Vescera Project''). Besides being a vocalist, Vescera also works as a record producer: his recent collaborations include artists such as Metal Mike Chlasiak and Bobby Jarzombek ( Halford, Sebastian Bach, Fates warning) and their soon to be released ''Pain Museum'' album, Bobby Blotzer's (Ratt) & John Corabi's ( Mötley Crüe, The Scream) ''Twenty4Seven'' CD, Magnitude Nine's forthcoming album ''Decoding the Soul'', Reign of Terror (featuring Joe Stump) and Killing Machine (featuring Stet Howland and Mike Duda of W.A.S.P.) – just to name a few. Michael ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shred Guitar
Shred guitar or shredding is a virtuoso lead guitar solo playing style for the guitar, based on various advanced and complex playing techniques, particularly rapid passages and advanced performance effects. Shred guitar includes "fast alternate picking, sweep-picked arpeggios, diminished and harmonic scales, finger-tapping and whammy-bar abuse", It is commonly used in heavy metal guitar playing, where guitarists use the electric guitar with a guitar amplifier and a range of electronic effects such as distortion, which create a more sustained guitar tone and facilitate guitar feedback effects. The term is sometimes used with reference to virtuoso playing by instrumentalists other than guitarists, as well. The term "shred" is also used outside the metal idiom, particularly in bluegrass musicians and jazz-rock fusion electric guitarists. History Many jazz guitarists in the 1950s such as Les Paul, Barney Kessel and Tal Farlow improvised various guitar techniques comparing to co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Birthday Eve
''The Birthday Eve'' is the first studio album by Japanese heavy metal band Loudness. It was released in 1981 only in Japan. The 24bit digitally remastered Japanese limited edition CD includes two additional tracks not on the original release, coming from the first single of the band. The success of the album was measured by Loudness' sold out debut concert at Asakusa International Theater, in front of an audience of 2.700. Track listing All music by Akira Takasaki, all lyrics by Minoru Niihara ;Side one # "Loudness" - 5:10 # "Sexy Woman" - 5:40 # "Open Your Eyes" - 4:32 # "Street Woman" - 5:17 ;Side two #"To Be Demon" - 6:07 # "I'm on Fire" - 3:41 # "High Try" - 5:07 # "Rock Shock (More and More)" - 4:56 ;2005 Japanese CD edition bonus tracks #"Burning Love" - 3:57 # "Bad News" - 4:27 Personnel ;Loudness *Minoru Niihara - vocals *Akira Takasaki - guitars *Masayoshi Yamashita - bass *Munetaka Higuchi - drums ;Production *Daiko Nagato is a Japanese musical producer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earthshaker (band)
is a Japanese heavy metal band that was formed in 1978 in Osaka. One of the first Japanese metal bands, they steered toward a poppier sound on later albums and dropped from worldwide view, preferring to record and tour in their home country. After a successful run, they broke up in 1994, but returned five years later and remain active. The quintet from the nineties is still together. An early incarnation of the band included Minoru Niihara (of Loudness fame) as singer (originally bass and vocals). Discography Studio albums * 1983 - '' Earthshaker'' * 1984 - ''Fugitive'' * 1984 - ''Midnight Flight'' * 1985 - '' Passion'' * 1986 - '' Overrun'' * 1987 - '' Aftershock'' * 1988 - '' Smash'' * 1989 - '' Treachery'' * 1990 - '' Pretty Good!'' * 1992 - '' Earthshaker'' * 1993 - ''Real'' * 1993 - '' Yesterday & Tomorrow'' * 2001 - ''Birthday'' * 2003 - '' Soko-Ni Aru Shi'' * 2004 - ''Faith'' * 2007 - '' AIM'' * 2008 - ''Quarter'' * 2009 - '' The Course of Life'' *2010 - Back to Nexus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neverland (band)
was a Japanese rock band founded by former Lazy members Hiroyuki Tanaka and Shunji Inoe after the dissolution of Lazy. The band was active in the 1980s. Members * Vocal: Tomoaki Taka *Guitar: Takumi Abe * Bass: Hiroyuki Tanaka *Keyboard: Shunji Inoe * Drums: Masato Wada (withdrew from the band in 1985), Shigeji Tamura (joined the band after Wada's departure) Anime theme songs * - Opening theme of ''Psycho Armor Govarian is a Japanese anime television series created by Go Nagai. It was produced by Knack Productions and TV Tokyo. The series was originally broadcast from to in Japan. Besides Japan, it was also broadcast in South Korea in 1988 by MBC where it ...''. * - Ending theme of ''Psycho Armor Govarian''. * - Insert song of ''Psycho Armor Govarian''. * - Insert song of ''Psycho Armor Govarian''. * - Opening theme of '' Uchu Densetsu Ulysses 31''. * - Ending theme of ''Uchu Densetsu Ulysses 31''. Discography Singles * These singles were promoted as Tomoaki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of the English word ''animation'') describes all animated works, regardless of style or origin. Animation produced outside of Japan with similar style to Japanese animation is commonly referred to as anime-influenced animation. The earliest commercial Japanese animations date to 1917. A characteristic art style emerged in the 1960s with the works of cartoonist Osamu Tezuka and spread in following decades, developing a large domestic audience. Anime is distributed theatrically, through television broadcasts, Original video animation, directly to home media, and Original net animation, over the Internet. In addition to original works, anime are often adaptations of Japanese comics (manga), light novels, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerrang!
''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-off supplement in the ''Sounds'' newspaper. Named after the onomatopoeic word that derives from the sound made when playing a power chord on a distorted electric guitar, ''Kerrang!'' was initially devoted to the new wave of British heavy metal and the rise of hard rock acts. In the early 2000s, it became the best-selling British music weekly. History ''Kerrang!'' was founded in 1981. The editor of the weekly music magazine ''Sounds'', Alan Lewis, suggested that Geoff Barton edit a one-off special edition focusing on the new wave of British heavy metal phenomenon and on the rise of other hard rock acts. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bow Wow (band)
Bow Wow are a Japanese rock band formed in 1975. Originally consisting of guitarist and vocalists Kyoji Yamamoto and Mitsuhiro Saito, bassist Kenji Sano and drummer Toshihiro Niimi, they were one of the first Japanese metal bands. After releasing nine studio albums, Saito left in 1983. The band then adopted a mainstream sound by recruiting lead vocalist Genki Hitomi and keyboardist Rei Atsumi and renamed themselves to Vow Wow. They relocated to England in 1986, before Sano left the band the following year and Yamamoto invited former Whitesnake bassist Neil Murray to replace him. After Murray left to join Black Sabbath, studio bassist Mark Gould played on Vow Wow's last album before they disbanded in 1990. Yamamoto reformed Bow Wow in 1995 with all new members, before it became a trio when fellow original members Saito and Niimi rejoined in 1998. Niimi left in 2015 and the group now performs under the name Bow Wow G2, which refers to the two guitarists being the only official me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc. was originally set up as a subsidiary of Original Confidence and took over the latter's Oricon record charts in April 2002. The charts are compiled from data drawn from some 39,700 retail outlets (as of April 2011) and provide sales rankings of music CDs, DVDs, electronic games, and other entertainment products based on weekly tabulations. Results are announced every Tuesday and published in ''Oricon Style'' by subsidiary Oricon Entertainment Inc. The group also lists panel survey-based popularity ratings for television commercials on its official website. Oricon started publishing Combined Chart, which includes CD sales, digital sales, and streaming together, on December 19, 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billboard Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming in the United States. The weekly tracking period for sales was initially Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. This tracking period also applies to compiling online streaming data. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming, is readily available on a real-time basis, is also tracked on a Friday to Thursday cycle effective with the chart dated July 17, 2021 (previously Monday to Sunday and before July 2015, Wednesday to Tuesday). A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by ''Billboard'' on Tuesdays but post-dated to the following Saturday. The first number-one song of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 was " Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Metal
is heavy metal music from Japan. 1970s: Early acts Originally formed in 1967 as a cover band of British and American psychedelic rock titled " Yuya Uchida & the Flowers," Japan's Flower Travellin' Band have been credited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal music. After changing their name, having almost a complete personnel change and moving to Canada, they produced their first album of original material in 1971. ''Satori'', which was released a little over a year after Black Sabbath's debut album, has been called "proto-metal" and noted as having "traces of early heavy metal." Their previous album, '' Anywhere'' (1970), included what is believed to be the first recorded cover of a Black Sabbath song, the self-titled "Black Sabbath". Additionally, ''Satori'' and Flower Travellin' Band vocalist Joe Yamanaka and guitarist Hideki Ishima's work on Kuni Kawachi's first solo album '' Kirikyogen'' (1970) have been credited as "honing the formidable and ominous sound that would beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
