Tonight the small venue “Antiknock” in the famous district of Shinjuku hosts several bands, all Japanese, ranging from Metalcore, Screamcore to Electro. Not less than 8 bands will play tonight, and most of whom are very young.
The live is actually a release party celebrating “Birthday of 12 questions”, the first album of Fear From The Hate, recently formed and already very active, and starting tonight a Japanese tour. For the occasion, Fear From The Hate will answer all our questions in a video interview on Metalship, concerning their album, the tour and the musical orientation of the band.

This (very) young band has only 5 months of activity but has already released 2 EPs and has coined their own genre : the “gamecore”, metalcore strongly influenced by the electro themes of Japanese video games. The female vocalist has a sweet and captivating voice, dressed in a long white gown, and supported by light keyboards. Then suddenly the rhythm speeds up, the screams start as I need some time to realize it’s still the same angel-looking vocalist that performs the screams.
The sound is unfortunately saturated, the small live house limiting its quality. The public, mostly women, is still very static and sparse, but warmly cheers the band.
Thumbs up for this young band and their strong muscial identity, in such a short time of existence.

Set-list :
1- Follow your Fantasy
2- Galaxxxy
3- Wisdom
4- Royal Water Lily

World in the Silence
Another young band (18 year old in average), World In The Silence gets on stage to offer us their screamo already rather mature despite their short experience ! The public (mostly emo) is reactive, even if the venue is still not very crowdy. A small circle pit will even be launched thanks to a few fans. The sound is saturated and I regret forgetting to bring my earplugs. There are a few audio feedbacks, and the band still doesn’t know how to entertain the public while the instruments are being tuned, but despite these points, which are common to starting bands, World In The Silence performs an excellent show, very emotional (particularly thanks to their screamer), transmitting their overwhelming energy and feelings to the public.

Note that the band released a note after the show stating that the bassist has left the band. I wish them to quickly find a substitute.

The following band, Artema, was also formed recently in the beginning of 2011, but their musicians seem to have much more experience. In-between hardcore and screamo, tinted with powerful electro influences, Artema’s show is very technical, full of energy and intense. They play their first mini-album “Fairy Tale”, released only a few weeks ago. The singer alternates between clear voice, like J-rock, and screams, both well mastered. He addresses the crowd, panting and reeling off at an incredible speed, but knows how to motivate the public.
A few westerners, and a few older buddies start to join the venue, increasing the average age of the crowd.
To sum up, Artema performed an excellent show, mixing electro, furious metalcore, and melodic clear voice that Japanese particularly appreciate.

A sample of electro is launched as an introduction to start Underland’s show. Even if the band is still close to Metalcore and Screamo, Underland differentiates itself from the others thanks to their J-rock influences, comparatively smooth and calm, and with a very high-pitched clear voice. The sound is good, but we can barely hear the backing vocals.
Thanks to their 5 years of activity, the band leads the crowd with no difficulty. For example between two tracks, when the band realizes that one of their guitarist is not here anymore (!), the drummer speaks to the audience, making jokes over jokes, the other guitarist doing Donald Duck, waiting while the missing one comes back (then explaining he didn’t have any battery left in his transmitter).

Reaching the middle of this exhausting evening with 8 Metalcore bands, Underland gives us a break and a communicative joviality.

Another experienced band among the young audience, Ender is also quite different from the other metalcore bands playing tonight, as they are closer to rock, maybe even punk, with a very high-pitched voice usual in J-rock. Despite their experience, the band seems not to be at comfortable with the public, maybe because they are not used to an emo audience ? Between each tracks, they don’t strive at all to fill in the blanks, and they then seem rather cold (particularly on the last icy “thanks” thrown to the public at the end of their performance), and the mood quickly gets down. Even if the band (and particularly the singer, very expressive) is quite energetic, the audience suddenly becomes very static and silent.
It’s really a shame as technically the band is very good, and delivers us rock / metal songs of very good quality, complex, interesting and well performed. One of the bands that certainly do better on album than on live (?)

And the live gets back to the previous scremo / core / electro combination of tonight’s first bands, with Ashley Scared The Sky, a young band from Tokyo, formed in 2009 thanks to Julian, half-Japanese half-American. They fully concentrate on lives and tours this year, touring with Artema and Fear From The Hate, their colleagues from Garimpeiro Records.
Despite having released only one EP (very recently, in July 2011), the band is incredibly powerful and talented, delivering us a fully-grown post-hardcore. The electronic samples are well balanced with metalcore, and the blast beats are powerful and force everyone to headbang.
The only negative point for me is (once again) the high-pitched backing vocals, that Japanese seem to appreciate as it brings some melodic tunes to this violence.
The show ends after 30 minutes of show and after breaking my cervical vertebraes thanks to so much headbanging. The public is delighted and keeps on moshing furiously towards the small and dense venue. Julian then invites the crowd to … do push ups ! that 4 to 5 of these crazy guys carry out.

To sum up, Ashley is a monster. A lesson of violent and extreme hardcore with sharp riffs that gains the approval of the public ! I’m glad to have seen them live, and wish to quickly hear about them on the international scene as they deserve it !

Tribal Chair is the next to last band … with eventually the first long-haired guy tonight, the guitarist (that will pretend at some point he can’t speak on the mic because of his hair masking him completely). On the contrary the bassist wears glam rock-like outfit. And overall the band plays some mix of J-Rock and scream. Despite playing after the over-energetic crazy dudes from Ashley Scared The Sky, the public is still very reactive. The band is indeed armed with several years of experience, several albums released and tour dates in Japan as well as in Korea, the USA etc., and plans to go overseas again in 2012.
Despite a problem on the guitar (that won’t last long), the sound is good, their songs well written and well performed. Tribal Chair delivered us a very good show, and I recommend them to the fans of restless Japanese Rock.

And here comes the top of the bill, Fear From The Hate, that came to defend their first album “Birth of 12 Questions”, after already 3 EP / demos / singles released in only 3 years of activity. The band evolved from a mix of hardcore and screamo, to some genre closer to J-Rock with still a few influences of screamo and electro. Even if Ashley Scared The Sky won the title for best bustling the public, Fear From The Hate are not bad either, and seem to already have a rather important proportion of die-hard fans tonight. Lidy, the vocalist, is particularly well appreciated and has his own groupies thanks his cool attitude, despite being less energetic.
The bands opens the show on their top-single “Paint a Trip Party”, very close to pop music, but with some screamo moments alternating, which wins the approbation of the public. While Hiro the bassist does the backing vocals and growls, Lidy sings with a clear and sweet charming voice (unfortunately inaudible on a good part of the second track). They leave the stage after 30 min and one “encore”, and it’s time for us to meet them in the backstage for a long interview in Japanese.

To sum up, I leave the venue with a great smile, delighted by these performances of Japanese bands only, despite the genre “emo” that doesn’t really suit me well. Centered around a common “screamo-metalcore” core, the bands ranged tonight from experienced J-Rock to early formations of screamo, with furious post hardcore or newly created “gamecore”. As many bands that deserve being known outside of Japan too.