Loud Park will go down this weekend at Saitama Super Arena, drawing fans excited to see mainstream metal acts such as Manowar, Dream Theater and veteran Japanese group Loudness, who was the first heavy metal band from this country signed to an American label and is halfway through its third decade of playing heavy metal.
Japan took to metal almost as quickly as the West did, and a core following has remained loyal to it since. Subgenres do well, too. It didn't take long after early thrash metal acts Slayer and Megadeth hit the scene overseas for Japan to answer back with bands such as Sabbat and United, and 30 years later this trend hasn't stopped. Neither has Sabbat, actually; I saw the group in April at Asakusa Extreme, still playing its brand of black-thrash metal and the bassist still rocking a studded leather thong instead of pants.
No matter how much metal as a genre has splintered — or in which esoteric direction it has evolved — Japanese acts have been around to add their voices to the cacophony. Sitting on every branch on the warped and mutated tree of modern metal, you'll find a poisonous black lotus hailing from Japan.