Rock act Joy Opposites detail infamous low points on ‘Find Hell’
When was the last time you found yourself "in hell"? For Adam Graham, frontman for Japanese rock act Joy Opposites, it was last year. "The creation of this record was hell in a lot of ways," Graham says with a laugh. "Not in that it ...
Review: After Hours provides powerful rock and a strong statement of intent
"Standing against those that ruin art," was the tagline for the After Hours festival, which took place across four venues in Shibuya on April 9. The sponsor-free event, curated by the bands Mono, Downy and Envy, featured more than 30 artists from a wide ...
Envy makes a return after five years with new album 'Atheist's Cornea'
The 20-year career of Envy went nothing like what a band out of Japan's hardcore scene would have expected. The members never predicted chumming around with Scottish postrock act Mogwai, or landing a track in a Shiseido cosmetics commercial. And two decades later, on ...
Fact takes post-hardcore to a rawer place on 'Ktheat'
It has been a year since post-hardcore group Fact released an artist photo with the six members' faces revealed. Before then, the band always wore traditional Japanese noh masks. "We wanted our fans to listen to our music without having to care about how we ...
Daymare puts its bands through a hardcore filter for Leave Them All Behind event
"There are people who like aggressive music the way they like sports, but I think 'hardcore' is about being self-aware of what you're doing, about how to create your own space," says Tadashi Hamada, manager of independent music label Daymare Recordings. "That's my first ...
BBQ Chickens keep new album 'Broken Bubbles' short and sweet
When making music, Tokyo punk/metal hybrid act BBQ Chickens like to keep things short. The quartet have yet to craft a song that lasts two minutes. A handful of their cuts don't even break the 10-second mark. The band will tour across the country this ...
