Lovebites @ Analog Music Hall, Budapest, 2026.07.23.
Japan has an unprecedented number of all-girl rock bands and this trend is especially obvious when we dig into the local metal scene, where, by now, all-female metal bands basically…
“Good Vibes Only” – an interview with EMNW
Mixture rock is a huge thing in Japan with bands taking cues from a wide range of genres, blending them and coming up with something fresh, something they can rightfully…
“We live in the moment” – an interview with Jellow Glow
Jellow Glow is a pretty young indie band that went viral on social media due to their Shibuya clean-up project, their English language posts and them mostly focusing on foreigners staying…
EMNW, Jellow Glow, Mighty Hope, Redmarker @ Kyoto Gattaca, 2026.05.21.
This post is a part of a series of live galleries from the trip to Japan in May / June, 2026. After the previous, Tokyo-centered visits, this trip's first week was…
EMNW: EMNW
The heydays of nu-metal and rap rock are long gone, we all know that. And actually, Japan never really had a scene on its own to begin with, as even…
Rock’n’Wolves – an interview with Man With A Mission.
Man With A Mission, one of the strangest rock bands to come out of Japan is getting ready for its latest European tour this June, that will include the half…
Jinmenusagi: ALXVE
Jinmenusagi is finally back in form with his first full solo album in a decade! The Tokyo-based rapper's ALXVE is officially a follow-up to his 2014 offering, LXVE, which was the album that put…
Coldrain, Noisemaker, Revnoir @ Barba Negra, Budapest, 2025.12.06.
It was almost exactly ten years before this shows when I saw Coldrain for the first time: in late October, back in 2014, when they played in Vienna, at a…
Palastleben: Manufacture
There were many excellent releases coming out of Japan in 2025, but if I had to pick one as the absolute I would probably pick this one. The debut album…
f5ve: Sequence 01
During the last couple of years Japan's pop girlgroup scene went through a rather drastic change, with nearly all groups from the former generation disbanding and new ones taking their…