Japanese booty

While in Italy, I got several requests concerning it, so let be it so: Jappish thread as long as it goes. Incidentally port's waves left on the shore a nice box of treasures this morning. Probably dropped by some oriental ship...

SURVIVE-Nothing left on my Path (2008)

Absolutely unknown to me 'till this morning. The band apparently was formed in 1998 in Kashiwa (Chiba Prefecture) and at present can boast 1 EP and 5 full enght albums (including this one) on its list of accolades. It is labelled as Thrash/Death Metal/Metalcore and you can really find a little bit of all those styles inside. Yet, the blend turns out in a quite original product, very modern and enjoyable to anybody. Good production, excellent sound and well-balanced turnover between harsh/clean vocals, slow/fast tempos, melodic/thrash-death grindings are the highlights you can find through all the 10 tracks of this album. Singing is kept a bit in the back (things I like very much) leaving to schizofrenic drummings and arpeggios the hammering down of the bulk of the tunes. Melody does exist within the lines (otherwise you wouldn't find it here!), but it is pierced inside this metallic slab with much parsimony and - most importantly- very carefully. Not too much, not too little, not where you would expect... I use "groovy" very much, but if there was a sound to be chosen to express it, this bands music would probably be one of my suggestions. Rip away a good deal of melody from DISTURBED, inject some acid in his singer voice, filter the American sound a bit and you get a nice approximation of it. "15 minutes Fall" and "What matter is waiting" are tracks to try absolutely! (For dumb people: hit the cover!)

And you know what? Dudes are playing just this week-end at GOODMAN Club (Akihabara, Tokyo) with Bassianum, Kings Evil, Shaddy Glimpse, Heaven in her arms and I really think I'll go checking them out!