Maximum the Hormone

Do you know Random J's corner of JPop? Well, this is Nebacha's corner of JMetal! Ok, not quite, but I thought that sentence sounded cool (actually the "J" in the title of J's blog is referring to himself, it's J's blog of Pop, not of JPop). Anyway, the fact is, although I'm quite a fan of Japanese culture (not a Japanophile, though. I'm interested in their culture, not obsessed with it, or better, with the romanticized version of it portrayed by most games and anime series), I have to admit, their metal sucks! Although they're pretty big fans of the genre, they usually suck at it, having few and somewhat mediocre bands. Still, thanks to Death Note I've just found a fucking awesome JMetal (if we can call it that) band: Maximum the Hormone!

Here, watch this:



Freaking awesome, isn't it? Ok, maybe not at first time, but after a while it starts to grow on you, and the images fit right in with the sound (love the way they put images of Misa in provocative costumes right when the song gets heavier). But this one is even better, in my opinion:



Those are just short verions used in the anime, you can check out the full songs on youtube if you're interested. Preety cool, uh? It definitely caught me by surprise, with an interesting mix between clear elements of heavier sounds, like Death/Black Metal or Grindcore, and softer sections, like the beginning of the second song. The full album, Buiikikaesu, reflects this even more, it's not as heavy as one might think just from listening to this. It's actually more rock than metal for the most part, but, regardless of what it is, what matter is that it's awesome, and reminds us that there's more to Japanese music than just J-Pop.