THE HEAVIER JAPAN

The HEAVIER JAPAN was able to conduct a short interview with former EZO and FLATBACKER drummer Hirotsugu "Hiro" Homma who will be celebrating his 60th birthday at the HIRO FEST to take place this weekend at the CLUB CITTA in Kawasaki, Japan. - Congratulations on your 60th birthday! Tell us about your upcoming HIRO FEST birthday show. Hiro: Thank you! Well, when I looked back I realized that a lot of the bands I was in are not active anymore, and I never got to do any so-called anniversary shows either. For the first time I'm doing this sort of anniversary thing for my 60th birthday, and I wanted to organize the whole event from scratch on my own as well. So, I consider this my way of celebrating a milestone. First I wanted to perform something from all of the bands I have been part of, but I realized it's impossible to do that in just one night. I don't think I can physically cope with that either (laughs). So I decided to have some friends join me for that night....

The young death metal band, PARASITARIO has released their new single "Inhumane Extermination" on digital platforms and will be releasing the single on CD later this month on Nov. 23rd. PARASITARIO is a young and upcoming death metal act based in Osaka, Japan. Keeping the traits of oldschool death metal with a young and energetic momentum, the band is headed to represent death metal in the far east. Be sure to check them out if you're a fan of pure oldschool death metal!! https://linktr.ee/PARASITARIO

The female metal quintet NEMOPHILA have released 2 new products this week. First, they have a new EP titled "The Initial Impulse" in which they have officially recorded cover material for the first time. NEMOPHILA started out posting cover videos on their YouTube channel and that's what got them attention back then. The EP will include a second CD which will include new/unreleased original material. Second, a new live Blu-ray "4th Anniversary -Rizing NEMO-" is out. This Blu-ray captures NEMOPHILA's energetic 2 hour full performance at the Tokyo Garden Theater for their 4th Anniversary, which is the biggest venue the band has ever played in.  NEMOPHILA Official Website:  https://nemophila.tokyo/

The female hard rock band LONESOME BLUE recruited YASHIRO as their support guitar player for their upcoming comeback show scheduled in December.  After their original guitarist NARUMI left the band earlier this year LONESOME BLUE announced about a month ago that they will perform their comeback show in December with a support player to fill in NARUMI's position. The band revealed recently that YASHIRO will be performing for this upcoming show in December. No news has been released yet whether YASHIRO or anybody else will be the new permanent guitar player for the band. Lonesome Blue Website:  https://lonesomeblue.jp/

 2 new metal bands have emerged recently in the Japanese metal scene!! The latest addition to the Japanese girls metal scene is VENUS, a 4-piece female sleaze rock band featuring sisters Lisa (vocal) and Miacat (guitar) who were formerly members of OLIVIA SUGAR. VENUS is scheduled to release their first single "Diamond in the Rough" in December. MANA DIAGRAM is another newcomer to the scene with former HAGANE singer UYU and guitarist Mayto. along with drummer KOKI who is also an active member of the samurai extreme metal band GOTSU TOTSU KOTSU. MANA DIAGRAM will start performing shows in December.

The legendary female fronted hard rock/heavy metal band TERRA ROSA now have their classic albums on major streaming services. 4 albums including the band's famous debut album "The Endless Basis" have been made available.  TERRA ROSA was active in the mid to late 80s until the early 90s before disbanding. They came back to do some selected reunion shows, but the band's singer Kazue Akao made a sudden announcement some time back during the pandemic that she will be retiring completely from singing metal, which shocked many as plans were heard of a comeback album. TERRA ROSA albums are still available as physical copies, so be sure to purchase them while they are still available!!

Female singer EYE from MARY’S BLOOD has just released her new mini album and music video “ARCANA”!!  After female metal band MARY'S BLOOD announced that the band will go on hiatus for an unlimited period of time, front woman EYE started her activities as a solo singer. Showing a more versatile music style compared to the metal oriented MARY'S BLOOD, EYE has been able to express more of her true self as a rock musician. This new mini-album definitely displays her capabilities as a versatile musician. Be sure to check her music video posted on this page too!! "ARCANA" music video: Streaming and downloads are available here: https://linkco.re/z10MUxmE