Japandemonium – January 2011: LOUDNESS, AREA51, DIR EN GREY… And BLOOD STAIN CHILD Prepares To Tear The U.S. A New One…

Okay, so it isn’t a monthly update as I’d planned, but feast your eyes and ears on some righteous noise news out of Japan… the island nation where I will one day spend far too much money on fattening up my metal collection…

Loudness recently contributed a song entitled ‘The Eternal Soldiers’ as an intro theme for the new anime movie, Mazinkaizer SKL. The single was released on December 15th with a B-side entitled ‘The Danger Zone’; both tracks fall in line with the band’s current thrash-oriented attack, as heard on their latest album King Of Pain. Click the following links for audio samples: ‘The Eternal Soldiers’, ‘The Danger Zone’.

The single is now available for order via CDJapan.com here.

Click here for look and listen to ‘King Of Pain’, the first single from the album. King Of Pain is Loudness’ second album with new drummer Masayuki ‘Ampan’ Suzuki. He replaces founding skinbasher Munetaka Higuchi, who lost his battle with liver cancer in November 2008.

Area51 are still pushing their latest album, Goddess, released in March 2010, having recently put the finishing touches on a video for the song ‘Nightmare’. Although it may seem kind of late in the game for the band to be releasing a video, guitarist Yoichiro Ishino and vocalist Kate Cain have received enough online attention from the international media to warrant putting a promo clip together in order to give Area51 a face. No official release date has been set, but having been given a sneak preview of the clip this past week it’s safe to say we should see it before the end of February.

In the meantime, check out audio samples from Goddess and order the album via iTunes or CDBaby.com.

Dir En Grey, the former Visual Kei juggernaut gone metal Pink Floyd are due to release a new single entitled ‘Lotus’ on January 26th in Japan, with an international release to follow on an as-yet-undisclosed date. The tracklist features ‘Lotus’, ‘Obscure’ and a live cut of ‘Reiketsu Nariseba’, recorded at Shinkiba Studio Coast on July 20th, 2010; it can be ordered here. A limited edition DVD version is also available, featuring the same audio track list and four video cuts: The Unwavering Fact Of Tomorrow Tour 2010 (Shinkaba Studio Coast), ‘Zan’, ‘Lie Buried With A Vengeance’ and ‘Gyakujo Tanno Keloid Milk’. Purchase details can be found here.

Check out a 60 second teaser of ‘Lotus’ here and tell me it doesn’t sound like a return to the Withering To Death album.

Finally – and I’m absolutely pissed I won’t be able to attend – Blood Stain Child will make their first ever live appearance in the USofA at the A-KON 22 in Dallas, TX, which runs from June 10th – 12th. According to the press release, A-KON is one of America’s largest Japanese cultural events. Go to this location for event information.

Last time out I reported that Blood Stain Child have revamped their line-up yet again, bringing aboard former Youthquake drummer Gami and Greek female vocalist, Sophia. Without giving too much away, it seems that the lovely lady is going to bring a new dynamic to the band’s sound, something Blood Stain Child played with a bit on their last studio album, Mozaiq. New album due out in the spring via Coroner Records.

As a post script, the aforementioned Sophia was kind enough to field some interview questions tossed her way by Yers Trooly. Something a little different that goes beyond the realms of Blood Stain Child, guaranteed to be a eye-opener. Stay tuned…