Japanese Hardcore Information Database on Deep Fry Bonanza Punk/Hardcore Webzine

As American hardcore bands grow more and more content to emphasize their simple, thug-core groupthink roots in bands like Youth of Today and bands from Scandinavia continue to make a racket that, while certainly progressive, would hardly be called music by 99.9% of the population, Japanese hardcore bands are creating a permutation of punk rock that is at once intense, complex, fast, confrontational, engaging and of course heavy as fuck. In America (and, to some extent, Europe) the pattern with young bands was and is to start out playing hardcore, then as the band's musical abilities develop the music "progresses" along with them, usually into either metal or emo. However, most Japanese bands remain excited with hardcore long after they have the ability to play every Slayer solo note for note; instead of moving on to different style, the best Japanese bands apply a nuanced understanding of musical theory and chops that would make many veteran jazz musicians jealous to making the most intense music known to man, and many of them have suceeded.

This feature is about bringing some much-needed attention to a scene that doesn't get enough attention, even from within the hardcore scene that hasn't had domestic music this vital in ages. While I don't claim to know everything about Japanese hardcore (in fact, compared to most of the people into this type of thing I actually know very little) I do have a working knowledge of the scene's history and it's current state, and hopefully over the course of this feature I can pique your interest about a few of the best Japanese bands, let you hear an mp3 or two and point you toward a few places where you can learn a bit more about and actually buy this difficult-to-find music.

Besides this feature there are a few other places where you can learn about Japanese hardcore. First and foremost, the Kill From the Heart web page has helpful biographies, discographies and link sections for many of the most important Japanese bands of the 70s and 80s. Aside from that, the pickings are pretty slim (and of course any search for "japanese hardcore" in Google turns up almost nothing but pornography). There's the Jap Hardcore Punk Page, but it's not a particularly well-done web site and the entire thing is in Japanese. In print, Maximum Rock and Roll has shown a bit more interest in the international hardcore scene as of late, and if you can find it Game of the Arseholes is a small but excellent US zine that deals almost exclusively with international, and particularly Japanese, hardcore.

As for buying these releases, your prospects are actually a bit better than the lack of zine coverage might indicate. Hardcore Holocaust should be every lover of Japanese hardcore's home page, as they stock most releases from the excellent Blood Sucker Records as well as bigger labels like HG Fact and MCR and occasionally even smaller Japanese labels as well. They also tend to carry most any Japanese or Japanese-inspired release that comes out on a US label, and reading the descriptions in their catalog is a very good way to keep tabs on what's currently going on in the Japanese scene. Sound Pollution is the official US distributor for Japan's MCR Records (though Hardcore Holocaust will often have their releases in stock as well), and while this label puts out a lot of stuff that borders on American-style metalcore they have put out some pretty raging hardcore by bands like Disclose, Shikabane and Flux Cored Wire. A few other distros like Deadalive and Ebullition are sympathetic to the plight of Japanese hardcore but this is neither distro's focus. In a pinch, if no one else carries the Japanese release you just have to have, the folks at Record Shop Base are extremely helpful. Unless you know Japanese you won't be able to use their online shopping cart feature, but if you shoot them an email they're very nice and will make sure you get what you're looking for (just a note, though, shipping from Japan is extremely expensive). If you're looking for the ultra-rare, out of print originals, of course Ebay is going to be your best bet.

There are also a few US labels who put out an excellent Japanese hardcore band every once in a while, and of course one would be well served to keep an eye on these. Ugly Pop gets major props for recently releasing Warhead's Kono Omoi Wo Dokoe CD on vinyl and you should hold a place for their their upcoming re-release of Forward's Fucked Up! 12" on your shelf as well. Oh, and don't forget the incredible Paintbox LP they put out! The aforementioned Deadalive Records has also put out an incredible LP by Mustang as well as a blazing LP by Selfish (who are actually Finnish but play in the Japanese style. Click here for DFB's review of that record). Max at 625 Records puts out more Japanese hardcore than just about anyone in the US, but it's generally more thrash/power violence oriented than the traditional Japanese hardcore that is the focus of this site.

* If you like this web page please do me a favor and email me any info you think would be helpful. I'm always looking for info on bands, track listings, discographies, cover scans and just about everything else on the site. If you can help out with any of this please get in touch.

* The collage of G.I.S.M. flyers and photos to the left was put together based largely on images from Guy on Suicide Mission, an incredibly informative site on G.I.S.M.