The Hawks formed in 1995 and are from the Kansai area this is their second album and follow up to 2000's "Living on the edge" CD. The Hawks always sounded a bit like the Chiswick bands from the UK combined with Skrewdriver. This album has some more other influences, some songs remind me of 80's melodic hardcore from the USA. Anyway still very melodic and Skrewdriver like, they also included a Skrewdriver cover song "Patriot" sung in english. I have to say the less heavy melodic sound of the Hawks is very catchy and the songs stay in your head all the time. The Hawks together with Strong Style form the top of the Nationalist scene in Japan. Their early releases made me believe they were a more traditional skin band, compilations with non political bands like LRF etc. But i guess they fooled me. This CD is released by Jukeboxxx records. The artwork features a winged skull ( with japanese helmet ) holding a ribbon with the words "Samurai Spirit". The rest of the lay out has a kinda gangster feel to it.Listen to some samples on the Hawks myspace.
Shishimaru's CD is the second release by Vital Sign records, ran by the singer of Empi. Came out in 2007. When i received this CD i was impressed by the great packaging/art work, but even more impressed when i gave this disc a spin in my CD player. This CD really kicks ass! Hard rock guitar work combined with punk anger and great rough vocals. These dudes really know how to write a catchy rocking tune. I like all tracks not many weak moments on this CD, the production is also good, the tracks shoot out of your speakers. Anyway i recommend this CD to everyone. Listen to a song of this CD on their webpage.
Yashima No Janari ( Rumbling of Japanese islands ) released in 2003 by Hata-age Records features 8 nationalist japanese bands, so expect hard rocking tunes. The compilation kicks of with Resshin, bassdrum beat with some kind of military chant i guess a intro to this compilation. Up next are Jin Rai with the track "Mio No kaze" up tempo beats rought yet melodic vocals and a great sing a long reffrain with typical Jin Rai guitar leads. Then it's Brave's turn delivering two tracks. First of the two tracks starts of with a keyboard intro fading into deep vocals and a mid tempo melodic tune, feautures some nice guitar solo. Their next track "Blood of the wolf" is based on a great hard rock/metal sounding riff, much more aggressive tune. Yoroi get's their turn now, always recogniseable by their over the top bassguitar sound. Very heavy metal sounding track called "Monou muyou". Garou starts with a very NWOBHM sounding intro that even features keyboards, some great guitar riffing going on in this tune. Shifumaro contributes with two tracks "Dokuro" and "Senkura", sounding really 80's hardrockish. Then it's New Dawn with their ultra melodic guitar work and vocals that also remind me a lot of NWOBH with a Japanese flavour to it. Last band on this compilation is Empi, and this is my favourite track of the album, you just gotta love that guitar riff! Early eighties hard rock sound with rough skinhead vocals. Listen to the track on their Myspace. Nice compilation giving you a taste of some current Japanese skinhead bands. The CD comes with a nice booklet and cool artwork, well worth picking up.
First of all help me out with translating the title of the album!(Aaron thanx a lot!). This 9 track Cd was released in 2005 through Straight Up records. New Dawn features ex members of Cannons, Aggro Knuckle and Strong Style. The Cd kicks off with a hard rocking riff turning into a great melodic tune. The sound is very catchy although metallic with great melodic guitar leads althrough the album. Most songs are pretty up tempo wich is good in my opinion. The vocals are not as rough as some other bands sound but suits the melodic style well. New Dawn is a great band and you should definatly check them out, the cd has a great packaging too, like all Straight Up releases.
Strong Style features members of Cannons and the AkashiEP was released in 2002 on Jukeboxxx records. The EP was released as a CD and pressed on vinyl. The big difference between the two is the vinyl EP has a different cover and is long sold out also the first 100 copies are pressed on white vinyl and included a sticker. The first track Akashi is a very melodic sing a long track, great guitar work with some nice riffing going on in the intro. Second track starts of kinda bluesy on the guitar but soon transforms in a slow paced melodic sing along tune. The last and third track is "Rising Sun" an old Cannons tune (check out my earlier post on them to hear the original tune). I have to say this version is great, cause these guys really can play their instruments and this EP has a great production. Strong Style to my knowledge is now the leading nationalist band in Japan together with The Hawks and luckily they haven't a adopted a too metal sound like many Japanese bands do now a days. Instead Strong Style releases more old school sounding skinhead tunes, the great different with the old Cannons sound to me is more experienced song writing and instrument skills. I recommend this record to everyone! Check out some sound files on Strong Style's website
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The Hawks formed in 1995 and are from the Kansai area this is their second album and follow up to 2000's "Living on the edge" CD. The Hawks always sounded a bit like the Chiswick bands from the UK combined with Skrewdriver. This album has some more other influences, some songs remind me of 80's melodic hardcore from the USA. Anyway still very melodic and Skrewdriver like, they also included a Skrewdriver cover song "Patriot" sung in english. I have to say the less heavy melodic
sound of the Hawks is very catchy and the songs stay in your head all the time. The Hawks together with Strong Style form the top of the Nationalist scene in Japan. Their early releases made me believe they were a more traditional skin band, compilations with non political bands like LRF etc. But i guess they fooled me. This CD is released by Jukeboxxx records. The artwork features a winged skull ( with japanese helmet ) holding a ribbon with the words "Samurai Spirit". The rest of the lay out has a kinda gangster feel to it. Listen to some samples on the Hawks myspace.
