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It's 1986 in Japan | The New Big Five and the Velocity I Haven't Felt in 40 Years

The Music Cities

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The 1980s metal scene was about velocity. New bands every month. Scenes colliding. Nobody asking permission and nobody apologizing. Forty years later, that same creative velocity is happening again — and this time it's in Japan, and the best of it is being done by women.

This is The New Big Five. Five bands operating in one country at one moment, doing five very different things. One elegant. One chaotic. One steady. One sexy. One hungry. Lovebites, Bandmaid, Nemophila, Bridear, Hanabie. Plus the bonus thread on Babymetal as the gateway and Zilke as the next wave. None of these bands are trying to be each other. None of them are recreating the 80s. They're completing what the 80s started.

The argument runs underneath: this is not a revival. This is a scene with elders, with foundations, with creative velocity, and with the same fearless commitment that made Maiden, Priest, Halloween, ACDC, Guns, Anthrax, and Pantera matter the first time around.

If you lived through the first one, you owe it to yourself to pay attention to the second one.

Go below the surface on each band on Music Cities Patreon. Link in description.

CHAPTERS

00:00 The argument: it's 1986 in Japan
01:01 How I got here.
02:19 Why this scene is different
03:08 The elders. Loudness, Maximum the Hormone, and the foundation
04:40 The principle of commitment.
06:53 One country, one moment, five different things.
08:03 Lovebites
09:40 Bandmaid
11:46 Nemophila
13:23 Bridear
15:34 Hanabie
18:05 Bonus: Babymetal
22:57 Zilqy and the next wave
25:03 The 80s aren't being revived. They're getting completed

THE BANDS

Lovebites — @LOVEBITES_jp
Watch first: Lovebites - Under the Red Sky (Heavy Metal...

Bandmaid — @BANDMAID
Watch first: BAND-MAID / Thrill (スリル) (Official Music ...

Nemophila — @NEMOPHILA_Tokyo
Watch first: NEMOPHILA / OIRAN [Official Live Video]

Bridear — @BRIDEARofficial
Watch first: BRIDEAR ‐ Ghoul [Official music video]

Hanabie — @HANABIE_official
Watch first: 花冷え。- Spicy Queen (Music Video)

Babymetal — @BABYMETAL
Watch first: BABYMETAL - 'BxMxC' [LIVE PROSHOT] [SUBTIT...

Zilke — @Zilqy
Watch first: 【Zilqy】Carry On (Music Video)

GO DEEPER

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#themusiccities #newbigfive #lovebites #japanesemetal #heavymetal
#themusiccities #newbigfive #lovebites #bandmaid #nemophila #brydear #hanabie #babymetal #zilke #japanesemetal #heavymetal #womeninmetal #ironmaiden #judaspriest #acdc #gunsnroses #anthrax #pantera #kiss #mrbig #80smetal #80srock #metalscene #wackenopenair #wacken2026 #musiccity #metalheads #metalfans #flareheads

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20 Comments

@robertoross7732 5 months ago

These Japanese bands have revived my love for music as someone who grew up in the 80s listening to the old hard rock and metal bands, I believe they have taken the concept and improved it immensely with skill and talent on a whole new level and I’m loving it so much

@ronrimsite6948 5 months ago

Miho and Haruna started Lovebites as a female Helloween. Hanabie started covering Maximum songs in high school. Using your theory, Hagane are the new Van Halen.

@dominikkasas6751 5 months ago

great that you mentioned it, what babymetal did for a whole scene in japan is still so underrated

@tonygriffin_ 5 months ago (edited)

I haven't looked away from Japan for all my music needs for 11 years now. So glad to see that the superb, ridiculously talented female bands from Japan are finally being recognised. Loved Lovebites for the past 7 years and Hanabie for the past 2 years but THE best Hard Rock band I've ever seen (sorry, Zeppelin but fun as it was that 1979 concert was a long time ago now) is BAND-MAID, 5 Hard Rock goddesses who do not make anything but excellent songs. Babymetal got my attenton first, back in 2015, after I'd given up on Metal and Rock by the end of the 20th century. They led me to Band-Maid (and even some Japanese Metal bands with men in them like Maximum The Hormone and Ningen Isu) and I've been listening to almost exclusively Japanese bands ever since. Honourable exception being The Warning, 3 RockAF sisters from Mexico who I got to see live in 2023. I get to see Band-Maid live on June 11th and it is gonna be the best musical experience I've had since my first gig back in 1976 (Black Sabbath). '🤘🤘

@hiawatha.g 5 months ago

Great idea and analysis. Only one major omission: Show-Ya, founded in 1981 (months before Metallica), and modelled heavily after Deep Purple, are the OG "all women" metal band. They were genuinely great, not just a token, and they kicked the doors down for everyone who followed. They are still recording and touring today, with the original lineup. Total rock heroes.

@gku8744 5 months ago

I also see mutual support and respect for each other.

@Bodneyblue 5 months ago

What also makes these bands different, is that many are friends. Akane & Haruna are friends..and spend personal time together when possible. And both bands attend each others concerts when possible. Lovebites were at Yokohama Arena for the MAID's 10th Anni finale. And the MAID's were at the Budokan for Lovebites. Lovebites were acknowledged by the MAID's during the concert. Bands of the 80's were always slagging each other off. The bands in Japan encourge each other...especially the female bands. I found the MAID's because of my love of drummers. The first Japanese band I found was "Girls Rock Band Kakumei" (now TRiDENT)..because of their drummer JUNNA...I then found BAND-MAID..because of their drummer, Akane. And now, BAND-MAID is my favourite band..and Akane my favourite drummer... But I still love TRiDENT. And JUNNA's replacement, Nagisa, is also an amazing drummer, one of my fav's. I have flown to Japan (from UK) twice to see BAND-MAID live...I adore them...BTW.. I'm 58.

@jimhammitt6102 5 months ago

Dude!! I love this list and could not agree with you more. Lovebites is my favorite but I love all these bands for different reasons. And you're right. For me, if I hadn't discovered Babymetal back in 2014, I may have never come upon all these other phenomenal bands. ❤

@juandesalgado 5 months ago

Hagane may come up soon into your list.

@joet2129 5 months ago

I think one other thing that this latest group brings is amazing live musicianship. A lot of bands might do it in the studio, but these bands bring it on stage. They don't do big productions meant to hide the lack of musical effort.

@dodoyuu6 5 months ago

I was born in 1966 and I'm a metal otaku.

I was impressed.

@corvus4600 5 months ago

I'm a moth to a flame. I see Lovebites, I instantly watch and liked.

@skoob-kq7ms 5 months ago

X-Japan were very popular and influential in the 1980s and 1990s in Japan. If you don't know them, check them out.

@MSGROSE1 5 months ago

I am with you on this. I have been listening to metal since... well, since 1980? That's a lot of years, eras, and bands. What's coming out of Japan right now is a high mark. I can count on one hand (with fingers left over) how many bands have impressed me as much as Lovebites.

@doraemonnobita2730 5 months ago (edited)

You've left out a mention of an important band　—　HAGANE.

HAGANE-SuperVillan(LIVE Music Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFGtNbCV6Eg

This is the music video they released on April 1st.
HAGANE - Black Diamond (Official Music Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_QPFA5bQ2w

Lead guitarist Sakura composes most of their songs. I think bands like this will continue to grow in the future.

@boyzyu 5 months ago

For me, Lovebites is still band of the year in 2026. This is predicated on their varied and truly awesome new full-length studio album "Outstanding Power" which showed the band has evolved even further and climbed another significant notch in terms of sophistication and maturity

@anthonypowell6234 5 months ago

Caucasian men provided most of my favorite music for decades. Asian women may dominate my music listening going forward! I discovered the scene just as you described, by seeing a random Babymetal video. I had not been a fan of metal since the late '80's until that day, and my subsequent discovery of LOVEBITES. I started going to see these bands at my first opportunity. Babymetal 4 times, LOVEBITES 3, Band-Maid, Hanabie, Otoboke Beaver, etc... and all have been knock-out performances! You mentioned LOVEBITES' "Under the Red Sky", and I agree this should be a classic known worldwide. LOVEBITES played this before my eyes at Budokan with six lady violinists as guests, and I was reduced to a puddle. Simply incredible.

@sacluvsBM 5 months ago

I came to Japanese female rock and metal through Band-Maid back at the end of 2018. In the interim l have become a huge fan of so many. And have seen all my favorites several times now. In order my top five are Band-Maid, Lovebites, Babymetal, Nemophila and Gacharic Spin. I would like to give honorable mention to another that only has one female member and that is Maximum the Hormone. You can go back even further if you'd like to the 70's and The Sadistic Mika Band. They were truly the first. They were popular enough in the west to play The Beat Club and Top of the Pops. Most of those bands you and l love know each other on a personal level. For instance Haruna and Akane Hirose Band-Maid's drummer are close friends outside of music. They also often attend each other's shows.

@stevekane4922 5 months ago (edited)

Thanks for this, I date from before your "back in the day" examples. For me, it will surprise some, bandmaid gives me strong zappa and mothers of invention edge. Not obscene of course but the same utterly tightly composed music, kanami is as assertive in the studio on the quiet and the individual musicians on the same level and the way miku harangs the crowd individually and collectively makes me chuckle similarly.🎉