GYZE are bringing classical Japanese music to metal.
These Japanese folk metallers are bringing the sound of the Imperial Court to metal
‘KONNICHIWA! SAYONARA! ITADAKIMASU!’
When festivals come back, these are the chants that’ll be ringing out: hello, goodbye and, er, a before-eating pleasantry of ‘thank you for the meal’. The anthem Samurai Metal, from Japanese folk metallers Gyze, is sprinkled with easy vocabulary for audience participation, in the way of Korpiklaani’s Beer Beer or Finntroll’s Trollhammaren. In the meantime, there’s a ridiculous video to keep us entertained, featuring the band wielding instruments and drawing weapons, alongside guest appearances from old touring buddies Dragonforce and Battle Beast. It’s very silly. And exactly what we need in 2021.
“We wanted something for the European metal festivals – it’s really funny! And really unique. And it will make people happy, I think!” laughs frontman Ryoji Shinomoto, speaking via Zoom from his home in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands. Today, it’s so snowy that the trains have stopped running.
Ryoji, his drummer brother Shuji and bassist Shogo Hikawa formed the band Suicide Heaven in 2009, and later moved from Hokkaido to Tokyo to pursue their dreams of metal stardom with a huge company. But those dreams stalled when they were put under pressure to change their sound to pop. In March 2011, a major earthquake and tsunami struck
Thō oku in northeast Japan, killing more than 15,000 people, triggering the Fukushima nuclear disaster and putting Gyze’s situation into perspective: you only get one shot at life, so why spend it being unhappy?
“I watched the news. Everyone was dying and it touched my heart,” Ryoji remembers.
They returned to Hokkaido and changed their name to Gyze, pronounced ‘Ghee-zay’ – after the hair salon owned by the Shinomoto brothers’ father. Ryoji doesn’t know the origin of the name, except that it references the Egyptian city of Giza and the beautiful pyramids it houses, but the most important thing is that it’s a connection to the family he loves.
Starting afresh, Gyze recruited new bassist Aruta Watanabe and emulated their Scandinavian melodeath and European power metal heroes, releasing exhilarating debut album Fascinating Violence in 2013, followed by Black Bride in 2015. That year, Ryoji was overjoyed to play an Asian tour and Japanese festival Loud Park with Children Of Bodom. He was greatly saddened to learn of Alexi Laiho’s death last December. “I was shocked,” he says. “But honestly, he can die but his music’s still alive. I am really influenced from his style – his ideas, his live feeling in my brain, and I will make new music. My music is influenced from his music, so his music will never die.”
They continued touring and making music, but three years ago they realised that lots of Japanese bands were taking on European sounds: they needed to find their own style. Enter: gagaku – classical music that was played in the Imperial court from around the 6th century, and at major Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Bringing in the flute, stringed instruments such as the koto, shamisen and the Chinese erhu, along with violin and cello, Gyze took inspiration from notable composers: Akira Ifukube of the Godzilla franchise, and Joe Hisaishi, who has scored classic Studio Ghibli movies such as Howl’s Moving Castle and My Neighbor Totoro.
“I really like power metal, like Helloween and Dragonforce, and also I really like film music. Do you know Studio Ghibli? Their film music has a Japanese atmosphere, but he uses Western instruments. We wanted to write like that with heavy metal.”
They’re now four albums into their career, and have written lyrics capturing the expansive landscapes and indigenous culture of Hokkaido (2017’s Northern Hell Song), as well as World War II (2019’s Asian Chaos). Before Samurai Metal, they were a ‘serious’ band. It was the onset of the pandemic, and the ensuing mental
health challenges facing people worldwide, that prompted Ryoji to take the band’s music in another, more irreverent, direction. “Honestly, funny stories are not my style,” he admits. “We always make serious songs, with lyrics about world wars. But just we wanted to make something new.”
Gyze are releasing a selection of new singles over the next few months.
Samurai Metal continues in this PMA vein and encompasses a range of different styles. Oriental Symphony is almost 10 minutes long and combines gagaku and Chinese instrumentation with shred to astonishing effect, while
Etenraku is a famous gagaku piece of music. In an inventive culture clash,
Voyage Of The Future is a Japanese Viking metal song that was written to usher in brighter days – not least for his brother, who temporarily ceased touring with the band due to depression, but happily rejoined for this release.
“Honestly, I wanted to stop music,” Ryoji confesses. “But I decided to try, and I wanted a good future for the world’s people. So I wrote lyrics about positive things.”
Revitalised and determined, Ryoji’s ambitions have grown even bigger. Gyze are in talks with Judas Priest’s US booking agency, while Ryoji himself plans to write a symphony.
Apart from “a unique band like Babymetal”, he wonders why so many Japanese musicians are copying Europeans, rather than blazing their own trails. “Heavy metal is just import music, you know? Not origin music. I hope many Japanese bands find a Japanese-only sound.”
But whatever happens next, he’s set on having fun, and wants nothing more than for you to join him. “Please learn a few Japanese words for our show!” he laughs.
Konnichiwa!
Sayonara!
Itadakimasu!
ORIENTAL SYMPHONY, SAMURAI METAL AND VOYAGE OF THE FUTURE ARE OUT NOW VIA OUT OF LINE. MORE SINGLES ARE COMING SOON
“I WATCHED THE NEWS. EVERYONE WAS DYING...”