Music: Band-Maid

An interesting find from the Japanese metal scene, this will blow your mind.

In a past life, I used to travel a LOT for work, and the one country I have visited more than any other is Japan. From 2003 through 2009 I was there at least twice a quarter.

One of the benefits was visiting the music stores in Tokyo. Browsing the aisles of the Shinjuku Tower Records, struggling with the kanji labels, and finding nuggets of rare gold.

Tokyo is where I found the Hard Rock Cafe “Guitar Wars” recording which captured a star-studded stage with Paul Gilbert, Nuno Betencourt, Steve Hackett and John Paul Jones.

Or rare editions of Gary Moore’s catalogs.

All on the shelves.

Couple that with the ferocity of fandom of metal, seriously, the Japanese are mental for heavy metal music.

This wending intro is my way of saying that I am surprised, but not surprised by the artists that I am bringing forth today.

The Youtube gods decided to drop into my scrolling feed a live performance of Band Maid.

Not a compelling name for a band, is it an augmentation of Band-Aid, or is it something else. Regardless, my interest was piqued.

So, down the rabbit hole.

And HOLY SHIT, it is an all-female Japanese metal band, on stage, playing solid music, and their signature move is wearing maid outfits¹.

Their skills are mad, the energy is high, and the playing is crisp. The music isn’t sung in English, but that really doesn’t impair the ability to bang your head over this.

In a word: Solid.

Take a listen, and let me know what you think!

1. I know that the maid outfits have some porn connotations, and the concept of the French Maid is a popular role play for some people’s kinks (no shaming from me), this doesn’t feel that way.

But Japan is where you can buy used schoolgirl’s knickers, so I just dunno what to think.