Germany was assaulted by Japanese Goth earlier this month when six bands (plus Igor and his ferret, Truffle), got inside the country’s third largest Goth magazine. Pictures, interviews and song samples all made their way into Astan Magazine. One band had already forged ahead with the magazine – Aural Vampire. The other five and Igor (and yes, Truffle too) worked with the magazine to give it exactly what it wanted… a taste Japan’s true underground! 2 Bullet, Baal, Despair, Satanyanko, Sins of the Flesh all feature heavily in the magazine and represent a major step forward in taking Japanese Goth to the world!
Too often overseas magazines rely upon the easier-to-access Gothic Lolita fashions and Visual Kei music scene to characterize Japan’s underground. I know there are a lot of people who like the VK sounds and there are some pretty cool VK acts. However, what about the GOTHS?! While other magazines are still satisfied by following the Mana-quins, this magazine took a big roll of the dice to give international coverage to a scene little known and rarely talked about in the media (well except here).
The result? Pages and pages dedicated to some of the hottest bands lurking in the dark corners of Tokyo and Osaka. Words from the artists. Pictures of the artists. A PICTURE OF TRUFFLE! Plus gob-loads of true Japanese underground mixed into the magazine’s CD. This is truly a HOLY SHIT! moment. These awesome bands are OUT THERE!!
To the people who supported this – Thank you.
A special thank you to Blood’s Kiwamu who answered a lot of questions I had.
* Special bonus *
Somewhere between zero and three of these bands will be hitting Germany in October.
Igor’s SkunkWerx#1 :: October 2005 ~ March 2006 :: 100% complete… NEXT!