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As most of you know, I'm quite a fan of punk and its subgenres, and the Japanese punk scene sure deserves its own thread on the forum. I guess everybody on the forum knows bands like The Stalin, Anti-Feminism, Balzac, The Piass and so on, so I won't make a big deal about those, even though I am a fan of several of those. But feel free to talk about all kinds of punk from hardcore to d-beat to crust to horror punk to grindcore to skate punk to street punk to thrashcore to psychobilly and so on, but keep it to the bands that are on the punk side. Take grindcore as an example: please do talk about grindcore, but keep it to the bands rooted in punk. Bands like S.O.B., Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror played a type of grindcore that belongs in this thread. These guys basically played hard, brutal punk with metal influences, unlike grindcore bands such as Impetigo, Terrorizer and Repulsion who were more on the metallic side and played and more death metal influenced grindcore. Same goes with metalcore and whatnot too. You get the point. I'll start and post some of my favourites from the Japanese scene throughout the time: Gauze Formed in 1981, Gauze turned out to be one of the most influential Japanese punk bands of all time, if not THE most influential band from the punk scene in Japan. The band is recognized throughout the underground punk scene in the whole world to have released two of the best hardcore albums of all time with 1984's Fuckheads and 1986's Equalizing Distort, and the band proved to have a massive influence of the scene in Japan, as well as underground scene all over the world. So the band did get lots of recognition, but far from what they had deserved IMO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR1f17xEzSo S.O.B. Another highly influential band, but unlike Gauze this band had more influence on the grindcore scene throughout the world, and grindcore legends Napalm Death, Brutal Truth and Carcass have all told lots about the influence S.O.B. had on them, Lee Dorian, vocalist on Napalm Death's two first albums, have always been open to how the band borrowed a shitload of S.O.B. riffs for their 1988 masterpiece From Enslavement to Obliteration. Lee Dorian and Shane Embury even went on to play on 1989's Thrash Night EP. The band started out as a brutal and fast hardcore band, before evolving into a pure gindcore band with 1990's What's the Truth?. Their debut EP Leave Me Alone consists of 9 songs, clocking in on 09,16 minutes, and their debut album consists of 18 songs, clocking in on 19:42 minutes. Too short? Nah. With the intensity of the bands music the lenght are more or less perfect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Eib9a4GM5M G.I.S.M. G.I.S.M. are robably best known for their strange live shows where Sakevi did plenty of strange things, like running into the crowd with a chainsaw, attacking front rows with a lit flamethrower, beating random concertgoers with a club, and firing gun shots on stage with a revolver, as well as attacking journalists and photographers who try to approach him. But beneath this, we find one of the early metapunk bands, blending hardcore and heavy metal into one raw, dirt mix. Their second album saw the band leaning more towards heavy meta, though, with close to no hardcore left in their sound. It's a great album, but not close to as good as their debut, Detestation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twFu0ZABwvk Disclose Disclose are one of the hundreds and hundreds of Discharge clones, but unlike all the other clones, this band is actually more or less just as good as the original. Disclose plays d-beat and sounds like a fuzzy and distorted version of Discharge, and for someone who worships the altar of Discharge it's impossible not to love this band. There's not really more to say. Fantastic band! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv7-ziKfbIQ Framtid This band here, is one of my all time favourite hardcore bands. Framtid isn't a very productive band, and during their 20+/- year long career they've only released two full lenghts (16 and 21 minutes long), a few demos and a few split releases. So yeah, not very productive and it took them 11 years from their first to their second full lenght. But who gives a fuck when the quality of what they're releasing is as high as it is? Two genius albums and two of the best in the genre. Raw, dirty and brutal hardcore. This band is hardcore hell! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPJ07f4V6q8 Zouo There's not too much info on this band around, but what I do know is that this band played top notch hardcore. Dark and dirty, with obvious G.I.S.M. influences, though the hardcore side of G.I.S.M. Fantastic band! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bavbNYSA8_s Death Side Pure hardcore with fantastic leads and great riffs and vocals. Not as raw or ugly as some of the other mentioned here, but just as good as most of them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1gJHPGoPS8 Other great bands to check out: Unholy Grave Deathpeed Kriegshög Outo Gudon Electric Funeral Crow Paintbox D.B.S. Ghoul Kuro Nurse Disarray The Rustler Swindle Bitch Kyah Mental D-Clone Forward Confuse and so on All these are well worth checking out IMO. Great bands, al of them.