IMARi ToNES -The First Christian Heavy Metal from Japan-: Guitar Instrumentals and "Invisible Rain" dedicated to Fukushima

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Guitar Instrumentals and "Invisible Rain" dedicated to Fukushima

Hello this is Tak from Imari Tones.
If you notice, we have posted some instrumental songs on our YouTube channel. Well, 3 songs, to be exact.

Recently I wrote total 6 short instrumental songs for my friends at Calling Records (http://callingrecordsjapa.wixsite.com/callingrecords). They are now doing some "live streaming project" and they asked me to write some "BGM" for them.

So I wrote those "guitar instrumentals" and some of my friends suggested me to post them on YouTube. So I posted 3 of them.
Thing is, I was too lazy to make "proper" videos. You know, I'm not a "YouTuber" or anything. I'm just a "band guy" from an indie band. So these videos are very cheap, easy made.

But I still think it's worth sharing. So here are those videos.
Hope you enjoy.

Also today I just posted a song called "Invisible Rain" on YouTube.
It's a song on our album titled "Revive The World". We wrote the song in 2012 and recorded in 2014.
It's a song about Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdown incident in March 2011 after the big earthquake and tsunami.
It's not a happy song and we have never played it live.
But as a Japanese musician, we felt we had to sing about what happened.

What's happening in Fukushima Daiichi, is a harsh reality and we don't want to talk about it much. It's a reality all the people in Japan have to face. We had to make a choice one way or another in our life.

By now, both as a band and as a person, we have visited Fukushima more than a couple of times and we have some good friends there. It's still a nice place to visit. We pray God's blessing on all the people living there.

That's it for today.
We are itching to release some of "new songs" from our very powerful concept album "Jesus Wind" soon but we are doing things one by one. So, I guess probably next month we can release something.

God bless you ALL!!
In Jesus' name.
Tak / Imari Tones

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Bio, Bio, Bio...

IMARITONES BIO

Written by Phil Putnam

Of the long list of factors that make ImariTones stand out from the world around them, it is their drive, their reach that tops it all. An unapologetically Christian heavy metal band out of Japan, Tak, Hassy, and Jake have a passion to reach beyond their culture to make the music they love, and to reach beyond their music to bring Jesus into their culture. While drawing comparisons to legends like Van Halen, Rush, and Stryper with their hybrid of old school metal/glam/Brit/70's prog rock, they are one of very few bands in the world that can claim true originality. How so? They are the first Christian heavy metal band ever to come out of Japan.

"There are very few Japanese bands who say 'Hey, we're a Christian band.' A Christian band from Japan almost sounds like a joke, since most people in Japan are Buddhists, or Atheists," says Tak, founder, guitar/vocalist, and frontman of ImariTones. Things didn't start out Christian for Tak, though. Having started playing electric guitar at age 14 and joining his first band at 15, Tak gained local teen success in his hometown of Toyohashi and won awards for his songwriting. However, he quit the band at 17 to pursue a career as a lawyer. Music stayed with him, though, and while playing an acoustic show in Harajuku Tokyo in December of 2007, Tak was impressed by several Christian performers who were playing as well. Feeling that Jesus may be the larger meaning behind music that he always felt was there, his mind and heart opened to Christianity.

Breaking many written and unwritten rules of Japanese culture, Tak, Hassy on bass/background vocals, and Jake on drums/background vocals, are reaching upward and forward to see changes happen in the world. Currently based in Yokohama, their astonishing 15-album discography includes Hero of the Lights, Color of Hers, fireworks, Japanese Pop produced by metal legend Sascha Paeth (Angra, Edguy, Rhapsody of Fire, Avantasia, Kamelot), Welcome to the School, and their most recent release Victory in Christ. Not content to play the standard soft pop/rock of the major label Christian industry, their music is 100% heavy metal and 100% independently recorded and produced. Victory in Christ hit the street in October 2010 with the single "Faith Rider" leading the charge. Originally written as a parody of the big 80's metal of Judas Priest and Stryper, it quickly became a fan favorite and was put on Victory in Christ.

With both their commitment to making stellar heavy metal music and their driving passion to share Jesus with their native Japan and the rest of the world, ImariTones is always reaching to join these two primary goals together. "Since we are a Christian band, our goal is not business success," says Tak. "We are not chasing glory in this world. We are chasing the glory of God." Staying independent and record label-free is an important part of the process for them. "We don't believe in 'music business', especially in Japan, and have chosen to go independent, looking for our own way. We really want to change something about society and about what people think and believe. That's our ultimate goal."

That ultimate goal, to see their native Japan embrace Christianity, is what they reach for most of all, even while their sights are set on the USA and the rest of the world. Some think they're a joke, or a contradiction, that Christianity, Japan, and heavy metal just don't belong together. Some think they're ahead of their time. But if you ask Tak, Hassy, and Jake, they'll say they're doing exactly what they love at exactly the right time, and they're never going to stop reaching for more.