Loudpark 2016 report – Day 1

This weekend, I took a break from packing and throwing stuff away because:

October = Loudpark: Japan’s probably biggest heavy-metal festival and it was my fifth time in a row to go there. The line up with in total 39 bands was quite impressive also this year, not falling short of the “special” lineup of 2015 where Loudpark celebrated its tenth anniversary.



I think the organizers limited tickets this year, doing some lessons learned from the painfully packed Saitama Super Arena last year and it was the first time ever that people asked for tickets on the way to the venue. Not sure if it was really sold out or whether they hoped for cheaper tickets?

I started day one with goodies hunt and then sampled the bands.

The first thing I saw was an act called Zardonic, a one creature show. He is sort of a DJ and appears only with a mask on. It didn’t throw me off my feet, it’s damn difficult to interact with your audience with that mask. I guess it’s good for a disco but for a concert it’s a bit “boring”.

Aldious turned out to be a Japanese all girl heavy metal band. They were okay, more adult than Baby Metal but their Cinderella-like costumes didn’t really fit to the music. Interesting but not overwhelming.

Myrath from Tunesia was more to my liking. They kept an Arabic touch in the music and are a nice solid metal act, if on the soft side. I heard they wanted to bring a violinist and a belly dancer but something went wrong and thus a Japanese lady danced in the beginning and the end with scarfs which looked nice, but admittedly, a real belly dancer would have had more impact