Some of Japan’s finest heavy metal artists will be coming to the United Kingdom for a history-making event in heavy metal next October. Live event promotor ORIONlive, based in the United Kingdom, will present METAL MATSURI, the first ever all-Japanese heavy metal festival in the United Kingdom, to be held in London at the O2 Academy Islington on 4th and 5th October, 2019.
METAL MATSURI will feature 10 bands across 2 nights incorporating a wide spectrum of heavy metal and hard rock acts. The event will be headlined by 2 of Japan’s most exciting and talked-about heavy metal bands: Mary’s Blood and Unlucky Morpheus, both making their live debuts in the United Kingdom. More acts will be announced in the weeks to come.
Mary’s Blood are an all-female power metal band from Tokyo, consisting of Eye, Saki, Rio and Mari, and active since 2009. A few of the members are from the heavy metal band Destrose, who went on indefinite hiatus in 2015. The group have had numerous releases since their debut EP in 2011. With a move to new Japanese label Tokuma, Mary’s Blood released their latest album Revenant in 2018. The band continue to tour extensively and have been labelled as one of the best female power metal groups around.
Known to fans as Ankimo, the band Unlucky Morpheus are active as an independent metal act that self-publish their works, whose music is described as technical melodic speed metal. In the beginning, they produced albums that were connected with Touhou Project, in 2014, the band released their first original album, affected. The band celebrated their 10th-anniversary last year with a one-man tour and their latest release is the album CHANGE OF GENERATION, that was released in September. The band consists of vocalists Fuki and Kasumi, guitarists Shiren and Jinya, bassist Hiroyuki Ogawa, violinist Jill and drummer FUMIYA.
“We couldn’t be more excited to announce the event”, says ORIONlive’s Christopher Morris. “Fans in the UK have wanted to see Mary’s Blood and Unlucky Morpheus live for some time, and the artists have wanted to perform internationally. We can’t wait to see them, with 8 other amazing acts, take the stage in October right here in London.”
Another act has been announced for the festival, Rie a.k.a. Suzaku returns to the United Kingdom for a full instrumental set with her live band. Rie a.k.a. Suzaku is a Japanese solo heavy metal guitarist and composer and is known as the first Japanese woman who pursued a career as a solo metal guitarist. She debuted in 2010 and released her first album in 2012. Rie a.k.a. Suzaku came in contact with heavy metal through her mother and learned to play electric guitar by herself. Currently, the musician is contracted under Poppin Records. In 2017, she became part of the girl rock band RiViNi with vocalist Nicky, bassist Ami and drummer vivi (ex-GangLioN).
Tickets for this festival did go on sale 14 December 2019 via Ticketmaster and Eventbrite. There are single day and 2-day tickets.
Source: ORIONlive UK
