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Japanese manufacturing town hopes to boost tourism with iron-flaked ice cream

Enjoy the refreshing taste of Tsubame Sanjo’s metalworking factories!

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Japan now has a banana hammer made from a real banana…that’s not frozen

It’s a “good banana” according to its price point. 

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Japan government asking for our old electronics so scrap metal can be used in Olympic medals

As the saying goes: One man’s trash is another man’s reward for devoting his life to excellence in sport.

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Hebikera from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind on sale at Studio Ghibli Exhibition in Tokyo

The stunning model has been made according to a Japanese metal craft tradition with roots in the Edo period.

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Up the ukiyoe with this Iron Maiden woodblock print featuring Eddie as a hellish courtesan

Forget running for the hills, we’re running to buy one of these amazing prints!

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Babymetal’s new album, Metal Resistance, is out now and it’s awesome

Not that you needed anyone to tell you, but…

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11-year-old guitarist Li-sa-X appears in new commercial, rocks out using a debit card as a pick

Because normal guitar picks are for babies!

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Hello Kitty skull ring and skull necklace are totally cute and metal as f#@%

You think you’re metal? Well, we bet you’re not half as metal as these silver Hello Kitty skull accessories!

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It’s a hard rock life: NINGEN ISU’s Shinji Wajima talks about songwriting, working with friends

After the awesome NINGEN ISU show we saw with Mr. Sato recently, we were exhausted but exhilarated. The band’s hard rock/heavy metal sound is great for getting the blood pumping and the performance felt like it ended as soon as it began—despite lasting well over an hour! It’s safe to say, these guys are the real deal.

So, when Mr. Sato asked if we wanted to come along for an interview with vocalist and guitarist Shinji Wajima, we didn’t hesitate in saying yes! Check out our fun (and fascinating) conversation with Wajima where we cover everything from camping and songwriting to being in a band with someone you’ve known nearly your entire life.

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NINGEN ISU: This Japanese literary metal band will rock your butt off【Photos & Video】

When Mr. Sato asks you if you want to check out a band with him, you say yes. You don’t ask which band or check your schedule, you just say yes, because you know it’s going to be a good night. It also doesn’t hurt that I already knew he was talking about NINGEN ISU, whose name literally means “Human Chair,” a metal band in the vein of all our favorite old-school traditional metal heroes.

NINGEN ISU’s rise in popularity has been on a slow but powerful burn for decades, and with their upcoming performance at OzzFest this year, they are sure to be popping up on a quite a few radars. So check them out here now and get ready to tell your friends that you knew about these guys way back when!

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Japanese design site explains how death metal fans find bands based on…logos?!

Generally, design brings to mind companies like Apple or Dyson or any sleek, carefully assembled product. Or you might think of an attractive website or even just an eye-catching, memorable logoo, like Coca-Cola. But whatever you think of, “death metal band logos” probably isn’t very high on your mental list!

But one guitar-playing designer from Tokyo wants you to give these extreme musicians some of your attention. In fact, his recent article shows how logo archetypes can help fans find exactly the subgenre they’re looking for based on little more than a design! And even if you don’t much care for death metal, there’s still a lot you can learn about how to craft a good logo. So let’s dive in!

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Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation: Japan’s awesome all-woman grindcore band【J-Tunes】

When people think of Japanese music, their thoughts usually turn to J-pop or BABYMETAL–and while nothing is wrong with that, there’s a lot more to be found! We’ve been exploring some of our favorite music in Japan over the last few months, but there’s still a massive universe of artists left to discover. Today, we’ll be breaking out the jackhammer and drilling deep into the world of underground Japanese metal, specifically grindcore and the internationally acclaimed (but still largely unknown) band Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation.

From overseas touring to being a woman-only band in a male-dominated scene, this interview is sure to keep even Top 40-loving readers interested.

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Norwegian metal singer covers Japanese pop songs galore

It’s nice to share some Japan-related news coming out of Scandinavia for a change!

Norway, along with its neighbors, is no stranger to the metal music scene. The northern European countries together constitute one of the world’s major strongholds for the various subgenres of metal music. But what do you get when you combine the vocal talents of a Norwegian symphonic metal singer with the catchy tunes of J-Pop?

Just listen to PelleK’s cover versions of the following anime songs to find out for yourself!

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Get ready to rock! 38 awesome covers of video game music in 17 minutes

It goes without saying that here at RocketNews24, we love video games. While we might not always agree on which system is the best (PC MASTER RACE!), there’s no doubting that we’ll never complain about plunking our butts down in front of a screen and killing some baddies. In fact, some of us are even going to E3 this year for…uh, you, our dear readers! We promise that we are in no way totally, completely, and utterly thrilled to be attending. It’s all for you!

See how much we love you?

And what else do we love besides video games and our super awesome readers? Well, I can’t speak for everyone here, but I love some tasty metal riffs. Which is exactly what makes this medley combining music from 38 different games so awesome. Check out the 17 minutes of awesomeness below to see if your favorite game made the cut! Read More

Become MASTER OF NUGGETS with this heavy metal recipe book

Have you been looking for a way to combine your love of thrash metal with your enthusiasm for trying new food? As you may know, we at RocketNews24 are always looking for ways to mix up new musical experiences, so we were tickled to discover Metal-Meshi, a tour through headbanging history told through metal-inspired recipes!

The brainchild of Tokyo-based foodie and blogger Yasunario, Metal-Meshi takes its name from “meshi”, a slightly slangy, rough-sounding Japanese word for hearty food.The book offers up over 60 mammoth-sized dishes that put some of Japan’s other Americana offerings to shame! So what kind of gastronomical excitement has Yasunario come up with?

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BABYMETAL invasion of the West marches on, everyone welcomes new kawaii overlords【VIDEOS】

It’s been less than a year since we interviewed BABYMETAL and prophesied their coming domination of the globe, and in that time they’ve released a new, full-length album, racked up over five million views on one video alone, and made plans to invade England. While the UK probably isn’t the best target for a military attack–we hear they get pretty grumpy and call the RAF on you–the country seems particularly susceptible to cultural aggressions, making the group’s British debut at Sonisphere Festival UK the perfect opening offensive!

But the group’s popularity isn’t limited to the metal community. They’ve gotten attention from major media outlets around the world–it’s only a matter of time before we see the girls jumping around on Oprah’s coach, declaring their love for chocolate.

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BABYMETAL releases full album, metalheads and idol fans headbang in unison

After years of boggling the minds of metalheads and J-pop fans around the world with their idiosyncratic music videos, BABYMETAL have finally released their first full-length album. Of course, we got our hands on a copy as soon as we could, and we are happy to report that it is everything we’d expected it to be!

With the album now available world-wide, you too can turn your day from “average” to “dangerously kawaii” with this soundtrack to the adorable apocalypse. And if you’re on the fence about picking the album up, check out some of these reviews found on the Japanese side of the Internet.

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