voila_la_scorie Several years ago, my wife and I watched the anime version of "Death Note". It's a story about a shinigami (a Japanese angel of death) who loses his notebook for recording the names of who will die next and how. An ordinary guy finds it a learns its secrets from the shinigami. If he writes a person's name in the book, they die of heart failure. If he writes how they die then that exact incident will occur. One thing I really liked about the series was the theme music. Both the opening and closing songs were by a band called Maximum the Hormone.

I bought their album "Buiki Kaese!" (Give me back my life!) and thought it interesting but couldn't really get into it other than the two songs. Skip ahead to the end of 2015 and I reconsidered it and discovered that I really liked it. And then I ordered this one, "Kuso Ban" (the shit disc). Yes, notice the exciting cover art of a human butt spraying excrement in the face of a startled victim. The Japanese fart sound effect "buuuu" is partially covered by the album title.

So just what the hell kind of an album is this? Maximum the Hormone consists of Daisuke-han (vocals), Nao (drums, vocals), Maximum the Ryo-kun (vocals, guitar), and Ue-chan (bass). This is the present line up of the band and has been together since 1999. According to Wikipedia, they play a blend of nu metal, metalcore, and hardcore punk but you can catch pop, ska, funk and hip hop in their music as well. Daisuke handles the rough and roaring vocals and rapping, Ryo handles the clean vocals and punk shouting, and Nao adds her female vocals from time to time. The music is by and large insane and intense and not without humour. Song titles on this album are like "The Sweet Shit Fist of Love", "Menstrual Cramps are the Temperature that Freezes November" and "Cefiro Radio Comeback - The Lowest Level of Youth".

Oh, and perhaps I should mention that the band mixes different music styles in one song. You can jolt and lurch with the abrupt changes in meter and sheer force. The vocals are especially insane. I personally prefer the intense and crazy wild sounds over the lighter punky ones, but over the course of eight short songs, it's all really good.

A student of mine who loves the band said that they are really fun to watch live. Like their music, they are wild, intense and crazy. After this second purchase I've now become interested in their sound enough that I want a third album, perhaps "Rokkin Pokkoroshi". Great music for going all out nuts while still keeping it fun.