Violent Magic Orchestra - Berlin

It’s difficult not to be impressed by Violent Magic Orchestra (JP). Their band name is a nod to countrymates Yellow Magic Orchestra, although musically they have little, if anything, in common. VMO describes itself rather as ‘Napalm Death barging into an Autechre show’ or Black metal meets Kraftwerk’.

It’s no coincidence that the band members assumed the names of legendary Norwegian black metal bands like Darkthrone (ダークスローン), Mayhem (メイヘム) and Emperor (エンペラー) or of American one-man black metal band Xasthur (ザスタ ー) – all depicted with Japan’s katakana writing system.

They take their association to black metal quite seriously. Latest album Death Rave thus features – aside from Gabber Modus Operandi and Icelandic post-punk band Kælan Mikla – a highly respected musical guest: legendary Hungarian extreme metal vocalist Attila Csihar (see: Mayhem and Sunn O)))).

Their stage attire includes the corpse paint which is common to black metal. What’s more, they intentionally and aptly look a lot like Shinigami (‘gods of death’) from the manga Death Note. Impressive sci-fi visuals with endless stroboscope effects complete the whole, and got them onto the stages of famed festivals like Le Guess Who?, CTM, Roadburn and Sónar.