BAND-MAID

With their cosplay-inspired outfits and their no-holds-barred riffs and high-octane tunes, Band-Maid are Japan's beloved hard-rocking all-female quintet. Initially conceived by Miku Kobato (小鳩 ミク) (rhythm guitar, vocals) – a former employee of a Japanese maid café – Kanami Tōno (遠乃 歌波) (lead guitar), Akane Hirose (廣瀬 茜) (drums, percussion) Misa (bass guitar), Saiki Atsumi (厚見 彩姫) (lead vocals) joined forces in 2013 and released their pop-rock-leaning debut mini-album, Maid in Japan, the following January, penned in collaboration with musicians Masahiko Fukui and Kentaro Akutsu. The album was followed in November 2015 by second mini-album New Beginning; an unholy union of hard rock and heavy metal that took Band-Maid to the charts for the first time, grabbing the Number 64 spot in Japan. After making some international inroads at Sakura-Con in Seattle, Washington, the group went even harder for their third mini-album (and major-label debut), Brand New Maid. Released in May 2016, it paid off: the album made it to Number 19 on the Japanese Oricon weekly albums chart. Band-Maid's first full-length album, Just Bring It, arrived in January 2017, also taking the group to Number 16 on the charts. They scored a Top 10 album with their second full-length effort, World Domination, which landed in February 2018. Bolstered by their success, the band reissued Maid in Japan and bagged a Top 40 album. In 2019, Band-Maid shuffled off in a slightly different direction to try out an aesthetic that reimagined a selection of previous Band-Maid material using traditional Japanese musical instruments and lyrics in the Kyoto dialect. Living up to its namesake, Band-Maid's sixth studio album, Conqueror, took them to new heights of fame in December 2019. Featuring a production contribution from legendary David Bowie producer Tony Visconti, the album debuted at Number 9 on the Japanese Oricon weekly albums chart and made it onto the small screen: "Blooming" was featured in the Netflix action-thriller Kate. In 2021, the band released their seventh studio album, Unseen World.