Rie a.k.a Suzaku

**Rie Tomimatsu** (born on November 26, 1985), known professionally as Rie a.k.a Suzaku (In Japanese, リエ エー・ケー・エー スザク), is a Japanese heavy metal guitarist, singer, and songwriter. She is the first female to be a solo Japanese heavy metal guitarist. Suzaku won a gold medal at the national Guitar competition. Her record label is Poppin Records. She has released five albums and six mini albums. In 2019, she started a band called the Muses. Suzaku has sixteen solo albums and one album with the Muses. She is one of Shinko Music W100 Guitarist's 100 Females.

## Early life

Suzaku was born in Kawasaki Japan. Her sister Emi Tomimatsu important to her childhood life.  Her sister got a keyboard when Suzaku was four years old. Her parents taught her about heavy metal music. Her father is a guitarist. Her parents played Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and Camel in their house.

She liked music by X Japan. When a member of X Japan, Hide, visited a sick child, Suzaku learned that music could help sick people feel better. She wanted to play music.

In middle school she joined her school's classical guitar group. The group worked hard. They practiced two times every day. She also started learning to play rock and metal on her guitar. She learned to play rock music by ear. This means she listened to music and played what she heard. She did not have sheet music for heavy metal music.

In high school Suzaku wanted a band. No one wanted to join her band. She kept practicing alone. Boys did not like playing guitar with her.

After high school Suzaku attended the Muse Conservatory of Music. Again, none of her classmates played metal music.

## Career

Suzaku started her career by winning a gold medal at the national guitar competition. Suzaku then switched to the electric guitar to continue her career.  She then entered a music college to learn how to sing. She joined her first band. Suzaku continued her career by signed her songs with Poppin Records. She then decided to continue her career as a soloist.

Suzaku does a lot of composing. Suzaky uses keyboard to compose music, not guitar. She played on an Electone keyboard. She was only interested in heavy metal music, but then she started listening to other music. Soon, she began writing many kinds of music. Suzaku believes that genre is not important in music.

She works with other popular musicians, for example: Ibuki,  Dia, Mitsuru Sutoh, Shingo Tanaka, Mayumu Hidaka and Kanade Sato.

Suzaku has five full length albums and six extended play albums. She released her first album in 2010. It was called Messiah. Her first full album was _Kingdom of the Sun._ It was all music made with instruments, no people sang on the album. Her second full album, _Noah's Ark,_ had many different people singing songs.

Suzaku started with a band called Ran. She then moved to a solo career. Suzaku created a band called RiViNi in 2017. They played together for two years. Their album, _Resistance,_ came out in 2018. In 2019, Suzaku signed with King Records and released _Top Runner._ She also started a band called _The Muses_.

Suzaku has an _Instrumental Summit_ concert series. She has also written and performed some music for wrestling competitions. In 2019, Suzaku performed at the first _Metal Matsuri_ in London, UK.