Ningen Isu
History. 1970s – 1980s. Both natives of Hirosaki, Wajima and Suzuki first became acquainted with one another while attending a concert in a local music salon. They eventually became close friends when in 1981, they both entered Hirosaki High School. Their friendship would further develop through frequent exchanges of music-records. It was around this time that Suzuki first exposed Wajima to the music of Kiss. Wajima himself was listening to the music of The Beatles, King Crimson, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin at the time, while Suzuki favored Kiss, Saxon and Judas Priest. Suzuki was impressed by Wajima 's talent for songwriting and wrote a song called "Demon", while Wajima wrote a song called "Tetsugōshi Mokushi-roku" (Apocalypse of Iron Grill), which was not received well by the music salon but which Suzuki liked nonetheless. Two years later, Wajima and Suzuki joined "Shine Shine Dan" ('dead dead group'), a band formed by members of the salon, with whom they played hard rock songs at music festivals. In 1985, after entering different universities (Wajima would study Buddhism at Komazawa University while Suzuki studied Russian literature at Sophia University), they formed a hard rock band, whose name was changed to  Ningen'isu in 1987, the year when drummer Noriyoshi Kamidate joined the band. They first gained public attention in 1989 through a performance of their song "Injū" (Beast In The Shadows) on the Japanese Television program "Ikasu Band Tengoku" (which roughly translates to "cool band heaven"), a newly initiated TV-band-contest that first aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System Television during the same year. Their uniquely heavy sound, technical skill, and lyrics full of literary references took the judges by surprise. 1990 – 2004. In 1990, they released their first album "Ningen Shikkaku", followed two years later by "Ōgon no Yoake", after  which Kamidate left the band. They kept heavy sound and lyrics full of literature. Drummer Masuhiro Goto would support the recording of their fourth album "Rashōmon" in 1993. In 1995 and 1996, Iwao Tsuchiya served as the band's drummer but was replaced by Goto as a permanent member until his leaving in 2003. In 2004, the current drummer Nobu Nakajima joined. Wajima, Suzuki, and Nakajima once lived in a neighborhood in the district Koenji, Tokyo, which is famous for its subculture, music and free atmosphere. 2004 – 2020. Ningen Isu has seen a significant increase in popularity in recent years . They spent years being little known outside Japan; the sales of their CDs didn't go well, but they gradually gained popularity. The band played at the Ozzfest 2013, hosted by Ozzy Osbourne, which they as Black Sabbath fans felt honored by. Subsequently after that, they have gained many more fans. In 2019, their record "Shin Seinen" reached rank 14 in the Oricon music charts, their highest chart position of so far. Published on May 14, 2019, their song "Heartless Scat" on YouTube reached 1.5 million views on July 3, 2019. "Heartless Scat" has since achieved 10.7 million views, as  of January 26, 2022. The band performed as their first world tour in Berlin, Bochum, and London in February 2020. Musical style. The band often writes about Japanese classical literature, for example: Edogawa Rampo, Dazai Osamu, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Mishima Yukio and also Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Bataille and so on. They often take up topics such as hell, Buddhism, the universe, samurai and gambling. Wajima and Suzuki have a local accent called the "Tsugaru dialect", which adds a unique and heavy atmosphere and rhythm to their songs. They, especially Wajima, often use difficult  and old Japanese (words used in Edo period to Showa period, often hard to understand even for Japanese people). They often wear Kimono and traditional underwear Fundoshi on stage. Influences. Ningen Isu was strongly influenced by Black Sabbath. Other influences include UFO, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Budgie, King Crimson, and similar artists. The play style of Wajima's guitar is influenced by guitarists such as Robert Fripp, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, Ace Frehley, Michael Schenker, and also the sound of Tsugaru-jamisen. Suzuki loves Kiss and paints his face white and moves like Gene Simmons. Suzuki has a high opinion of  Nakajima's eight beat. His costume has motifs of literary master of Meiji era. He loves the Beatles, blues and Japanese old-style pop song. So the sound he makes is melodious. He often uses the original effectors which he makes by himself. One of them called "Shocker"(the enemy of Kamen Rider Series) make fuzzy unique and mysterious sound. He sometimes uses theremin, which adds cosmic mood. He loves Rakugo (one of the Japanese verbal entertainments) and made a song "Shinagawa Shinju". He also loves camping. He paints his face white and dresses like a Buddhist monk. Wears "Fundoshi" for  the first time in the band, old Japanese underwear under the Kimono. In the band's early days, Suzuki often wore clothes like Nezumi-otoko, a rat man (a character of Ge-Ge-Ge no Kitaro by Shigeru Mizuki), which made them impressive. He sometimes opens events called "Nazareth" in which he plays DJ (only hard rock). He loves Neputa festival held in Hirosaki. He wears Koikuchi shirt and sunglasses and looks like a Japanese gangster. He sometimes uses "Dora" (kind of Japanese gong). His powerful character and play make him called "Aniki", which means big brother. He is a  big fan of Hideshi Hino and composed a song "Jigoku Kozo"(which means "a boy of hell", which is a comic written by Hino). He collects a lot of things, for example sneakers, dam cards, comics and so on.