EZO started out with the heavy metal group Flatbacker, formed in Sapporo in 1984. The band’s line-up was Masaki Yamada on vocals, Hiro Honma on drums, Shoyo Iida on guitar and Taro Takahashi on bass. Flatbacker had a glam and goth image, dressed largely in leather, and sported kabuki/Kiss inspired make-up. The band made a seven track demo tape which they sold locally called
Minagoroshi, which helped generate interest in the band, and got them signed to Victor. On October 31, 1985 they released their first album Senso (War). They followed in February 1986 with
Esa (Bait). In this era metal was selling very well in Japan, and the band was gaining popularity, but they decided to focus on the States. They move to New Jersey where they lived together in a house, played music, and studied English. The band caught the attention of Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, who agreed to produce, working also with famed producer Val Garay (James Taylor, Kim Carnes, Linda Ronstadt, Motels, Neil Diamond, etc.), on the their American debut on Geffen, released in January 1987. For their US debut the band decided to change their name to EZO, an ancient name for Hokkaido, the Japanese island they grew up on. They also simplified their names, using just their given names instead of their full names. The self-titled album contained a number of songs using outside writers, including two songs with labelmates Black’n Blue’s singer Jamie St. James. The first cut on the album, “Hou...
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EZO started out with the heavy metal group Flatbacker, formed in Sapporo in 1984. The band’s line-up was Masaki Yamada on vocals, Hiro Honma on drums, Shoyo Iida on guitar and Taro Takahashi on bass. Flatbacker had a glam and goth image, dressed largely in leather, and sported kabuki/Kiss inspired make-up. The band made a seven track demo tape which they sold locally called
Minagoroshi, which helped generate interest in the band, and got them signed to Victor. On October 31, 1985 they released their first album Senso (War). They followed in February 1986 with
Esa (Bait). In this era metal was selling very well in Japan, and the band was gaining popularity, but they decided to focus on the States. They move to New Jersey where they lived together in a house, played music, and studied English. The band caught the attention of Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, who agreed to produce, working also with famed producer Val Garay (James Taylor, Kim Carnes, Linda Ronstadt, Motels, Neil Diamond, etc.), on the their American debut on Geffen, released in January 1987. For their US debut the band decided to change their name to EZO, an ancient name for Hokkaido, the Japanese island they grew up on. They also simplified their names, using just their given names instead of their full names. The self-titled album contained a number of songs using outside writers, including two songs with labelmates Black’n Blue’s singer Jamie St. James. The first cut on the album, “House of 1,000 Pleasures” was largely an English language remake of a Flatbacker song called “Deathwish”, and became perhaps their most popular number. The band toured in the States with Great White, and did thirteen dates with Guns’n’Roses between October 16 and November 1, 1987. The album was fairly well received and went to #150 in Billboard. In May of 1989 the band released
Fire Fire, also on Geffen, produced by Stephan Galfas. EZO again toured heavily, included dates with Skid Row, Tuff, Helloween, Dirty Looks and Powermad. However the album did not sell as well as the first, and the band was dropped by Geffen. In July 1990 the band decided to call it quits. In 1992 singer Masaki Yamada became the singer of another veteran Japanese metal band,
Loudness. In 1994 drummer Hiro Honma also joined
Loudness. The
Loudness album of 1994
Once And For All contains a live version of “House of 1,000 Pleasures” In 2000 Akira Takasaki, the guitarist and leader of
Loudness, reunited the original line-up of
Loudness, and Yamada and Honma departed ranks to form Snakebites. In 2001 Honma split to join a new line-up of yet another veteran Japanese metal band, Anthem. Guitarist Shoyo Iida was last known to be living in NYC, and was still actively involved in music. EZO bassist Taro Takahashi today is a record business executive in Tokyo.
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