This is the BAND-MAID we all know and love. It features nine songs with strong compositions, guitar solos that shred, crunchy bass lines, and more kick ass drumming. This is where the signature ‘BAND-MAID sound’ finally kicked in really making a statement. Unlike their 2014 pop-rock content, Band-Maid did some soul searching and concept directional changes diving into harder and grittier sounds then you would expect from maids. This album delivers what it promises, especially considering the break the girls took between the previous single, and this. Moving forward the ‘beginning’ BAND-MAID acknowledges starts with ‘New Beginning’ which dropped November 18th 2015. That’s why I’m here to help dig up some pieces of the past for your reading pleasure. You can run, but you can’t hide your past BAND-MAID. I found out about them thanks to their Spotify playlist. In fact, if you go on BAND-MAID’s official site, these two aren’t even listed. Given it was their follow up mini, they were still searching for their own sound, and Saiki was still developing more familiarity with English lyrics. High energy, and a more similar feeling to SCANDAL then what was going to come of BAND-MAID, which isn’t a diss just not particularly unique. Similarly the follow-up ‘Love, Passion, Matador’ on August 13th 2014 was in a pretty similar vein.

(*Bye My Tears is my recommended track off it.) It was however, more cohesive and well put together then other releases at the time. To put things more bluntly, it was a pretty generic pop-rock album for the times with the girl’s dressed as maids seemingly a gimmick more then anything. Rather then the classic and distinct style BAND-MAID is known for, this was largely on the pop-rock side of things. ‘MAID IN JAPAN’ is the January 4th, 2014 official full album debut of BAND-MAID and it was met with a largely unimpressed audience. However, before diving into that material we should talk about their debut album and follow-up mini. I actually hadn’t realized for a very long time that they had material released prior to 2015’s ‘New Beginning’ which happens to be their big iconic shift in direction.

Rounding out the group’s sound is the bassist Misa.Īgain, this isn’t a group I’ve followed since the beginning. Following her is the every-ready Akane on drums.

Our leader is Miku Kobato, who is guitarist and sub-vocal. Left to right: Misa, Akane, Miku Kobato, Saiki, Kanami. Since debut they’ve held several successful world and European tours and now regularly sell out their individual events in Japan. They formed in July of 2013 and as of October 15th 2018, have maintained their original 5 member lineup. BAND-MAID, despite the name and appearance, is a rock unit from Tokyo.

Band maid full discography