Favorite Japanese Metal Bands?

My 3 favorites are Loudness, Vow Wow, and Anthem.  

I admit to not being overly familiar with the (many) other) but have heard some over the years and wasn't too impressed.  But if anyone has a few to recommend, I'll check them out.

Curious what your 3 - 5 favorites are.

I only know of two:  Loudness and Imari Tones.  Loudness had a couple of great albums, but they just didn't hold my attention with subsequent albums.  Imari Tones had a good sound, but their lyric writing and vocal delivery has held them back.

Never heard of Imari Tones, how did you even hear about them?

^There's a thread on this forum about them. They don't sound very convincing, but I have huge sympathies for them.

Anyway, Japan has some fantastic power metal, but both price and import rates are ridiculous. I do own a pretty good album by Balflare though, somehow that one got a German distributor. But how do I wish it would be easier to get my hands on Galneryus albums for instance.

Constantine wrote:Never heard of Imari Tones, how did you even hear about them?

I actually found out about them through Bandcamp originally.  There have been a few discussions about them through the years.