Prior to the formation of ONE OK ROCK, high school students Toru Yamashita and Ryota Kohama were members of the hip-hop dance group, Heads. With the idea of forming a rock band, Yamashita insisted Kohama learn to play bass, and later invited fellow student Alex Onizawa to join on guitar. Drummer and classmate Tomo subsequently joined, however left the group in 2006 to focus on his acting career. His replacement was the music academy teacher Tomoya Kanki, who became an official member in 2007.
Following a series of successful shows around Tokyo, ONE OK ROCK signed with the label Amuse, Inc, who issued the band’s debut single “Naihi Shinsho” in 2007. Rising to No. 48 on the Oricon Singles Chart, the record sold well and paved the way for their second single “Yume Yume” the same year. The singles raised the anticipation for ONE OK ROCK’s debut full-length, “Zeitakubyō”, which arrived November 2007, charting at No. 15 on the Oricon Albums Chart.
Taking their music in a more punk-oriented direction, the group’s sophomore album, “Beam of Light”, was released in May 2008. Seen as a coming-of-age album for ONE OK ROCK, the band very rarely played the album’s tracks live, and vowed to release another record that year. True to their word, in November 2008 ONE OK ROCK issued their third album “Kanjou Effects”, marking a growth in confidence, experience and skill. Following the arrest of guitarist Alex, whom subsequently left the group, Toru assumed lead guitar responsibilities, and the band re-arranged their songs to be played using only one guitar.
Now comprised of Taka, Toru, Ryota, and Tomoya, ONE OK ROCK issued their fourth studio album “Niche Syndrome” in June 2010. Aided by the single Kanzen Kankaku Dreamer” and “Jibun Rock”, the record was their highest charting and selling to date, peaking at No. 4 on the Oricon Albums Chart with over 110,000 copies sold. Maintaining this momentum, the group’s fifth studio album, “Zankyo Reference”, rose to No. 2 in the charts upon its release in October 2011. Following the release the band embarked on a 14-date tour of Japan, before heading out on their debut international tour, which included dates in South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Once again rising to No. 2 on the Japanese Albums Chart, ONE OK ROCK’s sixth studio album “JinseixBoku=“ was released in 2013, followed by their first No. 1 album “ 34XXXV” in February 2015.
ONE OK ROCK, the Japanese rock band who sing in English have a considerable following, and seeing them live was incredible, because everyone was singing along to every single song they played. The venue was massive, and before the band came on stage the lights were dark and the feedback came over the monitors before the lights came up and the band ran on stage ready to bring the house down. They introduces themselves and shouted ‘everybody put your hands in the air right now with me’ before launching straight into their track Liar.
The vocalist, Taka, has an incredible range, and at the end of their fisrst track, performed an incredible belt of an extremely high note, which had the audience going crazy. When they played No Scared, everyone was dancing a little tentatively, and Toru, the guitarist and backing vocalist shouted out to everyone in the crowd to join in, and everyone let lose and went crazy.
They played through a selection of their older material back when it was a 5 piece band and mixed it up a little, which was great because it was something fresh not from the album. They then played through JinseixBoku=, which seemed to be what everyone was there for, singing along and giving rapturous applause to every track.
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