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Continuing on from the debut demo “Blackened Domination Christ….” released on December 2024, which was a rough start featuring more of a black metal-inspired style of crust punk leaning towards death metal, grindcore, and crossover thrash… “Unholy Emperor”, Hanzaisha’s 2025 demo, released on February 2025, is different in execution.

The band, led by a punk-loving maniac Black Infestation on guitars/vocals, had evolved from a simple black metal-inspired crust punk/grindcore band on the first demo, into a full-on War Metal machine on the second demo. There are still a lot of crust punk and crossover thrash undertones present in the sound (largely due to the fact that they associate themselves with the Japanese crust punk and thrash metal scenes), but this demo shows that their style is more like War Metal with a greater focus on death metal, powerviolence, and grindcore elements + strong undertones from crust punk, D-Beat, and crossover thrash.

This means the band is now arguably more primitive and chaotic than their contemporaries; their particularly aggressive, chaotic, urgent, and heavily thrash-influenced sound is based on uniquely visceral black metal-esque riffs inspired by Blasphemy, Revenge and Sarcófago, balanced on the edge of a breaking point with brief song structures, fast thrashing tempos, and occasional use of slow-paced breakdowns similar to Dropdead, Infest, Disrupt, Extreme Noise Terror, and Ratos De Porão, all held together by sheer intensity and borderline feral brutality influenced by Morbid Angel, Terrorizer, and early Sepultura.

Calling this unique style “War Crust”, the primal character of the band’s second offering, coupled with the over-the-top Satanic and war-obsessed energy coming out the resulting stew of influences, can be considered a beginning for War Metal in Japan.

For any fans of the early War Metal pioneers Blasphemy and Revenge, the early Crust Punk bands Disrupt and Extreme Noise Terror, and the Crossover Thrash bands Ratos De Porão and S.O.D, “Unholy Emperor” will sound like an unholy fever dream out of an alternate dimension where Blasphemy decided to create a supergroup with Abigail and GISM.

WAR METAL from JAPAN

BRAZILIAN-JAPANESE METAL BAND

WAR BLACK METAL 666

MIDNIGHT SATANIC WARLORD AND GOAT DESECRATOR

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BLACK INFESTATION - LEAD GUITAR, VOCALS

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