Metal from Rising Sun n.7
SHOW-YA 限界LOVERS HD Show-Ya are an all-female heavy metal band from Japan formed in 1982. In 1984, they wrote the songs for their debut album, "Masquerade Show," which was recorded in Japan and mixed at Abbey Road Studios in London, finally released on September 6, 1985. The album was promoted by the Coca-Cola Company, which used their first single, Suteki Ni Dancing (released on August 31), for a commercial. In London, the band performed in front of a large audience at Dingwalls and the legendary Marquee Club, where some of the greatest rock bands in history have played. After the great success of their debut album, the band entered Abbey Road Studios to record their second album, "Queendom," which was released on March 1, 1986. Only six months later, on September 3, their third album, "Ways," was released. On May 25, 1987, the band released the single "Mizu no Naka no Toubousha," the theme of the Japanese TV series "Metropolis 25." Throughout that year, they approached producer Andy Johns, who had worked with Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Van Halen. He was also responsible for mixing their albums "Immigration" (November 5, 1987) and "Glamour" (August 24, 1988), which took place in Los Angeles. The explosion of the "hair metal" phenomenon greatly influenced the style of these albums and those that followed. On April 27, 1988, Show-Ya held their first concert in the United States at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood. On February 1, 1989, the single "Genkai Lovers" was released, used for a Shell commercial. On September 6, the seventh album, "Outerlimits," was released. It was a great success, reaching 3rd place in the Oricon charts (Japanese music charts), and it is still the band's best-selling album, with over 600,000 copies; the single Genkai Lovers is their most well-known song. The subsequent world tour touched major cities such as London, Moscow, Los Angeles, and Mexico City. On October 24, 1990, "Hard Way," the band's eighth album produced by Beau Hill (previous collaborator of Alice Cooper, Winger, Europe, and Ratt), was released. For this last work, the Los Angeles Times cited them as "the female versions of Bow Wow or Loudness." They had reached the peak of their popularity in Japan, but despite many promotional attempts, the group failed to achieve significant commercial success in the United States. In February 1991, singer Keiko Terada left the band, stating that the path they were taking was too traditional, opting for a solo career in which she explored numerous sounds. After several auditions, the Japanese-American Steffanie Borges was hired. Since she is fluent in both English and Japanese, the group hoped to relaunch themselves in the U.S. market. In June, the group was invited by the North Korean Government to perform at the Art Theatre of
