We chose to play Christian Metal music in Japan, where Christian is said to be only 1% of its population.
That was not easy.
Heavy metal is not-so-popular genre in modern music world to begin with. Not only that, Christianity and Heavy Metal Music is something like oil and water, so many of Christian people dislike heavy metal, and most heavy metal fans don’t like Christianity.
As a result, we ended up playing for the international market, where more people appreciate what we are doing.
However, after touring oversea countries several times, we realized that Japan is a very unique country. We became more and more proud to be Japanese, and a Japanese band.
We started to dig our roots and seek our identity as Japanese Christians. Because we wanted to play Christian music based on Japanese culture and tradition, not just copying Western music styles.
You might think Christianity didn’t exist in Japanese history. But that’s wrong. If you do some research, actually Christianity has influenced Japan’s culture and history in many ways.
The Sengoku era, 16th and early 17th century, are some of the most notable examples, probably the most extreme example as well.
Because those Samurais and Princesses had to risk their own lives to have faith in God.
Many were killed, many were expelled, but most of them refused to conform and kept their faith.
I was strongly impressed with the stories of those “Kirishitans” and wanted to pay homage to them.
When I first learned about NFT and the Metaverse (thanks to the people from Anifie), I realized that there was so much possibility.
An idea immediately hit me when I thought of these ancient Kirishitans.
I want to build a Nation.
A nation for Christian Samurais, that never came to be in the actual history but is possible in the Metaverse.
And I want to see the Kingdom move forward, just as real as an actual nation, and do good things in the real world.
We will have a new culture, new values, and fellowship of citizens. We will have a community and many good things will be done both in the Metaverse and in the real world.
We are just priests here, not rulers.
It’s all up to our citizens to decide where this Kingdom will go.
All we can do is perform “The Rituals”, playing rock music to praise God.
Lastly, let me post one of our songs.
It’s a very special song because it’s actually based on the Japanese National Anthem.
We took our National Anthem and turned it into a Christian heavy metal song to worship Jesus.
You know what that means?
I want to hear this song echoing in the Tokyo sky, as an anthem for God’s Kingdom.