Can’t believe it’s been a week already!
Our “Heavy Metal Church” event was hugely blessed.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
(Sorry it took time for us to post this.)
Our “Heavy Metal Church” project began in 2023, just after we “evacuated” to Asao Christ Church after the apartment fire. Maybe we received God’s message. We realized that our dream is to build a heavy metal church in Japan.
Soon we became friends with some pastors who love heavy metal music.
The purpose of this project is to worship Jesus with sincere heavy metal music and have church services based on unapologetic yet sincere heavy metal style.
At this point, this project is merely a concert event (also a church service), but we are praying and hoping that it will be an actual church in the future. But it’s not about a church building. It’s not about a church organization. It’s about people. It’s about worship. It’s all in our heart and soul. That’s the most important thing.
We had the 1st event in October 2023 at Asao Christ Church.
We chose a regular music venue for the 2nd event. We had it at El Puente in Yokohama, a well known underground hardcore and metal venue, in March 2024.
For this 3rd event, we decided to come back to Asao Christ Church. (Then maybe 4th event will we do it at a music venue again?)
So here it is. “Heavy Metal Church vol.3 Leviticus”. (Heavy Metal Church Japan, we say).
One of the big things for this 3rd event was “The worship team”.
We always felt that we needed “heavy metal worship songs”, the original songs written and sung in Japanese. And a worship team to play them. (That is, other than our own band Imari Tones.)
By God’s guidance, heavy metal loving Christian brothers and sisters gathered and now we have an official worship team. It’s a miracle. We feel a huge blessing.
So this event in October 2025 was the debut for “Heavy Metal Church Japan Worship Team”.
So here we post some photos from this event. Our 3rd “Heavy Metal Church Japan” church service and concert.
For us Imari Tones, it was our 2nd official performance with Kenshin, our young new drummer now 20 years old. We were on fire and our performance was top-notch. We were musically tight, our spirit was high and the message was strong. Considering the church environment, we were not able to go really loud, yet it was one of the best performance we have ever done.
Imari Tones setlist – 2025 Oct 11 at Asao Christ Church (HMC3)
1. Faith Rider
2. Sonic Soldiers
3. That’s why I love you
4. Dying Prophet
5. Love Is…
6. Passion
For the opening ceremony, Shinryu – Imari Tones’ previous drummer and still a good friend of ours – did a samurai sword performance. (It’s been over a year since we did this!) – Shinryu, known as a “Christian Samurai”, is still rocking playing drums in numerous bands including legendary Japanese funk/Christian band B.D.Badge.
NAGASAWA STUDIO gave a heartfelt performance with progressive metal sound. (How can they be heavy and lovely at the same time!?💕) (The kids… very adorable😀)
RASTEIN, the only secular act in the event, played powerful metal songs with unique lyrical messages. It was surely the very best of J-metal.
“Heavy Metal Church Japan Worship Team”
They gave an impressive debut performance. Tak played guitar as a part of the team. These heavy metal worship songs will be recorded and released in the future. (Either as their own release or a part of Imari Tones catalogue, or maybe both).
The GeeBars, a special guest who joined at the last minute, brought fresh air to the event, even though they were not exactly metal. (They played blues instead😉)
Pastor Michio Ogino, the metalhead pastor, gave a strong message based on the history of heavy metal. Together we prayed for “peace for Jerusalem”.
As a part of Pastor Ogino’s sermon, the worship team played one more song. This time a cover version of Slayer’s “War Ensemble”. Possibly a radical choice for a church service. But it was played as a message for peace. (Also because pastor Ogino loves thrash metal very much!)
At the end of the event, Pastor Kazuhiko Yamazaki-Ransom, a very well respected theologian, gave a solid metal prayer to close the evening. Pastor Yamazaki was also a part of our 2nd event. He gave a sermon at the event we did at El Puente, Yokohama. It’s great that we have a person like him as a part of our Heavy Metal ministry.
Some more happy photos😀
Thank you Pastor Yabe! Also you see a famouse Gospel singer (Mrs.Shioya) here😉
Ransom-sensei Arigatou Gozaimasu!
Tomo-chan, Hikari-san, Thank you!
Heavy Metal Pastors
with Nobu, the guitarist, a part of the Heavy Metal Church Worship Team. He is a Gospel music artist, too.
Mr.M, the unsung hero from Asao Christ Church – he loves heavy metal music!
Together we worshiped Jesus Christ in the most sincere way, rocking out loud with our whole heart. That is the most important thing and blessing was huge!
Everyone was happy and blessed!
So many awesome things and so much blessing was there!
You can watch the whole event on our YouTube live archive.
For now we say THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
We appreciate your prayer so that this “Heavy Metal Church” project will continue and grow in Japan😀