Maximum the Hormone is one of the best and most unusual j-metal bands in existence. Think of the most hardcore heavy metal bands you know and multiply it by ten. Each member of this band contributes in their own way. Ryo or “Maximum the Ryo” makes most of the lyrics and also sings main clear vocals and plays guitar, Nao, who is Ryo’s older sister, plays drums and sings back-up in most of the songs. Daisuke is pretty much summed up to be the jumping and yelling freak. Ue-Chan plays bass and sticks out from the band because he almost never wears a shirt.

This band has a very unique sound on each of their albums. The song “Rock n Roll Chainsaw” starts out mellow and goes with it for about a minute then BOOM Daisuke’s voice cuts in and the intense drumming and guitar riffs attack your ears.
After all the head-banging goodness declines back into the mellow strumming of Ryo’s guitar and Daisuke finishes off the song with a big burp.

Their album Bu-ikikaesu is one of my favorites. Two of the songs on this album, “Zetsubou Billy” and “What’s up People?!”, were featured in the popular series “Death Note”. My favorite song on there is “Policeman Benz” because it has a very nice sound to it and Ryos and Daisukes voice are complimented by the guitar for the whole song.

Maximum the Hormone is in the Metalcore and Nu-metal genre but some of their songs like “Koi no Mega Lover” have a sort of j-pop sound to it. I think that Maximum the Hormone is a great band with a great sound to all of their songs. I highly recommend buying or at least listening to one of the songs on the album Bu-ikikaesu.