INHALE

INHALE comes from Osaka and plays metal with a touch of groove, core and hard rock elements. Their music has a lot of modern and angry metal riffs. INHALE blends many melodies in their songs, with high quality shredding solos played with emotion and good taste. INHALE is one of the bands that is leading the new wave of Japanese metal and deserves attention!

In May 2006, after guitarist Takahiro Hashimoto's former band K.O.D came to an end, Hashimoto didn't hesitate to start seeking new members for a new band.

In August 2006, INHALE was born, joined by vocalist Shoichi Sakamaki and soon followed by Akira Tateyama on bass, who had been a support member in thrash metal band Grim Force. Tateyama brought to the band his technical playing and live performance skills, which had drawn much attention during Grim Force's visit to Taipei’s biggest rock festival in the summer 2006. The drummer position was filled by Tatsuya Fujimori. He had parted ways with melodic death metal and Endemic Fear, which was active in the Kansai area.

In late 2006, INHALE released their first songs on the Japanese indie music site Audioleaf. Their talent was immediately noticed and their songs' daily play count started to increase. By the end of the year, they earned their place as one of the most played metal bands on Audioleaf.

At the same time, they played live shows that spread the word of this phenomenon all around the underground metal scene. Hashimoto also got a guitar endorsement with well-known Japanese guitar maker Fujigen and he also appeared in Japanese guitar magazines.

INHALE released their first official untitled demo in December 2007, and it was quickly sold out. The band started writing songs for their first full length album afterward and played more gigs. The band itself took charge of the whole production of their CDs, even the engineering and mixing was done by Hashimoto. The mastering was done by world renown recording engineer Ted Jensen of Sterling Sound.

On September 16th, 2009, INHALE participated on Zestone Records' compilation album. Zestone Records also announced that they would release the band's debut album. In October 2009, the first track from the coming album was updated to the band's official MySpace. Finally, by the end of November, much to their fans delight,INHALE's debut album Heaven & Hell was released in Japan.