E･Z･O by EZO

E･Z･O was the Sapporo band's shot at America: a 1987 debut for Geffen, co-produced by Kiss's own Gene Simmons, from a four-piece that had started life in 1982 as Flatbacker. Simmons brought the Kiss entourage with him, and writers like Adam Mitchell and Jaime St. James had their hands all over the songs, which is why a record from Japan speaks such fluent American hard rock. The riffs are built for arenas, the choruses are aimed at the back row, and the lead vocals shriek over drums that land like pile drivers.

"Destroyer", co-written by Jody Gray, is the one the countdowns caught, and Gray stuck around to co-write and co-produce the follow-up, Fire Fire. Years later the band got name-checked as an influence by Steve McDonald of Redd Kross and Michael Steele of the Bangles, about as unlikely a pair of fans as a Japanese metal band could hope for.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.