With a name inspired by British punk icons Sex Pistols, Kagoshima, Japan’s Sex Machineguns is a heavy metal band that formed in 1989. Founded by guitarist / vocalist Anchang, guitarist Sussy, bassist Noisy, and drummer Speed Star Sypan Joe, the group’s line-up has changed several times with Anchang being the only original member remaining since the band’s inception. With music accented by fast guitar and bass solos and an exotic image similar to contemporary visual kei groups, Sex Machineguns built up a large fanbase by playing local venues and clubs. They released their debut album, Sex Machinegun, in 1989, which reached Number 29 on the Japanese Albums chart. Their next album, Made in Japan (1999), climbed to Number 9, followed by the album Barbe-Q★マイケル (2001) reaching Number 7. After the success their 2001 live album Burning Hammer (Number 7), 2002’s Ignition (Number 8) and two compilations and a live album in 2003, the band took a short hiatus before returning with Heavy Metal Thunder in 2005. Sex Machineguns issued the album Made in USA (2006) before taking another hiatus. Anchang reformed Sex Machineguns with a new line-up and released several more albums, but they saw a decline in popularity with albums like SMG (2011) and Love Games (2014) appearing on the lower regions of the Top 100 and Metal Monster (2015) and Iron Soul (2018) doing even worse. However, the band’s fortunes turned around when their 2023 album 地獄の暴走列車 climbed to Number 43 on the albums chart.
