With the assistance of Gene Simmons, EZO released their first album under their new name through Geffen Records, the second Japanese metal band to ink a deal with a major American label, and in turn they became the second Japanese metal band to crack the American Billboard sales charts, reaching a modest #150. Following the release of two popular albums under the Flatbacker name in 19, they changed their name to EZO and their style to heavy metal/hard rock and along with a handful of other Japanese bands they relocated to America in an attempt to break out in the American market. Among their early successes, this incarnation of the band most notably was the winner of Yamaha's Stage Flight '84 band battle, and their win earned them a competing slot at Yamaha's prestigious Light Music Contest '84 where they also won a prize. Flatbacker / EZOįlatbacker were a gritty heavy/speed metal band from Sapporo, one of the first big metal bands to come from the Hokkaido region. Shortly after Lazy broke up, the two remaining members Suzy and Davy quickly created a certain band who appear just a wee bit higher on this list.ĮZO (Flatbacker era) 18. Shunji "Pocky" Inoue would become moderately successful making soundtracks in the band Neverland along with Hiroyuki "Funny" Tanaka. This band launched major careers for all of its members, Michell became a hugely successful singer under his real name, Hironobu Kageyama. However, Lazy's members desperately wanted to play hard rock and heavy metal and when they released their fifth album Earth Ark, they completely disregarded their management's direction, writing the music they truly wanted to write, resulting in one of the most famous heavy metal/hard rock albums in the very earliest years of Japanese metal. In 1978 they signed with RCA and were pushed by the label to become a Japanese answer to pop rock acts such as the Bay City Rollers and released multiple albums under this forced style. Lazy began as a high school band comprised of five friends going by the stage names of Michell, Suzy, Funny, Pocky, and Davy.