Galneryus

Formed in 2001, Galneryus is a relatively new band, though some of its members have been playing for some time. Their Wiki entry is a who's-who of Japanese metal. They sing in English, which to me makes them sound a bit like a German metal band. Blind Guardian or Helloween maybe? At any rate, their music is mostly progressive, epic, fast, soaring metal with a smattering of rather weak, slower ballads. You know, like just about all epic metal bands. In the past they verged on a sci-fi, vis-kei image, but thankfully they've toned that down in favor of a more "metal" metal image.