Animetal USA


Animetal USA are a Japan-based American heavy metal band formed as a tribute to Eizo Sakamoto's band Animetal. They made their world debut at the 2011 Loud Park Festival, where they performed on stage with Momoiro Clover Z.
The band's original members consisted of lead vocalist Mike Vescera, guitarist Chris Impellitteri, bassist Rudy Sarzo and drummer Scott Travis. In 2012, Travis departed the band to tour with Judas Priest and was replaced by Killing Machine and former Slayer and Testament drummer Jon Dette.

History

Their debut self-titled album was released on October 12, 2011, and features English-language heavy metal covers of several anime theme songs, ranging from Devilmans Debiruman no Uta to Dragon Balls "Makafushigi Adventure!" to Neon Genesis Evangelions "A Cruel Angel's Thesis". The songs were arranged by Impellitteri and former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman. When the second album was in production, the band asked their Japanese and American fans to submit requests for songs they should cover on it.
In March 2012 it was revealed that the band have collaborated with Hironobu Kageyama of JAM Project to provide the opening theme to the Naruto anime spin-off series Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals. This song was released as a single and also was included on their second album released in Japan in June 2012.
In the summer of 2012, they teamed up with JAM Project for a limited national concert tour called the Japan-America Anison Summit.
In 2016, a spin off project was launched called D-Metal Stars; the band features Vescera, Sarzo, guitarist John Bruno, and drummer BJ Zampa. The band covers heavy metal versions of popular Disney songs on Walt Disney Records. The song "I see the Light" from Tangled features special guests Demon Kakka and Jeff Watson. The debut album Metal Disney was released in October 2016 in the Japanese market. Since its release it has reached as high as #3 on the Amazon Japan Hard Rock / Metal Best Sellers chart, and #2 on the Children's Chart. The "Metal Disney" album was then released in the US through Universal Music Group UMG on March 31, 2017. The album charted 3 songs on the Billboard Spotify Viral 50 and climbed as high as #21 on the Billboard Kid Albums chart.

Personnel

;Current members
;Former members
;Albums
;Singles