POP MUSIC REVIEW : Agonized Riff-Rock From Japanese Trio

Like Finland or Croatia, Japan has an underground, metal-influenced industrial-music scene of its own. And of this new wave of Japanese bands, the Tokyo power trio Zeni Geva is probably the most accessible: agonized riff-rock very much in the mold of British grindcore bands like Bolt Thrower and Fudgetunnel--cool, but nothing a Slayer fan might find too challenging.

For its Los Angeles debut on Sunday, Zeni Geva chose the deep-downtown high-art LACE performance gallery, and drew a large crowd to its midsummer bacchanal. Zeni Geva was preceded by a beautiful, excruciating hour of slow-motion butoh movement from dancers Koichi Tamano and Harupin Ha. The band was nowhere near as contemplative.

Relentless riffs pounding on into insensateness, grindcore growls shading into samurai-flick grunts, Zeni Geva sounded something like a hard-core band trying to do Soundgarden songs, peppered with stubborn Fugazi dissonance, more than a little like garden-variety speed-metal. In fact, the most novel aspect of the show is that it was being performed for art dudes in a gallery space instead of for sweaty 15-year-olds in a Hollywood club.