Among the Japanese avant-garde bands of the 1990s, few could boast the sheer ferocity of Mainliner (Asahito Nanjo of High Rise, Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple, jazz drummer Hajime Koizumi).

A spectacular eruption of distortion, tank-like rhythms, and gratuitous cacophonies makes Mellow Out (Charnel Music, 1996 – Riot Season, 2003) a seminal work in instrumental rock music. Thunderous rhythms, delirious blasts of distortion, echoes of an infernal prayer detonate the fifteen minutes of Black Sky, which is also pierced by moments of deafening, Borbetomagus-like cacophonous jamming. The best of Chrome from Half Machine Lips and the worst of Feedtime could not inflict more damage. A Martian cadence, equally barbaric, propels the eighteen-minute catastrophes of M. In its exhausting finale, Makoto Kawabata’s guitar distortions reach levels of pure madness.

Mainliner also recorded the tapes Troop (La Musica) and Psychedelic Atmosphere Beatnik (La Musica).

Sonic (Charnel, 1997) picks up the hurricane of their masterpiece. To describe the immense “groove” of Mainliner Sonic, one must imagine one of the most distorted riffs of the MC5, amplified to excess and repeated endlessly, combined with a frenzied, jackhammer-like rhythm à la Neu. The riff becomes even more massive, and no less filthy, on Tsukisasaru, enough to make the memory of Blue Cheer pale, and the glissando acrobatics streaking across the bacchanal would resurrect Jimi Hendrix. Naturally, it is difficult to distinguish between the nuclear catastrophe of Last Day and that of Blue Pieces: it is a matter of fractions of a decibel. The spectacular percussion fireworks are thanks to the arrival of Tatsuya Yoshida, leader of Ruins and one of the greatest drummers in the world. Bassist Asahito Nanjo and guitarist Makoto Kawabata are responsible for the walls of noise.

Apocalypse has many faces, but certainly the one exposed by Mainliner is the most terrifying.

Psychedelic Polyhedron (1997 - Fractal, 2004) contained the jams Show The Cloven Hoof and Cardinal Virtues.

Mainliner (now bassist/vocalist Nanjo of High Rise, guitarist Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple and Musica Transonic, and Shimura on drums, and without Yoshida of Ruins) offers five more excursions in hell on Imaginative Plain (PSF, 2001).

Mainliner's Revelation Space (Riot Season, 2013) was the first new album in twelve years.