Guitarist Yoichiro Ishino from Japan's AREA51 is featured in a new interview with J-Music Ignited. An excerpt is available below.

Q: Area51 seems to be rising in popularity amongst the international community. What type of reaction have you received from fans?

Ishino: "That seems to be true, our international recognition is something we weren’t expecting five years ago. We are very fortunate to have received lots of positive reactions, from Kate’s fashion, my guitar playing, and of course the album itself. For example, we’ve received messages like 'I’m very surprised to know there’s such a cool metal band in Japan! Thank god I found you guys!' We also get many reactions like 'It’s the first time I listened to metal sung in Japanese. It was a bit strange for the first five minutes, but I got used to it quickly, and now I am completely hooked!'

Q: What did you focus more on this time? Melody, songwriting, lyrics?

Ishino: "We really did our best to add more depth in all aspects. There’s no big change in the way we do things, but with every album, we have been building up our confidence in the amount of depth there is in the music. That goes for the composition, singing, and my guitar playing of course."

Q: You have mentioned before that IMPELLITTERI has had a big influence on your music. What has it been like to work with and get to know members of that band?

Ishino: "It was such a privilege to be able to work with Rob Rock (vocals). I wish I could tell my sixteen year old self that this will actually happen! I was so into their music back then, could not imagine in a million years that such a dream would come true. I’m sure I won’t believe my older self, though. I actually had the chance to join Rob for a while during his stay in Japan, when he was here last year with Impellitteri. Fantastic shows, great dinners, shopping, and just hanging out, it was such a great time. When I look back, it still feels strange that all of that really happened."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Area51 released Goddess on March 24th in their native Japan. The album is now available for purchase worldwide via iTunes and CDBaby.com. Click the links below. Audio samples from the album are available at both locations.

iTunes

CDBaby.com

The tracklist for Goddess is as follows:

'Naissance'

'Nightmare'

'Regret et Larme'

'Begins Of Dissolution'

'Marionette'

'Stillness'

'Miss You'

'Vanitas'

'Sincerity'

' U Ta Ka Ta'

Go to the band's official MySpace page here for more information and audio samples.