Japanese heavy metal band LOVEBITES have released the music video to their new song ‘Nameless Warrior’, taken from upcoming album In The Beginning – The Best of 2017-2021, which will be released from JPU Records on 2 CDs from 14 January 2022.

‘Nameless Warrior’ was written following bassist Miho’s decision to depart from LOVEBITES, and is the last song to be recorded with LOVEBITES’ original line-up, as well as Mao, who has been arranging and collaborating with the band for some time. The song’s lyrics have been written by Asami.

The music video is a chronological sequence of previously unreleased and rare live and off-the-record footage. It includes cuts from a secret gig the band did under the name POWERSLAVES in 2016, before they started their fully-fledged career, plus footage from various international festivals and tours. This time, the band’s incarnation, the wolf, appears in the video in an animated form reminiscent of ink paintings or shadow puppets, running through the metaphorical world parallel to the history of the band’s activities. For example, the scene where the wolf takes a bit of a golden fruit represents LOVEBITES winning the Best New Band award at the 2018 Golden Gods Awards by Metal Hammer, the world’s biggest metal magazine. Also, for the first time ever, the video contains English and Japanese subtitles embedded in the video, with the lyrics expressing the band’s attitude towards their future activities.

Nameless Warrior is available to download and stream from midnight, ahead of new album In The Beginning – The Best of 2017-2021.

In The Beginning – The Best of 2017-2021

Click cover image to pre-order on CD or as a limited edition tshirt bundle.

About LOVEBITES:

LOVEBITES formed in 2016 with vocalist Asami, guitarists Midori and Miyako, bassist Miho and drummer Haruna. The band’s EP THE LOVEBITES EP was mixed by Mikko Karmila and mastered by Mika Jussila, a team of talented Finnish engineers known for their work with Nightwish, Children of Bodom and Amorphis. In May 2017 LOVEBITES made their debut and released THE LOVEBITES EP through London’s JPU Records, followed by full length album AWAKENING FROM ABYSS in October 2017 and had a series of shows in Japan and the UK.

In 2018 LOVEBITES made their first festival appearance at Vans Warped Tour Japan 2018 Presented by XFLAG, as well as a headline show in June for mini album BATTLE AGAINST DAMNATION. In July they participated in HEADSTRONG FES.18 organised by ANTHEM, followed by performing at the world’s biggest metal festival Wacken Open Air in Germany and Bloodstock Open Air in the UK. They also toured Europe with X-ray Touring. After returning to Japan LOVEBITES completed their second album CLOCKWORK IMMORTALITY by the end of the year, and performed at Metal Mania by RED BULL, which also featured LOUDNESS.

LOVEBITES began 2019 by touring Japan, followed by supporting Arch Enemy on tour in China. First live album DAUGHTERS OF THE DAWN: LIVE IN TOKYO 2019 was released in July, recorded at MYNABI BLITZ AKASAKA in Tokyo in support of CLOCKWORK IMMORTALITY. The same month the band toured festivals, including Download Festival in the UK, Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium, and Download Festival Madrid in Spain. At Download Festival in the UK, Asami joined HALESTORM on stage to sing “Love Bites (And So Do I)”, the song that gave LOVEBITES their name. When the band returned to Japan they toured Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka before appearing at SUMMER SONIC 2019. They then joined DragonForce for their UK tour in November as special guests.

In January 2020, the band released third album ELECTRIC PENTAGRAM. It became the band’s first album to enter Japan’s Oricon Top 10 rankings, peaking at number nine. The band then kicked off tour of Japan in February and released FIVE OF A KIND: LIVE IN TOKYO 2020 in July, recorded at Zepp DiverCity, which reached number one in the Oricon Music Blu-ray chart.

In March 2021 they released mini album GLORY, GLORY, TO THE WORLD, which reached number ten in the billboard general chart. Immediately afterwards the band began the RIDE FOR VENGEANCE TOUR 2021, touring four cities across Japan. In August Miho left the band and it was announced that LOVEBITES would take a break. In the meantime HEAVY METAL NEVER DIES – LIVE IN TOKYO 2021 is set to be releases shortly in the UK as a CD and video on demand release, featuring the Tokyo show from the RIDE FOR VENGEANCE TOUR 2021.