History & Biography Named after the Accept song from the 1986 Russian Roulette album, Aiming High was founded by Kawaguchi Yasuhiro and Kawamata Daisuke in Tokyo in 1989. The No Turning Back demo of 1990 arrived quickly, but it took the band another five years to release the follow-up, which was called Under My Flag. Demon had joined in 1994. The Laser Sniper demo arrived in 1996. The band and Mastermind played together. Aiming High contributed its staple Vengeance Is Mine to the Ultimate Network's compilation CD Kill `Em All Fakin' Metals 2 in 1997. Other bands on the sampler included Hydra, Maelstrom and Vanguard. This sampler was rereleased to benefit the music scene during the pandemic years later.
The group recorded its debut album in 1998 and released it in 1999. This was followed up by a Burning In Hell and Aiming High split record. The former band hailed from Brazil. Named after one of its tracks, the group released a three-song video called Vengeance Is Mine independently in 2001. The Welcome Home from Your Hell b/w Vengeance Is Mine single featured an image of Tokyo Tower melded with a Flying V.
A couple of split releases followed intermittently. Guitarist Kazuya left sometime after 2012. Guitarist Toshiaki Nitta (ex-Iron Fist) had arrived in 2016. A concert with Pronostate, Hellhound and others was cancelled in 2020. Kawaguchi was in charge of the soundtrack for a 2022 movie called Maniac Driver.
The band’s line-up had been relatively stable over the years.
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