X Who?

X Japan unexpectedly walked away with the prize for best international band at the Golden Gods Awards ceremony April 11 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles.

The awards are given by hard rock specialty magazine Revolver.

It was the first time a band from Asia won in the category.

This year’s other nominees were Rammstein from Germany, Sepultura from Brazil, Lacuna Coil from Italy, Behemoth from Poland and Meshuggah from Sweden.

Members of Anthrax, who just completed a long-delayed tour of Japan, presented the award to X Japan leader/drummer Yoshiki, who during the acceptance speech felt it necessary to explain to the audience what exactly X Japan is.

He also dropped a few gratuitous and awkward English swear words into the speech, presumably to extend some sort of fellow feeling to the roomful of American rockers.

As one Japanese commentator observed, the applause was “subdued.”