Acid Mothers Temple

Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., commonly shortened to Acid Mothers Temple or AMT, is a Japanese rock band, the core of which formed in 1995. The band is led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto and early in their career featured many musicians and offshoot groups and collaborations, but by 2004 the line-up had coalesced with only a few core members and frequent guest vocalists.

The band has released albums frequently on a number of international record labels as well as the Acid Mothers Temple family record label, which was established in 1998 to document the activities of the whole collective.

Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. traditionally tour Canada and the United States in the spring of every year, on a grueling schedule with very few days off, and continued this through 2019. Somewhat less frequently, they tour Europe in the autumn.

With regards to the often-confusing array of names for the different bands, Kawabata has explained:

Though we shall henceforth be Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno, the new group will also be known in short as Acid Mothers Temple and this will no doubt sow confusion in the minds of many. But the true manifestations of Acid Mothers Temple are many—Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno, Acid Mothers Temple SWR. The future may see yet other groups bearing similar names. But each and all of them will be true manifestations of Acid Mothers Temple.

— Kawabata Makoto

One reviewer said of Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. concerts:

In a non-stop stream of thrilling noise, they segue from supercharged stomp-rock, through doomy choral chanting and frazzled go-go, to a thundering melee of atonal freakouts. Then on to a pulsating, echo-drenched disco-rock groove, which morphs into a motorik rhythm too rapid even for the autobahn, works itself into a squalling frenzy, breaks cover as a kind of galloping, syncopated, Underworld-with-rabies affair, and flows into a long, chiming trance number climaxing in a collective instrumental howl.

— David Bennun