Inspirations and Influences
Despite mainly having experience in hip-hop, Toru decided that he wanted to create a rock band, with the band citing influences from American bands such as Good Charlotte, The Used, Foo Fighters, and Linkin Park. Like many Japanese artists, the band incorporated English lyrics into their songs alongside Japanese lyrics, with later albums being released almost entirely in English. As expected, the fluency of the English lyrics also improved with each new album as Taka, the main lyricist, gained confidence in his English skills.
Linked above: Zeitakubyo, an album that I think showcases ONE OK ROCK's early influences quite well.
ONE OK ROCK's earlier albums (such as Zeitakubyo, linked above) seem to highlight these American alternative rock influences more than their later works, with their sound evolving and becoming more distinctive as time went on.
In their interview with Rock Sound, Taka acknowledged that DETOX's 'Party's Over' had a sound that was reminiscent of the band's earlier work, stating "that one is like ONE OK ROCK's older sound, when we were doing concerts and making albums only in Japan. We did always like having that type of sound but we had kind of kept it to ourselves."
Linked above Party's Over, featured on the latest album, DETOX
