MURASHITA
HEAVY METAL × SHEET METAL
Japanese craftsmanship meets heavy metal.
A new project bringing two worlds together.
CONCEPT
I’ve spent my life in two worlds: heavy metal and sheet metal. This music video brings them together.
I want to show the world the energy of manufacturing, the skill of the people behind it, and just how exciting making things can be—all through a heavy metal music video.
Rooted in melodic thrash metal, “Tolerance Zero” brings MURASHITA’s music together with precision sheet metal fabrication in Japan. The single and music video are planned for January 2027 as part of the Heavy Metal × Sheet Metal project.
THE MEANING BEHIND THE TITLE
I wrote “Tolerance Zero” specifically for this video. In manufacturing, tolerance means the permitted variation from a specified dimension. The title carries a second meaning here: zero compromise.
Great products and great music
don’t come from compromise.
Above all, I wanted this song to express my respect for the craftspeople and engineers who work hard every day to keep Japanese industry moving.
We bend steel,
They bend the rules.
Our sweat and blood
built this floor.
We are the ground
you stand on.
I didn’t write this song
about myself.I wrote it for everyone who quietly gets on with the work, day after day, keeping Japanese manufacturing going.
STORY
After years of making music in the United States, Masaki Murashita returned to Japan and took over Seiko Co., Ltd., a precision sheet metal company in Komaki, Aichi. With no prior experience on the factory floor, he learned the work step by step. Today, both music and manufacturing remain part of his daily life.
Honing a skill. Working with others to create something. Sending it out into the world. That shared approach to music and manufacturing became the starting point for Heavy Metal × Sheet Metal.
“Tolerance Zero” is a way to bring the skill and energy of the factory floor to life through music and film.
JAPAN / LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles shoot completed · October 2026
Metal being cut, bent and welded on the factory floor in Japan. A band performing in Los Angeles. The video brings these two worlds together.
Directed by Matt Zane, the Los Angeles shoot was completed in October 2026. The single and music video are planned for release in January 2027.
Read the Los Angeles shoot reportMAKING THE VIDEO
GETTING READY / LOS ANGELES
Before leaving Japan, Murashita arranged for guitars he had kept in the United States for years to be moved from Michigan to Northern California. In Los Angeles, Dave Friedman lent amplifiers for the shoot. Preparations on both sides of the Pacific brought everything together for the performance scenes.
OCTOBER 11, 2026 / LOS ANGELES
The video reunited Murashita with director Matt Zane for their first project together in 11 years. Guitarist Patrick Morton drove ten hours to be there. Erik Kluiber, Michael Moore and camera operator James Smith joined them to complete the Los Angeles shoot.
JAPAN × LOS ANGELES
Footage from the factory floor in Japan meets the band’s performance in Los Angeles. The edit brings both settings together to realize the vision behind Heavy Metal × Sheet Metal.
SUPPORTERS
CAMPFIRE
— The crowdfunding campaign has ended
A crowdfunding campaign for the Heavy Metal × Sheet Metal music video ran from June to July 2026. Forty-six backers contributed a total of ¥535,000.
Alongside raising funds, the project set out to bring together people who believed in sharing Japanese manufacturing with the world through music.
To everyone who supported it: thank you.
MURASHITA
New single & music video planned for January 2027.
