HAGANE Lost Three-Fifths of Their Band. They Called the Next EP 'Life Goes On.'
May 26, 2023. Shinjuku ReNY, Tokyo. HAGANE — an all-female melodic power metal band — takes the stage for a one-man live titled “ZERO.”
The name tells you everything.
That night, three of five members play their final show. Vocalist Uyu, guitarist Mayto, and drummer Kanako are leaving. Not a temporary hiatus. Not a planned transition. Three-fifths of the band walks off the stage and doesn’t come back.
What’s left: guitarist Sakura and bassist Sayaka. A rhythm section and a lead with no voice, no second guitar, and no drums. The band’s identity — the vocal character, the dual-guitar harmonies, the rhythmic foundation — just left the building.
Most bands die at this point. HAGANE means “steel” in Japanese. They decided to find out if the name was true.
Primary band source: HAGANE Official.
Video link: HAGANE - Cover - Bon Jovi / Livin’ On A Prayer
What “ZERO” Actually Meant
The show’s title wasn’t dramatic branding. It was honest. HAGANE was at zero. The question wasn’t “how do we replace three members?” It was more fundamental: is this still a band?
Sakura and Sayaka had a choice every PM knows intimately. When your core team fractures — when the engineer who built your architecture leaves, when your lead designer takes another offer, when the person who held institutional knowledge walks out — you can’t just plug in replacements. The thing you built doesn’t exist in the same form anymore.
You either grieve the old version and start building the next one, or you shut down.
They started building.
The Audition and the Recruit
It took almost a year. In April 2024, HAGANE announced two new members.
Nagi, the new vocalist, came through an open audition. It was her first time auditioning for a rock band as a solo vocalist. She wasn’t a scene veteran stepping into an established role. She was new to this specific world — and that mattered. Nagi’s voice is different from Uyu’s: cleaner, more powerful, less of the high-pitched symphonic delivery that was part of the old HAGANE sound. She didn’t try to replicate what came before. She brought something the band hadn’t heard yet.
JUNNA, the new drummer, came through a different path. Sakura had worked with her on a previous project. There was already chemistry, already trust. When Sakura reached out, JUNNA didn’t need to prove she could play. She needed to prove she could play with them. That’s a different audition.
Two new members. Two completely different recruitment strategies. One based on open discovery (what can someone unexpected bring?), one based on existing trust (who do I already know can operate at this level?). Both valid. Both necessary.
”Life Goes On!”
On May 29, 2024, HAGANE released their first music with the new lineup: an EP titled Life Goes On!
That title is a statement of intent. Not “we’re back” — that implies you left. Not “new era” — that implies the old one failed. “Life goes on” says: this is continuity. The mission survived the people. The steel held.
The EP itself is proof. Reviewers noted the sound was sharper and fiercer than the previous lineup — Brave Words rated it 7.5/10. The compositions, driven by Sakura and Sayaka as the continuing creative core, evolved rather than retreated. Nagi’s vocal approach opened up new melodic territory. JUNNA’s drumming brought a different rhythmic intensity.
The restart show at Shibuya REX on June 27, 2024, sold out immediately. An additional date was added at Yokohama ReNY β to meet demand. The audience didn’t need convincing. They needed to hear it.
By the end of 2024, HAGANE had completed the “Phoenix Journey” tour across major Japanese cities. In April 2025, they released Top of the Tower — their first full-length album with the new lineup. They were featured on the cover of Metallion magazine, a special publication of BURRN!, Japan’s premier metal publication.
The band that was at “ZERO” eighteen months earlier was now on the cover of a national metal magazine.
What HAGANE Teaches PMs About Team Fracture
Every PM will face this at some point. Not a minor departure — a structural one. The kind where the thing you built is no longer the thing you have. HAGANE’s rebuild isn’t a metaphor. It’s a playbook.
Don’t replace. Evolve. Nagi doesn’t sound like Uyu. JUNNA doesn’t play like Kanako. HAGANE could have searched for members who replicated the old sound — comfortable, familiar, lower risk. Instead, they let the new members reshape the product. The result wasn’t a copy of the old HAGANE. It was a version with new capabilities. When you lose a key team member, the instinct is to hire their clone. Resist it. Hire the person who brings what you didn’t have before, and let the product grow into its new shape.
Use two recruitment strategies. Nagi came from an open audition — a discovery process. JUNNA came from Sakura’s existing network — a trust-based hire. Both approaches work. The mistake is using only one. Open auditions surface surprising talent you’d never find through referrals. Trusted networks surface reliable execution you can’t verify through interviews. Use both.
The mission survives the people. HAGANE’s identity — the name means steel, forged under pressure, built to endure — was bigger than any individual member. Sakura and Sayaka held that identity through the transition. When the new members arrived, they were joining a mission, not filling seats. If your product’s identity is tied to specific people rather than a specific purpose, it won’t survive their departure.
Name the reset. HAGANE called their final show with the old lineup “ZERO.” They called their first EP with the new lineup “Life Goes On!” Both titles are honest about what’s happening. There’s no spin, no pretending the departure didn’t matter, no corporate “we’re excited to announce a new chapter” language. In product, when your team fractures, name it. Acknowledge the loss to the team. Then name the rebuild. Clarity about where you are is the first step to moving forward.
Three of five members walked out. The band name means steel. The remaining two held on, rebuilt, and came back fiercer.
That’s not resilience as a buzzword. That’s resilience as a practice — daily, uncomfortable, and real.
Build like steel. Forge under pressure. Life goes on.