Flatbacker (later known as EZO; Flatbacker style is heaviest, faster and less melodic than EZO's) its a legendary japanese hard'n'heavy band that played something between hard rock, heavy/speed metal and hair/glam metal. Members: Masaki Yamada (v), Hirotsugu Homma (d), Shoyo Iida (g) and Taro Takahashi (b). Masaki and Hiro have played in Loudness some time ago. Hiro is now member of heavy metal band called Anthem.

They released one demo cassette (Minagoroshi) in 1984 and two albums (1985's 'Accident' and 1986's 'Esa') in Japan as Flatbacker in the mid-1980s before moving to the U.S. Rumor has it that Gene Simmons of Kiss, who produced their self-titled U.S. debut album, {'EZO') was behind the band's name change to EZO, inspired by Ezo, an ancient name for Hokkaidō.