[4] Since the early 2000s, he has been inspired by animal rights and environmentalism, and began to follow a vegan, straight edge lifestyle.

Other art forms Akita has been interested in include painting, photography, filmmaking, and Butoh dance.

He listened to psychedelic music, progressive rock and later free jazz in his youth, all of which have influenced his noise.

[7] In 1972, he became the drummer of various high school bands,[8] which he left due to the other members being "grass-smoking Zappa freaks".

[13] The Collection series consisted of ten cassettes, the first five were recorded in a studio for an independent label called Ylem, which went defunct before they could be released.

At this time, Akita also made a homemade instrument consisting of a metal case strung with piano wires, guitar strings, and springs.

[9][17] Among early releases like the box set Pornoise/1kg, Merzbow created artwork using photocopies of collages made out of manga and porn magazines he found in trash cans in the Tokyo subway.

Akita explained this as trying to "create the same feeling as the secret porn customer for the people buying my cassettes in the early 80s".

[24] Kiyoshi Mizutani left Merzbow after the 1989 European tour and continues to pursue a solo career.

I found that style on Cloud Cock OO Grand.Beginning in the mid-1990s, Merzbow began to be influenced by death metal and grindcore.

Throughout most of the 1990s, Merzbow live was a trio with Reiko A. on electronics and Tetsuo Sakaibara (aka Bara) on voice and dance.

[26] Akita also directed Lost Paradise (失楽園　乗馬服女腹切り, Shitsurakuen: Jōbafuku onna harakiri) for Right Brain.

So I started reading books and researching on the internet about Animal Rights and that triggered an awareness of "evil" that human society has done.

2, dedicated to an elephant seal he visited often at the zoo and Bloody Sea, a protest against Japanese whaling.

[36][37] He has also produced several works centered around recordings of his pet chickens (notably Animal Magnetism and Turmeric).

[38] Also in 2002, Akita released Merzbeat, which was seen as a significant departure from his trademark abstract style in that it contains beat-oriented pieces.

This has sparked some controversy among fans,[39] though some reviewers pointed out that it sounded very similar to Aqua Necromancer (1998), which features samples of progressive rock drumming.

[40][41] Merzbird (2004) and Merzbuddha (2005) followed in a similar vein with sampled beats combined with Merzbow's signature harsh noise.

Starting in the mid-2000s, Masami Akita began to reintroduce junk metal and effects pedals back into his setup.

By the early 2010s, he was using a large number of pedals, oscillators and tone generators, and reduced to a single laptop running granular synthesis software.

2010–2013 saw the release several archival box sets; Merzbient, Merzphysics, Merzmorphosis, Lowest Music & Arts 1980–1983, and Duo.

Merzbow also released several collaborations with industrial/noise musicians he had known since the 1980s: Spiral Right / Spiral Left with Z'EV, The Black Album with John Duncan, and a trio of releases with Maurizio Bianchi, Amniocentesi / Envoise 30 05 82 (a split with two tracks from 1982), Merzbow Meets M.B., and Amalgamelody.

[46][47] Merzbow's sounds employ the use of distortion, feedback, and noises from synthesizers, machinery, and home-made noisemakers.

While much of Merzbow's output is intensely harsh in character, Akita does occasionally make forays into ambient music, as in Merzbient.

[48] Akita's early work consisted of industrial noise music made from tape loops and conventional instruments.

Other groups include: 3RENSA with Duenn and Koji Nakamura, Abe Sada with S.M.U.T., Commando Bruno Sanmartino with Fumio Kosakai and Masaya Nakahara,[52][53] Kikuri with Keiji Haino, Maldoror with Mike Patton,[54] MAZK with Zbigniew Karkowski, Melting Lips with Hanayo,[55] Muscats with Hanayo and Masaya Nakahara, Metalik Zeit with Aube,[56] Merz-Banana with Melt-Banana,[57][58] Satanstornade with Russell Haswell (they later released an album entitled Satanstornade under their real names), Secrets with Tetsuya Mugishima (aka Seven),[59] and Shalon Kelly King with Fumio Kosakai.