Artist: Loudness
Label: Atco Records
Release Date: 1985
Rating: 5 Skulls
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Title: Thunder in the East Artist: Loudness Label: Atco Records Release Date: 1985
Rating: 5 Skulls |
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Reviewed by Solomon:
This album has a fitting title, considering Loudness was the unsung leader of an invasion that never happened. It's somewhat strange that Japan, a country that has sucked up Western music like water for the last fifty years, has produced so little in the way of visible, viable metal in the United States. Maybe modern acts like Shadow and Sigh will turn things around, but I remember seeing very few bands from the Land of the Rising Sun make any sort of splash in the 80's. Those who specialize in Japanese metal can probably go on for hours about any number of obscure bands, but I recall Anthem, EZO, and Loudness as being the limit of my exposure. I never actually heard Anthem, just heard of them, but I remember EZO had a flashy, KISS schtick going on that evolved into a more L.A., street-rock thing ("Nightcrawler" was a kickin' tune). Sheesh, I can't even recall the first time I heard Loudness, but I think my guitar teacher at the time got me into them. It's been a while, but listening to Thunder In The East again has forced me to put these guys up a notch in the metal chain-of-command.Thunder was probably the band's biggest stateside release, the first track "Crazy Nights" being somewhat of a radio hit (Therion covered this rather faithfully on Crowning of Atlantis). An album like this is what makes you want to quit work, quit school, abandon your family and sit with an Ibanez under the Bodhi Tree, practicing towards metal Enlightenment, becoming a Guitar Gautama, a Six-String Siddhartha. Akira (the man, not the movie) Takasaki rules, filling your ears with plenty of lead technique and flash. Takasaki's rhythm playing is bright and vibrant, bringing to mind Eddie Van Halen, Jake E. Lee, and Nuno Bettencourt. He takes the basic metal chug of VI-VII-I and punctuates it with plenty of snaps, crackles, and pops. It would be right to catagorize Thunder as "traditional" metal, and you can make comparisons to Ozzy, Dokken and the like, but Loudness really puts their contemporaries to shame in many ways. Even if the young thrash movement was more "extreme," Thunder still kicks a lot of ass for a mid-Eighties record. "Crazy Nights" is obviously appealing because of its tough, catchy riff, but what follows is actually better. Track two, "Like Hell," is a faster, punchier tune and is my pick of the litter. "Heavy Chains" is a good, plodding nod to Maiden, but the intro to "We Could Be Together" takes the cake. Probably the best riff on the record, that nasty pick slide leads into a snarling, gritty, bad-ass guitar part you could strip paint with. "Run For Your Life" starts out with a nifty, geometrical, neo-classic riff, and "The Lines Are Down" has a drive similar to "Like Hell." I could go on, but you get the picture.
The only sour apple is the closer "Never Change Your Mind," a pale cousin of "Home Sweet Home" that was probably forced on the band by the record company, and is really out-of-step with the rest of the album. You could make a few comments about Minoru Niihara's vocals. Without sounding too racist, his accent is pretty strong in parts, and it does force a chuckle out of you here and there. If you can ignore some cliched and trite lyrical bits like "Ohh, let's get so crazy tonight," Niihara is actually a cool singer and, along with Takasaki, gives the band a unique edge, accent and all. In all, I'd put Thunder up against any of the more popular American metal/hard rock records of the day.
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