Posts Tagged ‘ Akira Takasaki ’

Album of the Week 02-2022: Loudness – Sunburst ~ Gamushara


For a second, I thought that Loudness had gone the Iron Maiden route by releasing an unnecessary double album. And on the surface, it may seem that way. ‘Sunburst ~ Gamushara’ is barely eighty-five minutes long and could easily have been an even better hour-long album. However, Loudness did go through the effort of at least creating chapters that make sense stylistically within the album. Another reason to give the album the benefit of the doubt is that it is easily one of the best albums Loudness released in the twenty-first century. The key characteristic that makes it so good is spontaneity.

As much as I liked some of Loudness’ recent albums, they were always attempting to be something. They often sounded like Akira Takasaki was trying to keep up with the times by favoring meaty, Pantera-esque riff work over melody, whereas 2018’s highly enjoyable ‘Rise To Glory’ may have tried to overcorrect things a little in its old school-isms. On ‘Sunburst ~ Gamashura’, it seems like the band just wanted to write the best songs they possibly could, with little to no worry which metal trend it would fit. As a result, the album is the most successful blend of classic and modern Loudness the band has released thus far.

Interestingly, this change in approach has made the more contemporary-sounding songs a lot better as well. That might be a result of the more varied context, but twenty-first century Loudness had very few tracks as exciting as the dark, threatening galloper ‘The Nakigara’ or the heavy stomper ‘Kaso Genjitsu’. They feel like an integral part of the album, however, because their sound is equally organic as the more traditional material, such as the yearning melodic opener ‘OEOEO’ (yes, seriously) or ‘Hunger For More’, which could have been on ‘Thunder In The East’. It all fits and it all makes sense.

Creating chapters, as stated in the beginning of the review, is most obvious at the beginning of the second disc, as it starts with four tracks that are obvious nods to the band’s seventies hardrock influences. Not the best songs on the albums from a compositional standpoint, although I really love ‘Emerald No Umi’ due to the massive, goosebumps-inducing riff that carries it, but the joy of playing them is tangible. I also wish all Loudness ballads were at least as good as ‘All Will Be Fine With You’. Closer ‘Wonderland’ also feels like ballad, but more a doomy one, like ‘Rain’, which closed ‘Rise To Glory’.

Takasaki dominates the songwriting on ‘Sunburst ~ Gashamura’, having written most of the music and lyrics, the latter of which were often written by singer Minoru Niihara on recent records. While I expected this to be a problem, ‘Sunburst ~ Gamashura’ easily features Niihara’s best performance on a Loudness album in many years. Yes, his vocal cords still sound worn, but more care has been put into his vocal melodies this time around. Two of the album’s highlights were contributed by other band members, however. The aformentioned ‘The Nakigara’ has contributions from drummer Masayuki Suzuki, while ‘Stand Or Fall’ is prime Masayoshi Yamashita. The way the song builds up to a quasi-prog hardrocker with excellent riffs is very reminiscent of ‘Black Wall’, another excellent composition by the bassist.

‘Sunburst ~ Gamashura’ is much better than I expected it would be. In fact, I am surprised Loudness still had an album this good in them. It is certainly my favorite album of theirs since ‘2012’ and possibly since their self-titled thirty years ago. How little care the band has for what boxes to tick to still be seen as relevant really elevates the album above their other recent output. Even the most modern elements have found their way into the album organically and the songs are generally really good. Bonus points for the cover art, which might just be the first Loudness cover I actually like.

Recommended tracks: ‘The Nakigara’, ‘Stand Or Fall’, ‘Nihon No Kokoro’, ‘Kaso Genjitsu’

2022
01/16
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Interview: Loudness and the Japanese hardrock scene


Loudness was one of the first Japanese bands that also had some success in Europe and North America. Partially due to the MTV success of ‘Crazy Night’ and Akira Takasaki’s status as a guitar hero, but according to singer Minoru Niihara, Loudness also was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time. We spoke with Niihara prior to the concert in Alkmaar, at which Loudness promoted its 27th studio album ‘Rise To Glory’.

After the previous album ‘The Sun Will Rise Again’, we had to wait over three and a half years for ‘Rise To Glory’. And that is quite surprising, as the band has been releasing new albums just about every year since the original lineup of Niihara, Takasaki, bassist Masayoshi Yamashita and drummer Munetaka Higuchi reunited around the turn of the century. Even after Higuchi passed away in 2008, there were hardly any delays in their release schedule. “We needed the extra time“, Niihara confesses. “In addition, we needed to look for a new record label, because our previous contract expired. In the meantime, Akira kept on writing new songs. Because of that, we could select the best material.”

For his lyrics, Niihara employs a rather unconventional approach: “I think of a theme and write down my thoughts about that, just some ideas and lines in Japanese. After that, three friends of mine help me turn it into a complete set of lyrics. They have been raised bilingual in California and live in Japan these days. They speak perfect Japanese and because of that, they know the weaknesses of Japanese people speaking English. You could say they fix it. Many Japanese people need someone to tell them what is wrong with their English. There hardly is any need to speak or write English when you live in Japan. Even at the universities, classes are in Japanese.”

Timing

When Loudness was founded in 1981, there were no heavy metal bands in Japan. “Before us, you only had Bow Wow from Tokyo and Murasaki from Okinawa“, Niihara confirms. “And those bands weren’t really heavy metal, because we didn’t know that back then. They were hardrock bands. I’m from Osaka, where a lot of young British hardrock bands performed. I was in a school band with which we played covers of Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. But professional hardrock bands? We didn’t have those in the seventies. There were lots of people who listened to western hardrock, but no one played the music themselves. I don’t actually know why either.

We were lucky. Around the time we released our debut album (‘The Birthday Eve’, 1981), the new wave of British heavy metal became really popular in Japan. Bands like Iron Maiden and Saxon were very popular. That made people curious about our music, because we were a Japanese band that also made this type of music. Our timing turned out to be perfect. Young rockers loved us and Akira became a guitar hero. He actually already was when he played with Lazy. That was a pop group, but his playing was amazing. When he was seventeen, he was already known as a great guitar player.”

Sold out

“Before I joined Loudness, I have talked to some people who worked for record labels. When they heard I wanted to play hardrock, all of them said: that’s old, no one will buy that. After we received a gold record for the first Loudness album, the same people suddenly told us that they knew our music would become big. Bullshit! Some of these guys even literally said we would never go anywhere.”

Things went differently. Loudness became a big success in Japan. “Every place we played was sold out“, says Niihara. “And then we’re talking about two to three thousand capacity venues. While we only had one album out. After that, more and more bands that kind of sounded like Loudness popped up. Every record company tried to sign its own Loudness. The positive thing about that is that many Japanese hardrock bands got the chance to release an album. Two or three years after our debut album, Japanese metal was very popular.”

San Francisco

“After a while, the scene slowed down a little. Our sound engineer and friend Daniel McClendon, who is from San Francisco, asked us why we wouldn’t just go to the States for a couple of shows someday. In Japan, we had achieved just about everything we could achieve. In 1983 we went to California for a couple of concerts, just to see what the possibilities were for us. We did four shows in San Francisco and two in Los Angeles.

The audience in San Francisco was insane. There was a very active, hardcore underground heavy metal scene there. We met bands like Metallica and Slayer there when they weren’t much more than local bands. That kind of surprised me, because the image I had of music from San Francisco couldn’t be more different. I thought of relaxed rock music like The Doobie Brothers and the Eagles. Our shows were attended by young guys who were looking for new heavy metal, however. We didn’t even know how all these people knew about us, because we hadn’t released a single album in the States yet.

Later on, we found out that they traded tapes with each other. Metallica’s drummer Lars Ulrich was one of those fanatic tape traders. He also already knew Bow Wow, for instance. There was even a record store in San Francisco that imported our lp’s. Their owner really helped us simply by playing our music to people who might be interested in us. That way, Loudness could already build an audience before we ever played in the States.”

Identity crisis

Thanks to the presence of an A&R manager of the big Atlantic Records label, Loudness became the first Japanese metal band that signed with a major label in America. Initially, that was fruitful: ‘Crazy Nights’ and the accompanying album ‘Thunder In The East’ (1985) became a big success. When it turned out difficult to retain that success, friction developed within the band, which eventually lead to Niihara’s departure. A couple of years later, Yamashita left as well.

In the nineties, Loudness underwent a sizeable identity crisis. With the American singer Mike Vescera, the band recorded two albums that were obviously aimed toward the Californian glam metal scene, only to follow that up with the incredibly heavy ‘Loudness’ (1992) with singer Masaki Yamada (ex-EZO) and Taiji Sawada, who had just left X Japan at the time. After that, Loudness appeared to follow the alternative metal trend, though without Sawada. In the meantime, Niihara was occupied with bands like Ded Chaplin, Sly and X.Y.Z.→A.

Mature

The turning point arrived around the turn of the century, when Loudness’ classic line-up reunited, allegedly on the recommendation of Masaki Yamada. “Akira says that’s what happened“, Niihara says. “I think Akira had the idea to bring the original guys back together again himself as well. Around that time, Masaki told him the time was right for a reunion. Maybe it just had to happen. Our twentieth anniversary was upcoming and Akira wanted to do something special for that occasion.

It was supposed to be a reunion for maybe one or two years, but after our new album (‘Spiritual Canoe’, 2001) and the tour, the fans begged us to continue with the same line-up. We got together to talk about it and nobody actually wanted to quit. Everyone was curious to see where else we could go. And we wanted to play in Europe again, so we just tried it. And we’re still here! We’ve been around longer now than we were together in the eighties.”

Niihara does have an explanation for that. “We are older and wiser“, he laughs. “We sometimes think back to those days and realize we were a bunch of idiots. We drank too much and we were acting really stupid sometimes. These days, we have families and children. We have become a lot more mature.”

The singer did not listen to the albums he did not sing on until after the reunion. “In the nineties, I was too busy with my own music“, he explains. “And besides, I was trying to leave Loudness behind me. They kicked me out, after all. After the reunion, we had to play some songs from the albums recorded with Mike and Masaki. It wasn’t until then that I started listening to the material from those days. And I was really impressed! Mike Vescera sings great on those two records!”

Recovery

During this tour, the drum stool is occupied by Ryuichi ‘Ryu’ Nishida, who worked as a session drummer with the likes of Gackt and Marty Friedman and is a part of the instrumental rock band Ra:IN with X Japan guitarist Pata. Earlier this year, Masayuki ‘Ampan’ Suzuki, who replaced Higuchi after his death, was hit by a stroke. “He is working hard on his recovery“, Niihara reassures. “There are some problems with the right side of his body. He has trouble talking and holding his drum sticks.

We are just happy that he’s still there. There are so many people who die from the same conditions. We hope he can play a couple of songs with us by the end of the year. More than a couple of songs is really too much for him at this point. We told him: please take your time, don’t rush. When he’s ready, we will go for it again. We are fortunate enough to have a fantastic drummer like Nishida helping us out.”

A Dutch version of this interview can be read at The Sushi Times.

2018
08/26
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Album of the Week 04-2018: Loudness – Rise To Glory


There was a time when a new Loudness album was something I was passionately looking forward to. With the previous album ‘The Sun Will Rise Again’ being quite lackluster, this was not necessarily the case with ‘Rise To Glory’, but the results of the latter seem to point out that its predecessor was an accidental misstep. ‘Rise To Glory’ is the most spontaneous and traditional sounding Loudness album in a long time. While the Pantera-ish contemporary leanings have not disappeared entirely, the second half of the album in particular is very likely to please fans of what Loudness did in the eighties.

My main criticisms of ‘The Sun Will Rise Again’ were aimed at the predictable and tired songwriting. It seemed like the band was running on autopilot at the time. That certainly is not the case on ‘Rise To Glory’. There are definitely more than two types of riffs in the arsenal of guitar wizard Akira Takasaki this time around. The stomping modern metal riffs have largely been replaced by old school hard rock and tradtional heavy metal riffs and there is even some acoustic guitar work on the record. This increase in dynamics is one of the album’s greatest assets.

Variation is also greater than before in the tempo department. Recent Loudness albums tend to contain two or three faster songs and a large number of modern midtempo tracks. Though ‘Rise To Glory’ is not filled with speed monsters – ‘Massive Tornado’ and the more melodic ‘I’m Still Alive’ have obviously been designed as such – there is a lot more material in the faster end of the midtempo spectrum to be heard here. The title track, with its classic speed metal main riff, is one of the best examples of this, as is the galloping album highlight ‘Why And For Whom’.

While Takasaki is always riffing creatively and soloing impressively and bassist Masayoshi Yamashita is more present than he has been in a while, Minoru Niihara’s deteriorating vocals were a factor that dragged ‘The Sun Will Rise Again’ down. Although his voice is still a clear victim of aging here, he actually sounds surprisingly good on the album’s two semi-ballads ‘The Voice’ and ‘Rain’, the latter an atmospheric, almost doomy track that I feel Takasaki had been wanting to write for ages. The latter could also be true for the somewhat psychedelic ‘Kama Sutra’, which would not have sounded out of place on ‘Heavy Metal Hippies’, but somehow also doesn’t here.

Sure, people who are no fans of the genre could criticize songs like ‘No Limit’, the upbeat opener ‘Soul On Fire’ and the midtempo stomper ‘Go For Broke’ for being old man’s metal or more of the same, but the fact of the matter is that Loudness is really good at this creative take on traditional heavy metal. Apart from Niihara’s voice, nothing on ‘Rise To Glory’ seems to signal that Loudness’ members – except for drummer Masayuki Suzuki, who is in his mid-forties – are approaching sixty. In fact, ‘Rise To Glory’ is the first post-reunion Loudness album of which I can safely say that fans of the band’s classic material can blindly buy it.

Recommended tracks: ‘Why And For Whom’, ‘Rise To Glory’, ‘Rain’

2018
01/28
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Album of the Week 42-2016: Loudness – Loudness


After Loudness’ failed attempt at broadening their western appeal by recording two albums with American singer Michael Vescera, guitarist and bandleader Akira Takasaki must have had a few demons to exorcise. There’s no other way to explain how he moved from the softest Loudness record to what was at the time their heaviest. Takasaki’s guitar riffs dominate their self-titled, but the all-star cast of Japanese metal musicians all bring something to the table to make this a memorable, vicious slab of heavy metal. Despite being released in a period where turmoil affected their input negatively, ‘Loudness’ is a must-have record.

Takasaki and drummer Munetaka Higuchi are joined here by former EZO singer Masaki Yamada, whose raw, passionate howls occasionally add a slightly sleazy edge to the songs, which especially works well in slower songs where Takasaki’s riffs have a somewhat bluesy feel. Also, bassist Masayoshi Yamashita left and the amazing Taiji Sawada – formerly of X Japan – took his place. Especially his tone works wonders here. Yamashita did still contribute the fine composition ‘Everyone Lies’, which is quite typically his somewhat unpredictable writing style. Speaking of tone: Takasaki has a nice, clear crunch to his guitar and Higuchi’s drums sound nice and ballsy.

Often this record is mistaken for a groove metal record, because most of the singles are midtempo tracks. But even the slower material here – the brooding, doomy stomp of opening track ‘Pray For The Dead’, the playful blues metal of ‘Black Widow’, the highly Black Sabbath-ish ‘Love Kills’ – is classic heavy metal that is more imaginative than the average mid-nineties American band. There’s always a few cool unexpected twists and in typical Takasaki style, there’s more notes in the riff than you can think of. Yamada’s raw vibrato is a thing you either love or hate, but I think it adds a great deal of power to the songs.

But the true highlights are the faster songs. ‘Waking The Dead’ combines a triplet feel with the bluesy approach of early heavy metal, ‘Hell Bites (From The Edge Of Insanity)’ is a little work of art which starts with a killer riff and from there on keeps on building up in tension and ‘Racing The Wind’ is classic Loudness heavy metal with a slightly more aggressive edge. But the song that really gets my blood boiling is closing track ‘Firestorm’, which builds from a midtempo intro to a borderline thrash stomper in the vein of ‘S.D.I’. Rhythmically, there’s a few interesting surprises and in the end, the song annihilates all that’s in its path. ‘Slaughter House’ is a combination of both extremes.

Some records get ignored simply because they’ve been released in an unfortunate era of a band’s career. I’m afraid ‘Loudness’ is one of those records. For me, it’s the Loudness album that I revisit most. I love the combination of Takasaki’s most aggressive riff work and the rough vocal cords of Yamada, who I tend to prefer over original singer Minoru Niihara. It’s too bad that both Sawada and Higuchi left the band after this record and Loudness started a period of simply being lost, because the magic heard on this record is excellent.

Recommended tracks: ‘Firestorm’, ‘Hell Bites (From The Edge Of Insanity)’, ‘Racing The Wind’

2016
10/23
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We get it, Loudness…

Back in the mid-eighties, Loudness broke through internationally with an awesome record by the title of ‘Thunder In The East’, their first to feature English lyrics exclusively (if you don’t count the “English edition” of ‘Disillusion’). Its album cover looks like this:

Then, halfway through the first decade of this century, came an album called ‘Breaking The Taboo’. This heavy monster – though not exactly their best effort songwriting-wise – was graced by this cover:

And earlier this month saw the release of their twenty-sixth record ‘The Sun Will Rise Again’. And if you haven’t spotted the pattern yet that I’m trying to point out, let me present to you the cover of that album:

We get it, Loudness. You’re Japanese. I just wish I was there when the album cover was presented to the executives at Universal Music Japan. These guys must have crapped themselves, because I can’t think of any way how three albums with strikingly similar cover artworks are going to be easy to market in any way. Then again, I’m not a businessman, as I have proven many times throughout my life, so maybe I’m overlooking something.

‘The Sun Will Rise Again’, by the way, is the first Loudness record since 2008’s ‘Metal Mad’ that isn’t actually better than its predecessor. And mind you; this is a band consistently churning out albums on an almost yearly basis. Of course, this is master guitarist Akira Takasaki and his crew, so there’s still a handful of enjoyable songs – ‘Never Ending Fire’, ‘Mortality’ and the title track – but after the consistently improving level of songwriting as shown on the last four albums, the album comes off as sort of a letdown.

It’s not bad, it’s just a little stale and tired. The playing is tight – of course, the band consists of downright amazing musicians – and while Minoru Niihara’s voice is rapidly deteriorating – the man’s not getting any younger – you’ve got to appreciate his spirit and dedication. However, ‘The Greatest Ever Heavy Metal’, as one of the songs is called, this is not. Loudness has done so many things that are so much better to know that.

2014
06/27
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