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Friday, June 5, 2020

Loudness - Thunder in the East

Name: Loudness
Album: Thunder in the East
Year: 1985
Style: Hair Metal
Similar Bands: Judas Priest, Dio, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue
"One-Word" Review: Hyper Hair Drive
Based Out Of: Japan
Label: ATCO, Atlantic, Warner
Cover, Lyrics, Record
Back, Sleeve, Record
Thunder in the East (1985)
  1. Crazy Nights 4:04 (single)
  2. Like Hell 3:44
  3. Heavy Chains 4:18
  4. Get Away 3:55
  5. We Could Be Together 4:35 /
  6. Run For Your Life 3:48
  7. Clockwork Toy 3:55
  8. No Way Out 4:01
  9. The Lines Are Down 4:57
  10. Never Change Your Mind 4:09
Album Rating (1-10): 7.0

Members & Other Bands:
  • Minoru Niihara - Vox, Lyrics (Earthshaker, Ded Chaplin, Sly, X.Y.Z.->A, Honjoh Misako, She-Ja, Powergod,Fumihiko Kitsutaka,)
  • Akira Takasaki - Music, Guitar (Lazy, JI-ZO, Tuska20, Tusk of Jaguar, Honjoh Misako, Buddha Brand, Tomoko Aran, Mass Mental?, Mari Hamada, JAM Project, Hironbu Kageyama, Animetal The Second, Koshi Inaba, Amorphis, Ayasa )
  • Masayoshi Yamashita - Bass (Blood Circus, M.T. Fuji, Akira Takasaki, Honjoh Misako, Paul Raymond Project, Higuchi Project Team, Animetal The Second)
  • Munetaka Higuchi - Drums (Lazy, Sly, Blood Circus, Higuchi Project Team, Honjoh Misako, Hamada Mari, Rock'n Roll Standard Club Band, JAM Project, Rica Matsumoto)
  • Max Norman - Producer
  • Bill Freesh - Engineer
  • Ray Leonard - Asst Engineer
  • Tosi Nakashita - Mgmt
  • Masumi Sasaki - Mgmt
  • Danny O'Donovan - Co-Mgmt
  • George Azuma - Supervisor
  • Mikio Shimizu - Director
  • Hiroyuki Munekiyo - Director
  • Akira Ohmachi - Guitar Tech
  • Masaharu Nakajima - Drum Tech
  • Barry Levine - Photography
  • Jeff Wilkinson - Art Director
  • Paul Cooper - Exec Producer
  • Bernie Grundman - Mastering
Unknown-ness: Never heard of Loudness, but it is quite obvious that this is japanese hair metal. No ifs, ands or butts.  The name Loudness is a little too on the nose, i'm not sure if its a parody of metal, if it's like a disclaimer for a culture where metal is not first nature, or it's their best guess at what an American metal band should be named & look like. In any case, they are all in on the look and hair.

Album Review: While the pictures and artwork flaunts their Japanese culture in the western hair metal culture, there is no hint of the band being from Japan when it comes to the music. It is chugging, raging, melodic scream-singing, with the typical power ballad moments added in, where the singer occasionally sounds like Steve Perry. Of course i'm very naive to what was going on in Japan's culture, as Japanese Metal was on the rise in 1981, when Loudness began. This is their fifth album overall, second in English (after re-recording album 4 in English) and reached #74 in US charts. It was the first Japanese heavy metal artist to be signed to an international record deal. But as popularity swayed their musical direction, their next album moved away from metal to a more commercial glam-metal sound, losing them some of their fanbase. Although denied visa/entry for a tour by the awful US president in 2017, they are slated to come back stateside in 2020.

Stand Out Track: Clockwork Toy

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