More Thunder from the East: Inside Loudness' New Rise to Glory

Loudness, 2018. Minoru Niihara second from left. (Source: facebook.com/LOUDNESS_OFFICIAL-222003877819441)

UPDATE: Shortly after posting this story, I received word that drummer Masayuki Suzuki recently suffered a heart attack and is currently recuperating in a hospital. My best wishes to him for a speedy recovery. 

“M.Z.A.!”

When Japanese Metallers Loudness hit our shores in 1985 with their fifth album, Thunder In The East, and their classic single/video “Crazy Nights” (which featured the fist-pumping lyrical acronym referred above), it marked a well-earned breakthrough for a band that had been slowly building a following since releasing their first album in their native country in 1981. Amazingly, Loudness are still here in 2018 with three-fourths of their original lineup – singer Minoru Niihara, guitar master Akira Takasaki and bassist Masayoshi Yamashita – on board. In January, they released their 28th album, Rise To Glory, on earMUSIC.

One thing sure to amaze longtime Loudness fans who give Rise To Glory a listen is how powerful the band still are after nearly 40 years. While more than a few veteran Metal bands have mellowed with each passing decade, Loudness have retained their intensity to produce one the heaviest albums they’ve ever released.  

“We all love Metal,” Niihara says. “If you lose your edge, you’re not Metal anymore! Well, we’re physically rounder now, though!”

While Niihara is quick with the puns, Rise To Glory is no laughing matter. The record’s sharp sonic attack is helped along by the fantastic playing of drummer Masayuki Suzuki, who stepped in following the 2008 passing of the great Munetaka Higuchi. Nearly a decade later, Suzuki is an indispensable part of the Loudness experience.

“He was not perfect when he joined the band,” Niihara admits. “As his style, timing and groove were completely different from Munetaka’s, it took some time until we got used to his drumming. As he gained experience with us, his style started fitting us more and more. It took three years until his drumming finally fit us, whether be it live or writing new songs. His effort is worth praise.”

After Loudness scored stateside attention with Thunder In The East, 1986’s Lightning Strikes and 1987’s Hurricane Eyes, a personnel shakeup led to Niihara being replaced by American singer Michael Vescera (Obsession/Yngwie Malmsteen) for 1989’s Soldier Of Fortune and 1991’s On The Prowl. The reminder of the ’90s saw Takasaki lead a fluctuating lineup for a series of dark, experimental releases that often strayed far away from the band’s original musical formula. The band’s more classic sound returned when the first incarnation reformed in 2000. Eighteen years later, the three surviving original members are tighter (both musically and personally) than ever before.

“In our twenties, we were probably more egoistic and had a lot to say,” says Niihara of the band’s internal issues in the late ’80s. “Now, we are grown up and mature enough to respect and listen to each other. If you don’t respect your partners, nothing works.”

The European and US versions of Rise To Glory are accompanied by Samsara Flight, a 13-song collection originally released in Japan in 2016 that features re-recorded versions of songs from 1981’s The Birthday Eve, 1982’s Devil Soldier and 1983’s The Law Of Devil’s Land.

“It was kind of a challenge for us to play 37-year-old Loudness songs. Also, it was a good opportunity for us to look back at our history.”

Of course, an interview with a member of Loudness would be a missed opportunity if I didn’t ask the question and bypass decades of myths and speculation: For the record, what does “M.Z.A.!” mean?

“‘My Zebra Ass! I’m kidding!”

There you have it, folks. I did my duty.

(On a more serious note, my conversation with Niihara also hit on his love of Soul music. When asked to suggest Soul artists for curious Metalheads to check out, he immediately pointed to James Brown, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding while also proclaiming his love for Tower of Power’s Back To Oakland.)

With a new album making waves in America, the band is planning to hit the US this May following the cancellation of last year’s tour here due to unexpected immigration issues. Until then, fans can enjoy Loudness’ latest release and celebrate a musical partnership that continues to persevere with the same integrity it had all the way back in 1981.    

As Niihara says, “We just want to make cool music. Simple as that.”

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ALBUM REVIEW - Judas Priest: Firepower

Firepower, the upcoming 18th studio album from Metal legends Judas Priest, is quite possibly the most critical release of their long and celebrated career.

One year shy of their 50th anniversary (if you count the very first Al Atkins-led incarnation formed in 1969), Judas Priest’s current standing in the genre they helped build is being met with both adoration and apprehension. While nobody who loves Metal would ever dispute the band’s relevance and impact, more than a few fans view the unfortunate announcement of guitarist Glenn Tipton’s retirement from touring due to ongoing struggles with Parkinson’s disease (and co-producer Andy Sneap stepping in to handle live guitar work) as a sign that the mighty Priest should pack it in. For some, the idea of the band hitting the road with only two “classic” members – singer Rob Halford and bassist Ian Hill – in tow diminishes their legacy. (For this Priest fan, such a mindset does nothing but insult the contributions of Scott Travis – a member for nearly 30 years and the best drummer the band’s ever had –and guitarist Richie Faulkner – a powerful player who replaced the outgoing K.K. Downing in 2011 with great aplomb.) 

Amidst the chaos stands Firepower, which suddenly has the distinction of being the record that will either justify or sabotage the band’s plans to move forward. Frankly, Judas Priest’s very survival at this point depends on these 14 songs. If they blow it, it’s Game Over; if they rise to the challenges surrounding them, they will prove the naysayers wrong and show the world that they are still an impenetrable force in music.

If you think Priest’s best days are behind them, just wait until you hear this fucking thing. The Metal Gods are not only still here, but they’ve just delivered one of the top five albums of their career.

Anyone familiar with the Judas Priest story should know by now that they are at their best when their backs are against the wall. After releasing a handful of tepid albums in the mid-to-late ’80s, the band found themselves in a courtroom defending their livelihoods (and those of countless other recording artists) during an infamous trial that attempting to pin supposed “subliminal messages” found on their 1978 album Stained Class to a 1985 suicide pact between two friends that led to one dying instantly and the second passing away three years later after suffering disfiguring gunshot injuries. Walking away from this harrowing experience with their innocence and career intact, the band unleashed 1990’s Painkiller, a ferocious collection that brought them back from near-oblivion. With this narrative in mind, it is no surprise that Firepower matches much of Painkiller’s sonic muscle and hits the listener with body blow after body blow. Even when you can predict the song arrangements from a mile away (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – case in point: The Ramones), Firepower doesn’t disappoint for an instant.  

After all these years, Judas Priest have succeeded in doing something that no one else in the twilight of their career ever has: They have given us an album so strong that every song could be a single. Firepower displays everything that makes Judas Priest great: Anthemic choruses, blistering guitar solos, charging drums and the best voice in the game. (Listening to Halford’s bulletproof performance on Firepower, it’s stunning to consider that 28 years have passed since he laid down those bar-raising shrieks on Painkiller’s title track. The man was, is and will forever be the definitive voice of Metal.) It’s also worth noting that Firepower’s most intense moments don’t truly kick in until track 11 (“Traitors Gate”), which launches a four-song closing onslaught that concludes with the extraordinary ballad “Sea Of Red,” a song highlighted by one of the most soulful performances Halford has ever contributed to a Priest record.

Most importantly, 70-year-old Tipton (who recorded his parts before his health prevented further activity) puts down perhaps his most inspired performance in years. If Firepower ultimately proves to be his swan song with Priest, then the man is saying goodbye on the highest note possible.

Full marks to the production team of Sneap and the returning Tom Allom (the man behind the band’s entire ’80s output) for keeping the music epic without succumbing to pretentiousness and the sound heavy without sacrificing Priest’s trademark love of melody.

If you choose to sit out Priest’s upcoming tour due to the changes in the lineup, you’re going to miss out on live renditions of their best material in decades. While many bands their age will likely never release new music that effortlessly stands alongside the brightest moments of their pasts, Firepower is something the Metal world desperately needs in 2018: An absolutely perfect album with classics from start to finish.

Thank you, Judas Priest. Long may you (still) reign.

Photo by Justin Borucki

Official Judas Priest Website

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LIVE REVIEW - L.A. Guns: Tupelo Music Hall, 2/25/18

“Let’s drink some wine. It’s 1989!”

When L.A. Guns singer Phil Lewis yelled the above words on stage towards the end of his band’s thunderous set at the Tupelo Music Hall, there wasn’t a single person in the sold-out crowd who didn’t believe him. For 90 minutes, the veteran Los Angeles group took their audience back to a time when long hair, loud guitars and leather jackets ruled MTV and the Sunset Strip was Ground Zero for commercial American Rock ‘n’ Roll. For casual fans, the band’s set was an energetic and raucous reminder of Hair Metal’s glory years. For the diehards in the house, the performance was a celebration of a band that is still at the top of their game even after 35 years of industry woes, lineup changes, breakups, reunions and peaks and valleys in popularity.

In addition to the mere fact that L.A. Guns are an active unit in 2018, the most significant thing about the show was that Lewis and founding member Tracii Guns have finally buried the hatchet. As discussed in my recent feature on the band, the L.A. Guns story is fraught with more drama than a daytime soap opera. At one point in the recent past, there were two version of the band on the road – one featuring Guns and another featuring Lewis and long-running drummer Steve Riley. The current (and, as of this writing, only) incarnation of L.A. Guns features Lewis, Guns, guitarist Michael Grant, bassist Johnny Martin and drummer Shane Fitzgibbon. Of course, all this confusion is meaningless; what really matters is that any band hoping to draw a full house on a cold, wet Sunday night in Derry, New Hampshire better be able to deliver the goods. And that’s exactly what these Rock scene veterans did.

Although Lewis is one of many singers involved in L.A. Guns over the years, his time on the Tupelo stage proved without a doubt that he is definitive frontperson for this band. Even in his early sixties, the man sounds as strong vocally today as he did back when he joined the band in ’87. (Question for those in attendance:  How incredible was his Tyleresque scream at the end of “Don’t Look At Me That Way”?) Guns, who has kept the L.A. Guns firing since he was a teenager, absolutely slayed in a way that made one wonder why he isn’t mentioned more often in the same breath as Eddie Van Halen, Slash and other Los Angeles guitar legends. Always grittier and nastier than the vast majority of his original contemporaries, Guns delivered a performance that effortlessly showed that L.A. Guns are still a band of musical substance despite fluctuating public interest in the sound and era he helped put on the map more than 30 years ago. In a show of confidence in the group’s newest blood, Lewis and Guns departed the stage at the gig’s midpoint to allow Grant (who took over vocal duties), Fitzsgibbon and Martin to shine in their own well-earn spotlight with a surprising (and very well-received) cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”    

While it’s not surprising that most of the set was drawn from L.A. Guns’ late ’80s/early ’90s heyday, the evening’s brightest moments came in the form of powerful newer material like “Speed” and “The Flood's the Fault of the Rain” (both from last year’s Lewis/Guns reunion record The Missing Peace) and the aforementioned “Don’t Look At Me That Way” off 2002’s bulletproof Waking The Dead. Unlike many bands that came up alongside them (only to fall apart when it became clear that their sonic muscle couldn’t back up their flash and image), L.A. Guns are creating music that is relevant now. Here’s to hoping this current chapter in the band’s notorious history is just beginning.

Official L.A. Guns Website 

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