LOUDNESS • The Birthday Eve LP

Monday, December 28, 2009

Nippon Columbia Company 1981
Probably the most well known of Japan's 80s Metal exports, Osaka's LOUDNESS started life as more of a 1970s guitar hero tribute. VAN HALEN being the most obvious influence, but there's an undeniable Uli Jon Roth/SCORPIONS feel, blatant RUSH style Prog passages, and some bits of LED ZEPPELIN thrown in to complete the unholy Classic Rock mélange. LOUDNESS is very much Akira Takasaki's band; his guitar playing is technically beyond reproach, but also tasteful and widely varied... so good it almost makes you forget about those annoying vocals. Thunder In The East is the only other LOUDNESS record I've heard, and by that point they were fully ensconced in the sheen of big budget American production. The Birthday Eve is more raw, stripped down, and classic in feel and approach, with the only hints of full blown Metal found in Takasaki's playing and the high register vocals. Decent record, but mildly annoying, and I can't quite put my finger on why.
DOWNLOAD: Loudness-TheBirthdayEve.rar (74.18 MB)

4 comments:

Metal Mark said...

I used to have this on vinyl and unfortunately sold it years ago when I needed money. I remember liking it more than the albums after they got signed to Atlantic.

e said...

If I recall correctly, there was a push by their record label for a more widespread (aka commercial) sound and that resulted in a new (american I think) singer.

BTW, off topic, the main pic on your journal (bass player with a big grin), is that you?

Alcolm X said...

No, that's Blacky from VOIVOD. Awesome photo!

VimFuego said...

Same vox as TITE, Minoru Niihara. Looks like some American came in later though. Much like the best Godzilla flick, there lots of thumb twiddling waiting for the solos(monster) to arrive. Luckily they're all worth the wait so far though. The raw production doesn't benefit Minoru at all. Max Norman did a great job with his vox on TITE.

btw: sounds like Street Woman forgot to tune her bass. yikes! skip.