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)
LOUDNESS • The Birthday Eve LP
R.U.G. • Deathly Fighter Anthology LP
GISM Appreciation Society 2009
I bought this record in spite of having already downloaded everything that's on it, ages ago, from another blog... which, evidently, is where the bootleggers got their material too. I did a quick search and have read many complaints about this record, and everything I've read is correct: this LP was made using mp3s as the source material (the quality is not good), and the pictures are all pixelated (clearly they were found online and blown up for the cover art). However, when I buy bootlegs, I buy 'em for collectability and not for quality or even playability necessarily. Sure, good quality is appreciated, but it's certainly not expected, cuz you never know what you're gonna get. So, what you have here is the RANDY UCHIDA GROUP's Deathly Fighter 7" from 1984 and six live songs that were downloaded as mp3s, pressed on to vinyl, purchased by me and converted back into mp3s... are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'? Yeah... if you really, really wanna hear this shit, you'd be well advised to find the original mp3s and avoid the generational loss of vinyl and re-encoding. My personal experience with this record is this: I didn't really care for this stuff when I first downloaded it, but after investing my hard-earned cash in this boot, and giving it a proper listen, I've realized just how great the Deathly Fighter single is. Musically R.U.G. sounds like a slightly more metallized G.I.S.M., but the vocals are the big difference. While Sakevi had one of the most tortured vocal styles ever, Ronny Wakamats of R.U.G. is yer typical Metal vocalist: high pitched with mildly annoying overuse of vibrato. The star of this record is Randy's guitar playing - it's instantly recognizable and as infectious as ever. I can't say I'm disappointed with this record... it is what it is.
DOWNLOAD: RUG-DeathlyFighterAnthology.rar (62.81 MB)
TUNES FOR FUCKER Vol. 2 LP
Tunes For Fucker Records 2007
Like a lot of people outside of Japan, and particularly in North America, my only exposure to Japanese Hardcore was through compilations. Meaning I was familiar with all the same bands you probably were (G.I.S.M., LIP CREAM, KURO, THE STALIN, etc.). Through mp3 blogs, and SYPHILITIC VAGINAS, I recently discovered the greatness of ZOUO, so when I saw TUNES FOR FUCKER Vol. 2 I had to grab it. Along with ZOUO's "The Final Agony" 7", TFF2 contains a TRANQUILIZER flexi, a MANBIKI CHOCOLATE 8", and G-SPOT's "Radical & Shout" 7". I really know nothing about any of these bands, but ZOUO sound very similar to G.I.S.M. (especially the vocals), and judging by the song titles have a Satanic lyrical direction. The 6 TRANQUILIZER tracks are blazingly fast walls of sheer distortion (lots of info re: TRANQUILIZER here). G-SPOT are kinda crappy Punk Rock that doesn't do much for me, but MANBIKI CHOCOLATE are killer, and easily my favourite of the 4 bands on TFF2. I'm gonna assume that all of these records are extremely rare, making TUNES FOR FUCKER Vol. 2 a pretty cool package.
DOWNLOAD: TunesForFuckerVol2.rar (77.45 MB)
ZADKIEL • Hell's Bomber 7"
Hold Up Records 1986
I downloaded this from a newsgroup a few years ago, and was so completely blown away that I immediately started searching for a copy of it. It was another few years before I found one on eBay, and so the bidding war began. There was no way I wasn't winning the auction... price was no object... and in the end it was mine. I forget what I ended up paying (for some reason $80 sticks in my mind), but whatever it was, it was money well spent. This is pure MOTORHEAD worship at it's finest, and each song gives a nod to 'HEAD in one way or another, with "No, It Isn't" being the most obvious (it's a total "Stay Clean" knock-off). "Head Raver" is the stand out on this record... so much so that it makes my Greatest Songs Of All Time list. The drums have a real Tommy Lee vibe to 'em, the main riff is fucking awesome, and the whole thing is just so goddamn pounding! Take a listen to "Head Raver" (but I suggest you just download the whole thing). The production is dirty, the playing manic, and the surface noise is almost as loud as the music... isn't that the way it's supposed to be?
DOWNLOAD: Zadkiel - Hell's Bomber.rar (21.19 MB)
P.S. Apparently this was released on CD in 2006 with at least 1 extra track and a few video clips!
P.P.S. Just got the ZADKIEL CD in the mail today from Record Boy in Japan. There's 6 tracks, 2 more than the record, and 4 video clips... one of which is a live version of "Head Raver" - it's fucking amazing! In total there's 5 songs that I'd never heard before, so it was well worth the $!
