Loudness
The Sun Will Rise Again
Thunderball667
2014
Loudness return for the n-mptenth time in their 33 year career… this must be album twenty six (?) if you follow the Japanese release canon of the band? Not “lazy” at all then, if you catch my drift… hehe...
People left and right have butchered this album for having a too similar “cover” as 1985’s “Thunder in the East” while not sharing much else in term of inspiration or style... but of course they oversee the fact that the band has also used the “warflag” again in live albums and elsewhere, so, what’s the buzz really...?
Also there are complaints about how Loudness are nothing like they used to be in the 80s? But that “Loudness” has ceased to exist, a long time ago... ever since the “Vescera”-era that saw the band attempting a crack at a more commercial “Americanized”/international sound, the ensuing albums were very introspective and different in style and the band never really went back to its primary style, instead opting for more experimental styles, that ranged quite a bit... through the years.
In the 90s there were albums that were a bit more “loose” while following original drummer Higuchi Munetaka’s death and the introduction of his replacement Masayuki Suzuki, the band did display a taste for more speedinous offerings, quite often. It could be said that post-”Vescera” the Loudness albums seem to be dominated by Akira Takasaki’s always impressive fretwork, which wouldn’t be a lie... but the songwriting isn’t too impressive. Minoru Nihara, hasn’t aged too badly, but he was always a bit challenged between having to deliver in his Japanese accented English and trying to maintain a decent tone. Time hasn’t been too kind and he sounds quite rougher than he did back in the day. Still recognizable, but nowhere as “fluid”...
Songwise, there are mostly riffs that stand out from the songs of “The Sun Will Rise Again”... because as a whole, the songs are a bit hit an miss... but then again, I suppose the enjoyment of this band should be taken in the “mood” that the songs create and not the songs themselves...
“Nourishment of the Mind” is an intro that passes un-noticed.
“Got to Be Strong” a rousing and fast paced opener, with nice riffs, that works well as an introduction, but shows a Nihara that is somewhat “afraid” of heights...
A great barrage of riffs, signals the arrival of “Never Ending Fire” that dwells in more mid-tempo territory and allows Takasaki to go off the deep end with an indulgent solo somewhere towards the end. Quite nice, actually.
“The Metal Man” is a bit of two bit, dry and to the point hard rocking metal song and it’s the closest thing I could think to the 80s days of the band… which I suppose is a given that will make people “happy”...
“Mortality” opens with a gallop and is considerably heavier and more epic almost bordering on power metal and almost not sounding like Loudness at times… in a good way… it’s during some “unfortunate” wow-woow’s that I thought OK, that’s Nihara :D lol…
“The Best” begins with some funky lick on the guitar, and is quite nightmarish and tries to build an atmosphere but lasting a whooping eight plus minutes and going sideways to funk up things with slappy funky bass lines, isn’t doing it any favors.
The title track is another “classic” more 80s inspired, number, that begins with a decent verse and build, that just erupts in a crazy soloistic middle… without overdoing it and then resumes to close in the same cool way.
“Rock You Wild” is a heavy metal, rock ‘n roll number, that’s again styled after the earlier style and isn’t half as bad, on the strength of its riffs and cooler more liberated singing…
“Greatest Ever Heavy Metal” has a cool riff but end up being a bit monotonous, by nature of its repetition of both the riff and the phrase. Midway there’s a bit of an interlude, but not for long… as we get another 2-3 minutes of the same... and we’re talking about eight minutes of the same riff and phrase repeated over and over… clearly, not the most inspired “Loudness” song ever… but a close contender for most boring and uneventful, you could go make a coffee, come back and you wouldn’t have missed much...
“Shout” is a crushing, but quite melodious at the same time, mid-tempo number that lands somewhere in the middle of the chart of my affections, when it comes to this band…
Last but not least “Not Alone” is another melodic mid-tempo number with Takasaki, going for some tasty playing that shows his class (the superb solo) and bag of nifty tricks (ie during the intro, or past the first solo) this is a bit more hippy, but interesting nonetheless.
For longtime fans of the band, this would be interesting, but I suppose, this band caters largely to their Japanese audience these days – as they chart there, without fail and to some loyal fans around the world that are probably stuck to those 5-6 albums that charted back in the 80s that demand to listen to “those” songs, when the band goes on tour outside Japan. I’d say for Loudness/Takasaki aficionados and guitar freaks only.
People left and right have butchered this album for having a too similar “cover” as 1985’s “Thunder in the East” while not sharing much else in term of inspiration or style... but of course they oversee the fact that the band has also used the “warflag” again in live albums and elsewhere, so, what’s the buzz really...?
Also there are complaints about how Loudness are nothing like they used to be in the 80s? But that “Loudness” has ceased to exist, a long time ago... ever since the “Vescera”-era that saw the band attempting a crack at a more commercial “Americanized”/international sound, the ensuing albums were very introspective and different in style and the band never really went back to its primary style, instead opting for more experimental styles, that ranged quite a bit... through the years.
In the 90s there were albums that were a bit more “loose” while following original drummer Higuchi Munetaka’s death and the introduction of his replacement Masayuki Suzuki, the band did display a taste for more speedinous offerings, quite often. It could be said that post-”Vescera” the Loudness albums seem to be dominated by Akira Takasaki’s always impressive fretwork, which wouldn’t be a lie... but the songwriting isn’t too impressive. Minoru Nihara, hasn’t aged too badly, but he was always a bit challenged between having to deliver in his Japanese accented English and trying to maintain a decent tone. Time hasn’t been too kind and he sounds quite rougher than he did back in the day. Still recognizable, but nowhere as “fluid”...
Songwise, there are mostly riffs that stand out from the songs of “The Sun Will Rise Again”... because as a whole, the songs are a bit hit an miss... but then again, I suppose the enjoyment of this band should be taken in the “mood” that the songs create and not the songs themselves...
“Nourishment of the Mind” is an intro that passes un-noticed.
“Got to Be Strong” a rousing and fast paced opener, with nice riffs, that works well as an introduction, but shows a Nihara that is somewhat “afraid” of heights...
A great barrage of riffs, signals the arrival of “Never Ending Fire” that dwells in more mid-tempo territory and allows Takasaki to go off the deep end with an indulgent solo somewhere towards the end. Quite nice, actually.
“The Metal Man” is a bit of two bit, dry and to the point hard rocking metal song and it’s the closest thing I could think to the 80s days of the band… which I suppose is a given that will make people “happy”...
“Mortality” opens with a gallop and is considerably heavier and more epic almost bordering on power metal and almost not sounding like Loudness at times… in a good way… it’s during some “unfortunate” wow-woow’s that I thought OK, that’s Nihara :D lol…
“The Best” begins with some funky lick on the guitar, and is quite nightmarish and tries to build an atmosphere but lasting a whooping eight plus minutes and going sideways to funk up things with slappy funky bass lines, isn’t doing it any favors.
The title track is another “classic” more 80s inspired, number, that begins with a decent verse and build, that just erupts in a crazy soloistic middle… without overdoing it and then resumes to close in the same cool way.
“Rock You Wild” is a heavy metal, rock ‘n roll number, that’s again styled after the earlier style and isn’t half as bad, on the strength of its riffs and cooler more liberated singing…
“Greatest Ever Heavy Metal” has a cool riff but end up being a bit monotonous, by nature of its repetition of both the riff and the phrase. Midway there’s a bit of an interlude, but not for long… as we get another 2-3 minutes of the same... and we’re talking about eight minutes of the same riff and phrase repeated over and over… clearly, not the most inspired “Loudness” song ever… but a close contender for most boring and uneventful, you could go make a coffee, come back and you wouldn’t have missed much...
“Shout” is a crushing, but quite melodious at the same time, mid-tempo number that lands somewhere in the middle of the chart of my affections, when it comes to this band…
Last but not least “Not Alone” is another melodic mid-tempo number with Takasaki, going for some tasty playing that shows his class (the superb solo) and bag of nifty tricks (ie during the intro, or past the first solo) this is a bit more hippy, but interesting nonetheless.
For longtime fans of the band, this would be interesting, but I suppose, this band caters largely to their Japanese audience these days – as they chart there, without fail and to some loyal fans around the world that are probably stuck to those 5-6 albums that charted back in the 80s that demand to listen to “those” songs, when the band goes on tour outside Japan. I’d say for Loudness/Takasaki aficionados and guitar freaks only.