1992 was a bad year for Loudness to attempt to re-invent themselves. Grunge was all the rage, and Generation X no longer wanted to hear the things that made music in the previous era so great. Trading in aqua-net hairspray for flannel and fuzzed out guitars, while the singer whines about how shitty life is. Loudness, all the way out in Japan however, turned in a different direction by 1992, after going nowhere with the dismal "On The Prowl", exercise in pop metal. By the end of 1991, Loudness was left with mastermind and mainstay Akira Takasaki, and founding drummer Muneteka Higuchi, and their decision to bring in two new members effectively made Loudness a "super-group", drawing in former members of "X Japan" and "EZO" in early 1992.
Taiji Sawada and Masaki Yamada rounded out the lineup, and created a lean, killer album, with 1992's self titled outing. This is Loudness, Mach III, Louder, heavier and meaner than ever before. From the opening beat down that is the thunderous "Pray For The Dead" to moodier moments like the cool, bluesy "Love Kills", this pays for its self. "Everyone Lies" is my personal favorite from this album. The song starts out with a break from the heavy mold of the album for a short acoustic intro. Then a thundering drum fill cues in the song. The entire song is filled with anger and rage, and not the clichéd rage that is associated with modern metal music, because this is a very modern metal album for the time. No, this is true rage, and Yamada sings every word with enough venom in his tone to let you know that he is not screwing around. Taiji really shines on this song, with his bass solo breakdown in the middle of the song.
Other highlights include my runner-up for personal favorite, "Waking The Dead" , a fiery track that showcases Akira's craftsmanship when coming up with a riff. Seriously folks, this riff is a head crusher. Yamada's vocals are my only issues with this, they sound a tad strained in the chorus, which in a way goes good with his gritty, raspy vocal style. Another track worth mentioning is "Black Widow", with such a nasty, deep groove to it. This song never really kicks up a ton of dust, which is nice. It is a very groove based track, as are quite a few songs on this album. "Firestorm" is a raging torrent of a number, lyrics flying at you at a million miles per hour, and drumming fast enough to make Dave Lombardo blush.
But alas, the first of two problems I have with this album arises. The lyrics. I speak English and German, but sadly not Japanese, so I can't understand a lot of the lyrics on "Firestorm" and "Hell Bites", the two heaviest on the album and the only two songs that feature non-English lyrics. My only other gripe is the production. The drums are fairly thin in places, as is the bass, and are sometimes buried by reverb. At first, everything in the mix really meshes well, everything is very lush and full sounding, but as the speed picks up, the mix becomes slightly muddled. I had to dock a point for those two, mainly because they were small concerns on an otherwise perfect album.
To wrap things up, this is my go to album for anyone interested in Loudness. It eschews all of the novelty that "Crazy Night" brought to America, the blandness of the two Mike Vescera albums and sounds new and fresh, like a brand new band song after song. I know I sometimes seem to call a lot of albums "perfect", but this IS what I would call a perfect album, a perfect mix of old as well as new that sounds very fresh and original.
Track List :
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