Loudness, Part 2

So,now we find Loudness starting from basically square 1 in 1991, having attempted to Americanize
their sound with an American singer, and achieving the joint accomplishment of lowering thier popularity in both the US AND Japan.

Adding a new vocalist and bassist, they released (1992) the inventively entitled "Loudness", but in a way it is appropriate, as they really DID sound different and refreshed, adding more grungy touches and moving away from their stale hair-metal sound. "Loudness" is, in reality a good album, in particular if you don't think of it as a continuation of the earlier stuff, but rather a "new" band....

Original drummer Higuchi left the band afterward, leaving Takasaki as the sole founding member.....the band now was Takaskai, drummer Hirotsugu Homma, retained vocalist Yamada, and new bassist Naoto Shabata. This incarnation released a series of surprisingly good albums, incorporating some "world" and grunge elements and building off of "Loudness".....the albums of this era, though not terribly distinguishable (though quite listenable) are 1994's "Heavy Metal Hippies" (I didn't name it!), "Ghetto Machine", "Dragon" and "Engine", all of which truly do have a moment or two, and created the new problem of, for the second time, the band falling into something of a rut and in  need of revitalization again.

In true Spinal Tap manner, the band was disolved by Takasaki, who then invited his three original
cofounders Higuchi, Niihara and Yamashita to rejoin in observance of the band's 20th anniversary. This lineup released the 2001 album (wait for it) "Spiritual Canoe", intended as a one-shot reunion, but (you never know) the revitalized original band was extremely popular in Japan, and they decided to tredge on. By now they were incorporating ANYTHING into the "original" Loudness "sound", (thrash metal! rap!)....the Spinal Tap conversion, by now, was truly completed.

The albums of this era (2000's), well, if you have a sense of humor you will find some of it Spinal Tap-funny, if not you may find them kind of sad...."Pandemonium"," Biosphere", "Terror", "Racing", "Breaking the Taboo", and "Metal Mad" all charted in Japan, pick one, with a gun to my head I pick "Pandemonium"......my copy of "Metal Mad" is MIA, so sorry if it keeps you from completing your set, after it's release the band took hiatus due to Higuchi's liver cancer which would eventually cause his death in 2008.

I guess that they still try to knock one off every now and then,
although I think "Metal Mad" was the last one I heard, kind of hard to recall.....I also have a sort of poorly selected compilation "Rock Shocks", and a couple of fairly rare EP's, "Crazy Samurai" and "The Battleship Mushashi".......hey, they had a thrity year or so run, hell I had to work that long for the fucking State of Ohio, so no matter the body of work, their far, far more significant than I am (argueable as to more significant than Spinal Tap, however)

I understand there are a couple live albums out there, I ain't got em, if anyone from the Land of the Rising Sun would like to donate something along those lines, I'd (really) love to hear it......they had a long, and totally interesting career, maybe recorded 4-5 discs worth of worthy music, but there in entertainment value here, and isn't that what we're all listening to this stuff for anyway?

Something else tomorrow, we'll see, I still owe you guys some good ones.......let me sleep on it!

LOUDNESS-01 Pray For the Dead/02 Slaughter House/03 Waking the Dead/04 Black Widow/05 Racing the Wind/06 Love Kills/07 Hell Bites (From the Edge of Insanity) (TREMENDOUS title!)/08 Everyone Lies/09 Twisted/10 Firestorm

HEAVY METAL HIPPIES-01 Howling Rain/02 Freedom/03 222/04 Eyes of a Child/05 Electric Kisses/06 House of Freaks/07 Paralyzed/08 Desperation Desecration/09 Light In the Distance/10 Broken Jesus

GHETTO MACHINE-01 Ghetto Machine/02 Slave/03 Evil Ecstacy/04 San Francisco/05 Love and Hate/06 Creatures/07 Katmandu Fly/08 Hypnotized/09 Dead Man Walking/10 Jasmine Sky/11 Wonder Man

DRAGON-01 Nine Miles High/02 Dogshit/03 Wicked Witches/04 Crazy Go Go/05 Voodoo
Voices/06 Kaiso/07 Babylon/08 Crawl/09 Forbidden Love/10 Mirror Ball/11 Taj Mahal/12 Night Creepers

ENGINE-01 Soul Tone/02 Bug Killer/03 Black Biohazard/04 Twist of Chain/05 Bad Date (Nothing I Can Do)/06 Apocalypse/07 Ace in the Hole/08 Sweet Dreams/09 Asylum/10 Burning Eye Balls/11 Junk His Head/12 2008 Candra/13 Coming Home

SPIRITUAL CANOE-01 The Winds Of Victory/02 The Hate That Fills My Lonely Cells/03 The End of Earth/04 Stay Wild/05 The Seven Deadly Sins/06 Picture Your Life/07 How Many More Times/08 Touch My Heart/09 Climaxxx/10 A Stroke of Lightning/11 Never Forget You/12 Spiritual Canoe/13 The Power of Love

PANDEMONIUM-01 Ya Stepped On Mine/02 Bloody Doom/03 The Pandemonium/04 Vision/05 What's the Truth/06 Suicide Doll/07 Chaos/08 The Candidate/09 Real Man/10 Inflame/11 Snake Venom

BIOSPHERE-01 Hellrider/02 Biosphere/03 Saviour/04 My Precious/05 Wind From Tibet/06 System Crush/07 The Night Is Still Young/08 Shame On You/09 Break My Mind/10 So Beautiful/11 For You

TERROR-01 Pharoah/02 Cyber Soul/03 Life After Death/04 Let's Face Our Souls/05 Detonator (Fire and Thunder)/06 Cross/07 About to Kill/08 Double Walker/09 The City of Vampire/10 Seventh Heaven/11 Terror

RACING-01 Racing/02 Exultation/03 Lunatic/04 Believe It Or Not/05 Power Generation/06 Speed
Maniac/07 Live For the Moment/08 Crazy Samurai/09 Tomorrow Is Not Promised/10 Telomerase/11 RIP/12 Misleading Man/13 Don't Know Nothing/14 Unknown Civilians

BREAKING THE TABOO-01 Breaking the Taboo/02 Brutal Torture/03 Sick World/04 Don't Spam Me/05 Damnation/06 The love of My Life/07 A Moment of Revelation/08 Dynamite/09 Risk Taker/10 I Wish/11 Diving Into Darkness/12 Without You

ROCK SHOCKS-01 Loudness/02 Crazy Doctor/03 In the Mirror/04Crazy Night/05 Esper/06 Like Hell/07 Lonely Player/08 Street Woman/09 Angel Dust/10 Rock Shock/ 11 The Lines are Down/12 Milky Way/13 Mr Yesman

CRAZY SAMURAI (EP)-01 Crazy Samurai/02 RIP/03 Cyber Soul (Live)

THE BATTLESHIP MUSASHI (EP)-01 The Battleship
Masashi/02 Wolfgang Amadeus/03 More Than a Machine/04 The Battleship Masashi (Mix)


There's some holes in there, sure, but it oughta provide ya with a decent picture of what they were all about........These, in fact, GO TO ELEVEN!