By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

LOUDNESS – THUNDER IN THE EAST (1985)

While I normally travel back in time for each article in The Cassette Chronicles, I rarely venture further than England when it comes to where each band featured comes from. But if you will forgive the cliche writing, I’m not only going back in time this week but I’m travelling (so to speak) to the Land of the Rising Sun for a look at Loudness album Thunder in the East, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year!
Given that the “Rising Sun” artwork serves as the album’s artwork, I don’t feel too bad using that particular that cliche no matter how overused it is.

While Loudness had released four albums in Japan by the time 1985 rolled around, they’d yet to have an album officially released in the US. That all changed when Atco records made the band the first Japanese band to be officially signed to a major label in the U.S. (Atco was a subsidiary of Atlantic Records at the time).

To be clear, I have never heard this album before. I have a vague recollection of hearing the song “Crazy Nights”, probably on the radio back in the day. So this was pretty much a brand new listening experience for me. And after doing all the listening sessions, I have to say that I was astounded by just how much I enjoyed the album.
Founded by guitarist Akira Takasaki (the only constant in the band’s lineup all these years and who wrote all the music for this album save one track) and drummer Munetaka Higuchi, the lineup that recorded this album included singer Minoru Niihara (who wrote all the lyrics) and bassist Masayoshi Yamashita (who wrote the music for the song “Heavy Chains”).

Musically speaking, Thunder in the East was eye-opening to say the least. To say Takasaki was absolutely shredding on these songs is an understatement. He was just freaking fantastic as he had tons of six-string pyrotechnics to enliven each track.

The song “Crazy Nights” opens the album and it is still the band’s best known song. It’s got a bit of an anthemic feel to it. Each of the first nine songs on the album is pretty much an exercise in fast moving up tempo rock and “Crazy Nights” gets things going right from the start of the song. And while there are some songs where Niihara’s vocals either get drowned in the mix or could’ve used a bit more in the way of clearer enunciation, on this song his gritty intonations were perfectly cast alongside the music.

Loudness continued that kind of fiery delivery on “Like Hell” where Takasaki’s playing was particularly immense.

While the opening of “Heavy Chains” starts off with a slow roll intro, the song quickly gives way to a heavier rocking tempo and sound.
The last two songs on Side One of the album are “Get Away” and “We Could Be Together”. Each track pretty much just bursts out of your speakers to grab you from the first note and shake you around until the very last second.

I was feeling pretty invigorated after those first five tracks and once I flipped over the cassette, that same level of excitement continued with Side Two’s opening track “Run For Your Life”. The song opens with a rocking intro but then slows down as Niihara’s vocal run of the first lyrical passage kicks in. But as you get to the song’s chorus, the music ramps up and by the time you get to the conclusion, the song is a full on rocker!

The song “Clockwork Toy” is musically explosive with a soundtrack that will definitely get you pumped up. And you can say that about both “No Way Out” and “The Lines are Drawn” as well.

Thunder in the East closes out with the band’s power ballad “Never Change Your Mind”. Maybe because I was on such a musical high with the rest of the more rocking songs, I had no gripes with this track either. Well, maybe it could’ve been earlier in the album so things finished on a more energetic level but for the song itself, I actually rather enjoyed it for what it was.

While Loudness never really quite broke through in the US, they’ve certainly enjoyed a long career having released 26 studio albums (which according to the band’s Wikipedia page only 6 have been licensed in the US), three EPS, eight live albums and had 16 different compilations put out as well.

But as the album marks that 40th anniversary I mentioned earlier, I have finally heard my first Loudness album in full and I have to say that Thunder in the East has kind of lit a fire under my butt to check out more of what the band’s discography has to offer. And luckily, I won’t have to wait too long to do that because I actually purchased another of their albums on cassette when I bought Thunder in the East.

Meanwhile, I’m going to be enjoying Thunder in the East a bit more because in a failure of more clever writing, the music is quite thunderous indeed!

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Thunder in the East album peaked at #74 on the Billboard album chart. There have been at least 2 reissues of the album. In 2005, there were 2 bonus tracks. In 2015 there were two different bonus tracks plus two DVDs.

Founding drummer Munetaka Higuchi passed away in 2008 from liver cancer.

While singer Minoru Niihara has been the primary vocalist for Loudness, the band has had two other singers in their career. American singer Mike Vescera fronted the band for three years and ex-EZO singer sang for the group for 8 years before Niihara returned to the lineup in 2000.