Loudness

Japan's Loudness had probably already attained their zenith before Western listeners first encountered them through the 1985 release Thunder in the East. Their prior record, Disillusion, had become the group's fourth number-one album at home while also earning widespread praise from European critics. Yet any bid to break into the American market soon compelled the musicians to dilute their style under mismatched producers and label executives who misunderstood their approach, leaving their domestic achievements unmatched by overseas recognition.

Guitarist Akira Takasaki and drummer Munetaka Higuchi had initially collaborated in the mid-'70s within the mainstream rock outfit Lazy. Dissatisfied with that direction, the pair departed and emulated Bow Wow, Japan's pioneering heavy metal act, by assembling Loudness alongside vocalist Minoru Niihara and bassist Masayoshi Yamashita. Blending traditional metal frameworks with Takasaki's Eddie Van Halen-inspired virtuosity, the quartet achieved immediate domestic traction via their opening trio of Japanese-language studio albums. Only with the arrival of their debut concert recording, Live-Loud-Alive, and the fourth studio set, Disillusion, did the band draw notable interest abroad, prompting an English-language edition of the latter title.

Atlantic Records then signed the group, launching their global phase with Thunder in the East, which moved respectable U.S. copies largely on the strength of its exotic appeal and thereby created misleading optimism about broader acceptance. The follow-ups Lightning Strikes and Hurricane Eyes emerged as "made to order" products aimed squarely at American tastes, nudging the sound toward glossy pop-metal at the expense of the band's origins. Those adjustments yielded little commercial return. After issuing the independent 1988 mini-album Jealousy, the original lineup dissolved when Niihara was dismissed and American singer Mike Vescera stepped in for 1989's Soldier of Fortune. The subsequent 1991 effort On the Prowl, the last to feature Vescera before his short tenure with Yngwie Malmsteen, contained diluted re-recordings of earlier Japan-only tracks.

Yamada Masaki, formerly of fellow Japanese metal band EZO, assumed vocal duties for the 1992 self-titled album, 1994's Heavy Metal Hippies, and 1997's Ghetto Machine. The final two of those projects introduced bassist Shibata Naoto and drummer Homma Hirotsugu. This configuration also produced 1998's Dragon and 1999's Engine. In 2001 Takasaki reinstated the founding members for Spiritual Canoe, conceived as a limited 20th-anniversary reunion. Strong Japanese demand instead sustained the classic lineup, which continued issuing studio albums such as Pandemonium (2001), Biosphere (2002), Terror (2004), Racing (2004), Breaking the Taboo (2006), and Metal Mad (2008).

Heart failure claimed original bassist Hiroyuki Tanaka in 2006, and Munetaka Higuchi succumbed to liver cancer two years later. Masayuki Suzuki replaced the latter on 2009's The Everlasting. King of Pain followed in 2010, Eve to Dawn appeared in 2011, and the Ronnie James Dio-dedicated album 2012 arrived the next year. The band's 26th studio long-player, The Sun Will Rise Again, surfaced in 2014, with Rise to Glory issued in 2018.