Loudness- Eye to Dawn (Tokuma Japan Communications TKCA-73695)

The Japanese band, Loudness is back with another studio album. I have lost count but the band is celebrating 30 years now and has made over 20 records now. This is only the 2^nd with the new drummer and again, the band is damn heavy. The CD has 11 tracks in 54 mins and has fantastic artwork, booklet with all the lyrics and a cool Loudness guitar pick in its own special little plastic bag! The opening intro track is really great and features a bit of a spacey vibe as it opens up with acoustic guitar and some sort of eastern string instrument and organ and then the killer riff kicks in to start track 2, The Power of Truth. This is a very intense track with double bass drum, powerful vocals by Minoru. Come alive again starts with a cool bass line and some panning guitar before the main riff kicks in and the band take off at a fast pace. This is a more melodic catchy track but still pretty hard. Survivor is nearly 6 mins long also pretty damn fast with some cool melodic soloing by Akira. Keep you Burning starts with some synthesizer and then the guitar riff kicks in and the guitar section is pretty intense and the synthesizer comes back a few times. It is a quite different twist on the same style. Gonna do it my Way starts with a sort of spoken word vocal over the simple riff. It is like Minoru is trying so sound a bit mean. Not my favourite track but different from all the rest on the record. Hang Tough is another longer track and slows things down a bit and Akira does a lot of soloing before the Slayer like riff kicks in and the band takes off. Track 8 (title is in Japanese) has some super cool parts and great guitar in this long instrumental track. Amazing stuff.  Comes the Dawn is over 7 mins and starts slowly with some interesting guitar and a very heavy deep bass. This is a more simple melodic track at times. Pandora also has a deep heavy bass and slows things down and Akira really rips it up. Crazy crazy crazy ends the CD and is a short 3½ more straight up rocker. Loudness are still playing at the top of their game and demonstrating great musicianship and still rocking harder than ever!