One of the greatest Japanese metal acts of all time, Anthem is a band that deserved to be mentioned in the same breath as their English speaking contemporaries. Unfortunately, due to terrible label support throughout their career and the emergence of Visual Kei in the 90s that took over much in the way Grunge forcefully pushed aside metal bands stateside, the Japanese titans only managed one stateside tour with Racer X. A tour that left many people hungry for more, but sadly wouldn't get satisfied until many decades later in 2022. After the band initially broke up in 1992, band leader Naoto Shibata met with the band's producer Chris Tsangarides of Judas Priest fame and Animetal producer Yorimasa Hisatake in 1999 and said he would bring back the band on one condition. Bring an English speaking frontman since former singers Eizo Sakamoto and Yukio Morikawa were busy with other projects. The singer enlisted? Former Rainbow and Alcatrazz singer Graham Bonnet. With help from Tsangarides, Bonnet translated and rearrange the lyrics to Anthem's best hits into coherent English versions and out popped the diamond in the rough for the year 2000 Heavy Metal Anthem. All the hits from the band's career before the 1992 break up are played phenomenally and are translated well into English. Bonnet's voice shines through and fits like a glove, matching the grit and polish of previous singers Sakamoto and Morikawa. Guitarist Akio Shimizu picks up where he left off from 1992 and is highly technical in covering the band's former catalog, improving upon the originals done by the band's first guitarist Hiroya Fukuda. In his final album with the band before hanging them up, Takamasa Ohuchi puts in the performance of his life on the skins and brings the thump to the party. Especially when paired with the fast paced and punchy bass of Naoto Shibata. If you ever wanted to hear what one of the greatest metal acts from Japan sounded like while actually understanding the lyrics of the songs? Heavy Metal Anthem isn't an album to skip. It's a great introduction to a criminally underrated metal act that should be considered in the same stratosphere with metal acts such as Priest, Maiden, Dokken, Metallica, and Motorhead.
OT: The Music Thread: Part IX
- Thread starter smithformeragent
- Start date
The Lost Dogs
No.Ship Coming In
If You Want To
Free Drinks And A Dream (a Vegas story)
No.Ship Coming In
If You Want To
Free Drinks And A Dream (a Vegas story)
Dennis Bonvie
Registered User
Bunch of everyday dudes having fun on the back deck, absolutely shredding it on one of my favorite Sabbath songs. Audio quality isn't great, but they definitely do this song justice....The kid getting in on the act is great too.
Unhypnotized
All The Right Reasons
I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better Byrds
All The Right Reasons
I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better Byrds
Joe's gets to play with the Boss
Joe tells the story about picking up Townes Van Zandt hitchhiking
I got picked up thumbin' by a few White Freightliners too but not by Townes or Joe
Joe tells the story about picking up Townes Van Zandt hitchhiking
I got picked up thumbin' by a few White Freightliners too but not by Townes or Joe
When Japanese metal band Anthem reformed in 2001, they experienced a revival in popularity along with genre as a whole due to the starved Japanese metal audience wanting a return to classic heavy metal. Eizo Sakamoto rejoined Naoto Shibata, Akio Shimizu, alongside new drummer Hirotsugu Honma of Flatbacker fame and went on a seven record run of amazing metal albums starting with Seven Hills in 2001 and followed up by Overload, Eternal Warrior, Immortal, Black Empire, Heraldic Device, and Absolute World. The problem? Almost all of those records were distributed by JVC Victor. A label that had low production numbers of CDs early on and kept promotion of the band entirely region locked to Japan. After Heraldic Device, the band kicked JVC to the curb for Universal Music Group Japan and got better album production that at least got the ball rolling towards a return to America. But just as things seemed to get going right, Eizo Sakamoto left after Absolute World to reform his solo side project and Honma had to retire due to nagging injuries from a motorcycle accident in the mid 2000s. Thankfully, Yukio Morikawa rejoined as the front man and the band hired young drummer Isamu Tamaru in place of Honma and released two more excellent albums in Absolute World and Engraved in 2014 and 2017 respectively. Even with all that success, the band wanted to finally go back to the West and tour the US and Europe. How would they do that? Switch labels from Univeral Japan to German label Nuclear Blast Records, who has an American distribution deal with Warner Media Group. With proper US label support, an all English album was in order and since they had two decades worth of material...they made essentially a follow up to 2000's Heavy Metal Anthem with 2019's Nucleus. Produced by Jens Borgen instead of the late Chris Tsangarides, who unfortunately passed away, the album was sung by Morikawa, instead of Graham Bonnet this time, entirely in English with the greatest songs from the past two decades plus snippets from the hilariously titled 1992 album Domestic Booty (which was a mistranslation of National Treasure). And holy hell this album is amazing. Morikawa, despite singing in his non native tongue, shows his vocal chops by putting in an amazing job on the mic. Shibata's bass work is excellent, Shimizu is fantatastic in his fretwork, and Tamaru brings a thundering energy from behind the drums. If you want to listen to Anthem's recent material but want to listen to understand the words and don't want to pay in plasma for their JVC Victor records, pick up Nucleus. It's another fantastic sampler of Japan's best metal band.
ODAAT
Registered User
Ben Grimm
It's clobberin time
I like these albums:
You're never alone with a schizophrenic - Ian Hunter
Crooked Rain x2, Slanted & Enchanted - Pavement
Doolittle, Surfer Rosa - Pixies
Let it be - The Replacements
Gimme some neck - Ron Wood
Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
You're never alone with a schizophrenic - Ian Hunter
Crooked Rain x2, Slanted & Enchanted - Pavement
Doolittle, Surfer Rosa - Pixies
Let it be - The Replacements
Gimme some neck - Ron Wood
Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
You, Me and Barry Manilow
Barry's cover hit No.9 in 1979. Ian wrote it about him and Dad
Saw Hunter and Ronson on the tour they did to support the album in 79. Best show I ever saw, keep in mind it's been over 40 years since I've been to one.
Loving this tune.
Kind of Laurel Canyon sound meets The Shins.
Kind of Laurel Canyon sound meets The Shins.
Blowfish
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