Linda wrote:
Hey Pete, do you have all of Loudness' 40+ albums in your collection?
Linda:
No, I just looked and I have 19 of them. Of those 40, there are some that were released in alternate versions in the US and Japan and there's a lot of comps and live albums. So it's not 40 studio releases. I would like to get the missing studio albums but it's not cheap. Luckily I have a friend in Japan who can help me out, but it still cost some $$$.
This will be their 23rd studio album and I have 18 of those and one live album. Wounded Bird did a nice job releasing a bunch of Loudness CDs from the 80s and 90s which used to go for a ton on ebay that were OOP for years in the US.
Since I play guitar and I'm such a fan of good guitar players, it is totally Akira Takasaki that draws me to this band. I know the singing is painful at times!
They of course had an American singer for a while in the late 80s-early 90s but they sounded like every other Metal band and it failed. After they ditched him they had a different Japanese vocalist in Masaki who is a much better singer than Minoru Niihara, who is the original singer and has been back since 2000. But they were doing a lot of Grunge back then (it was the 90s) and it wasn't very interesting.
I got to see them live in 2006 and they were great. It was fun and Takasaki was just insane to watch.
I'm well aware that they are an acquired taste due to the vocals, but man, every time I hear Takasaki wail on guitar the singing doesn't matter! I will say the lyrics are downright terrible, but I actually prefer when they sing in Japanese-it doesn't sound as weird or silly.
Akira is one of the best Metal guitarists ever and he's why they have a cult following here in the States.
