Meantime, Takasaki, Yamashita and Higuchi also all sessioned on the first two albums by HONJOH MISAKO. As well as delivering his bombastic solo opus 'Destruction' he worked alongside singer Hamada Mari on her first brace of albums as the HIGUCHI PROJECT TEAM and scored production credits for local act MAKE UP. LOUDNESS’ drummer industriously engaged himself in a swathe of extracurricular endeavours too. For this record Takasaki utilised all of his LOUDNESS band mates, vocalist Minoru Niihara, bassist Masayoshi Yamashita and drummer Higuchi Munetaka. Only available in Japan it nevertheless sold strong on import as word of Takasaki's prowess spread.
With global appeal being afforded, LOUDNESS Takasaki made time to craft his debut solo effort 'Tusk Of Jaguar' for 1982 release. January 1983’s 'Law Of Devil’s Land', engineered by Daniel McClendon, reverted back to the melodic accessibility of the debut, even being promoted by a short burst of concert dates in the USA, during July 1983, and Europe the following month. However, its reliance on intricate and distinctly Japanese rhythms and tempo changes made it a bewildering listen to most Western ears. Their next record, 'Devil Soldier' in July 1982, propelled LOUDNESS to major status in Japan. Only released in Japan, word of 'The Birthday Eve'’s quality nevertheless filtered through to the international metal underground. A showcase debut concert, held at the Asakusa International Theater, attracted a sold-out audience of 2,700 fans. Wasting no time, that same August LOUDNESS soon put together their debut album offering, 'The Birthday Eve' being issued as a bi-lingual Anglo / Japanese effort through Columbia’s Denon subsidiary in November 1981. The musicians at this stage banded together Takasaki and his fellow LAZY colleague drummer MUNETAKA HIGUCHI with ex-ZEPHYR bass player Masayoshi Yamashita and singer MINORU NIIHARA, the latter previously frontman for EARTHSHAKER.īearing in mind the foursome’s intentions, choosing a band name would be as obvious as simply adopting the name on their amplifiers which best summed up their ambitions – Loudness. The band was originally created as a Pop act LAZY during 1978, where Takasaki went under the stage name of 'Suzy', but a shift to heavier material prompted the apt title of LOUDNESS in May 1981. Since dropping their global strategy, LOUDNESS retired to their homeland, where they still occupy an exalted position and regularly deliver high quality metal for the domestic audience. The band issued a run of highly respected albums during the 80's with 1985’s 'Thunder In The East' in particular being regarded as a true classic of the genre. Probably the best known of Japanese Heavy Metal bands led by the extraordinary guitar talents of AKIRA TAKASAKI.
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