The kings of Japanese heavy metal are unquestionably the group Loudness. The band was formed in 1981 from the ashes of Lazy, which had contained guitarist Akira Takasaki and drummer Munetaka Higuchi. They joined forces with vocalist Minoru Niihara and bassist Masayoshi Yamashita to form one of Japan's first significant heavy metal bands. At the time it was still a novel concept, as while heavy metal had been quite popular since the late 60's, the Japanese metal scene was almost entirely cover...

The kings of Japanese heavy metal are unquestionably the group Loudness. The band was formed in 1981 from the ashes of Lazy, which had contained guitarist Akira Takasaki and drummer Munetaka Higuchi. They joined forces with vocalist Minoru Niihara and bassist Masayoshi Yamashita to form one of Japan's first significant heavy metal bands. At the time it was still a novel concept, as while heavy metal had been quite popular since the late 60's, the Japanese metal scene was almost entirely cover bands, with the areas near US military bases being frequent breeding grounds. While certainly influenced by other metal bands, Loudness wrote their own songs and helped create something more distinctly Japanese, often using Japanese images on their album artwork and singing in Japanese. Van Halen are frequently cited as one of the bands influences, however more specifically, like Eddie Van Halen, Akira Takasaki blew minds with his incredibly fast, loud, intense guitar playing. The band's first two albums, The Birthday Eve and Devil Soldier were produced by a Japanese American from California named Dan McClenden, was playing in and producing local bands at the time, and who also worked with metal princess Carmen Maki. Around Loudness soon there was a thriving Japanese metal scene which also included Bow Wow, Earthshaker, Action, Kodomo Band, Pink Cloud, X Ray, Flatbacker/ EZO and 44 Magnum, with who they both competed and cooperated. Many of the Japanese bands worked with foreign producers and/or recorded overseas, helping the popularity of Japanese metal spread internationally. Loudness signed to Atlantic Records, released an English version of 1984's Disillusion, and were soon touring all over the world. Loudness enjoyed the best sales of any of the Japanese metal bands, but some critics felt that the band could never break big with a non-native English speaker on vocals. In 1989 American singer Mike Vescera was drafted, but after two years it seemed things were not working out, and former EZO singer Masaki Yamada was brought on. The band continued to tour the world on a regular basis, and like metal veterans Deep Purple or UFO, they went through line-up changes, sold less albums but remained a fairly solid draw live. In October 2000 the original line-up of Loudness re-united, and interest in the band increased substantially. The heavy metal survivors continue to soldier on, although these days have cut back on touring and are playing more to their Japanese audience.