Loudness - Eve To Dawn (2011) (7,5/10)

LOUDNESS are a true Japanese Heavy Metal institution that never fails to deliver. “Eve To Dawn” is the band’s twenty-fourth full length release and marks their thirtieth anniversary at the same time.Let's add that the band's dawn of career hasn't arrived yet and that they are still more convincing than many similar bands of a younger age.

What these four guys deliver is energizing, technically well played and this time particularly guitar driven Heavy Metal with a few thrashier parts that vary between mid and up tempo numbers. This record includes no big experiments and no ballads but convinces with a very honest attitude. There are still a few imaginative moments on the record that are well integrated into the powerful tracks. The slight oriental sounds in the quite modern sounding opener “A Light In the Dark”, the Power Metal guitar chords in “Survivor” and the short electronic vibes in the rather traditional hard rock track “Keep You Burning” are some pleasant surprises.

Along a few very catchy songs which are the album highlights in the strong middle section with the diversified “Survivor”, “Keep You Burning” that includes the most original ideas of all tracks on the record without losing a charming old school attitude, the addicting “Gonna Do It My Way” that has an angy Punk Rock attitude and the literally crazy closer “Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!” that tells the story of an annoying neighbour, there are also a few less convincing tracks. One could cite the exchangeable “Pandora”, the somewhat uninspired instrumental track “Emotions” and a few passages in the record’s epic track “Comes The Dawn” that sounds too long and stretched in the end.

(Online January 21, 2013)