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Bullets

Even their record company bio can’t resist chuckleinducing cracks about sushi, Toyotas and “getting oriented” to their music. But if given the blindfold test, it’s questionable how many metal heads would guess just by listening to their music that Loudness is from Japan.

July 2, 1985
Jeff Tamarkin

Bullets

LOUDNESS: NOT JUST A KNOB

Jeff Tamarkin

Even their record company bio can’t resist chuckleinducing cracks about sushi, Toyotas and “getting oriented” to their music. But if given the blindfold test, it’s questionable how many metal heads would guess just by listening to their music that Loudness is from Japan.

The Eddie Van H/Blackmore guitar lines hardly sound like the product of a nation whose biggest pop music export ever was the 1963 wimp ballad “Sukiyaki.” And the Tokyo quartet’s English lyrics are just as intelligible to western ears as anything Motley Crue or W.A.S.P. ever wrote. Hmm, never mind; you get the idea.

It’s only when Minoru Nihara, Loudness’s vocalist and lyricist, sits down for a chat that it becomes obvious that Loudness isn’t from Hoboken. But then again, some people from Hoboken can probably learn a few things about English from Nihara, who’s only been speaking the language for about a year.

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