Jealousy EP
Written: Dec 17 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent production with awesome pop metal tunes!
Cons: sadly, the last recording with Minoru Niihara.
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| sleestakk's Full Review: Loudness |
The 'Jealousy' EP is quite a barnburner featuring six solid tracks from Japanese metal band Loudness. Released a year after 'Hurricane Eyes' in 1988 for the Japanese market only, Loudness created a killer of CD even if it was only six total songs!
The sound and production are so clean on this EP; it makes me wonder why they even bothered to once again use Max Norman to produce their lame follow-up, 'Soldier of Fortune'. Loudness produced this one in Japan and really did an awesome job capturing all the right elements of their live sound; this EP shows noticeable improvement over the previous release, 'Hurricane Eyes'.
Besides the harder heavy metal flavorings like the paced "Jealousy" or rampant "Die of Hunger", there's also a strong element of pop-laden metal in "Long Distance Love" and "Good Things Going", both exceptional tracks. All the tunes really seem to work well together on this short effort by Loudness and I'm curious as to why they opted to make this just an EP since the music is so great.
I have my suspicions though, thinking this might have been Minoru Niihara's swan song since this was his final recording with Loudness. Maybe these were tunes they had written while on the road and they wanted to get them down before writing all new material for their next America disc, 'Soldier', featuring a new lead singer? I wasn't privy to all the inner workings of Loudness back in the late 80's so I could be completely off base but that's my best guess.
Since 'Jealousy' was released only in Japan, most of the tunes are sung in Japanese, which is cool with me because all the tunes hold up well. (A friend of mine in Japan actually sent me my copy as a gift when it came out; I was elated when I received it!) The music is so good and yet it saddens me at the same time because it also represents the last record with Minoru, whom I'll always think of as the best lead singer for Loudness.
It's hard to say which track is my favorite since I like them all equally! "Heavier Than Hell" is fun track with a cool melody and monster guitar solo by Akira Takasaki, who definitely excels on this CD. "Dreamer and Screamer" is just as fun with its persistent riffs, catchy chorus and Akira's perfect execution of that arpeggiated solo. And this song is actually done in English!
"Long Distance Love" was so pop-oriented that it was later re-done by Loudness (with their new American vocalist, Mike Vescera) on the 'On The Prowl' CD that came out in 1991 but the re-done version, simply called "Long Distance", isn't nearly as good as the version on 'Jealousy'. Do yourself a favor and look for this disc esp. if you a fan of earlier Loudness like 'Thunder in the East' or 'Lightning Strikes' or even stuff earlier than that.
I highly recommend this disc to fans of 80's metal and, in particular, pop metal (and all guitar shredders should already own this disc!). Too bad this is an EP instead of an LP! It may be mostly in Japanese, but the music transcends any language barrier! This disc is excellent. Period.
Track Listing:
1. Jealousy
2. Long Distance Love
3. Good Things Going
4. Die Of Hunger
5. Heavier Than Hell
6. Dreamer And Screamer
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
sleestakk
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Member: Jay Stakk
Location: Chicago
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