GYPSY WAYS

Gypsy Ways is Anthem's fourth studio album, released on 21 May 1988 on King Records' Nexus label as K32Y 2130, produced by Chris Tsangarides. It runs a little under forty-seven minutes. Eizo Sakamoto had left immediately after the Bound To Break tour, and the album arrived while people were still wondering what would become of the band. Yukio Morikawa, a singer of considerable power, took the job, and this record announced that Anthem were fully back. Yoshitaka Mikuni guests on keyboards. The title track that opens it, "Gypsy Ways (Win, Lose Or Draw)", marked the start of that new chapter and has been revisited twice since, on Heavy Metal Anthem in 2000 and on the 2020 album with Graham Bonnet. The record also holds the much-liked "Silent Child", the fast "Cryin' Heart" and "Shout It Out!", which became a staple live. It was issued on LP, cassette and CD at once, and no reissue has ever added a bonus track. Nuclear Blast released official live videos of "Gypsy Ways" and "Cryin' Heart" in 2019.