MR. ROCK VOCALIST

The MR.VOCALIST series had begun with songs by Japanese women artists, but the request fans sent most often was for rock covers, and MR. ROCK VOCALIST was the answer: famous Japanese rock songs, sung by Eric Martin in English. Sony Music Japan International released it on 10 October 2012 as SICP-3587, priced at 2,730 yen including tax, and it peaked at 40 on the Oricon weekly album chart, where it stayed for four weeks. The guests are guitarists: Richie Kotzen, formerly of Mr. Big, Steve Stevens, Stevie Salas, Marty Friedman and John 5, formerly of Marilyn Manson. The album opens with BOØWY's "Dreamin'", with Stevens on guitar, and goes on through songs by GLAY and SIAM SHADE, B'z's "ALONE" with Salas, Kyosuke Himuro's "ANGEL", a THE YELLOW MONKEY song with Kotzen, L'Arc-en-Ciel's "HONEY" with John 5, ZIGGY's "GLORIA" and LUNA SEA's "I for You" with Friedman, before X JAPAN's "Forever Love" ends the main programme. "ALONE" was composed by Tak Matsumoto, Martin's partner in TMG. Of the GLAY song, Martin has recalled that fitting English words to its rapid rhythm was hard, and that he finished the lyric only after many exchanges with the members of GLAY. Tracks 11 and 12, "BREAK OUT" and "THE HEART OF A CHAMPION", are new songs added as bonus tracks, with lyrics by Martin and Andre Pessis and music credited to SCHON. They were the main theme and the ending theme of CR Virtua Fighter REVOLUTION, a pachinko machine by Sammy that went into service in August 2012. In the same year Martin also took part, together with the guitarist John 5, in the L'Arc-en-Ciel tribute album L'Arc-en-Ciel TRIBUTE. Five of the album's songs, "Dreamin'", "ANGEL", "HONEY", "ALONE" and "Forever Love", were chosen in 2024 for the limited edition of MR.VOCALIST Complete Best, released on 27 November 2024.