LOUDNESS
Biography and full studio discography of Loudness, the Osaka band that became the first Japanese metal act signed to a major American label, with a page for every album from The Birthday Eve in 1981 to Sunburst in 2021, including liner notes and the Japanese editions, on METAL BOOST.
Biography
LOUDNESS
Biography
At a glance
Loudness is a Japanese heavy metal band formed in Osaka in 1981 by guitarist Akira Takasaki and drummer Munetaka Higuchi, following the break-up of their previous band Lazy. Minoru Niihara joined on vocals and Masayoshi Yamashita on bass.
They were the first Japanese metal band signed to a major American label. Thunder in the East reached No. 74 on the Billboard 200 in 1985 and Lightning Strikes went to No. 64 the following year — positions no Japanese rock band had reached on an American chart before.
Vocalists and rhythm sections changed repeatedly, but Akira Takasaki has never left. In 2001 the four founding members reassembled, and that line-up has now held for more than twenty years. This site carries the band's thirty-four studio records, from 1981 to 2021.
Formation and the first three years — 1981 to 1983
Takasaki and Higuchi started Loudness in 1981 to play something heavier than Lazy had, and brought in Niihara and Yamashita. All four came from Osaka, and all four were in their early twenties.
The debut album The Birthday Eve appeared on Nippon Columbia on 25 November 1981, and the concert that launched it, at the Asakusa International Theatre, sold out to 2,700 people. For the second record, Devil Soldier, in 1982, the band brought the American engineer Daniel McClendon to Japan, on the reasoning that no Japanese technician then had the experience to record heavy metal. Two albums in, the intention to meet an international standard of sound was already an action rather than an ambition.
The third album, The Law of Devil's Land, followed in January 1983 and later reached Europe through Roadrunner Records. That July the band played its first shows on the American west coast and in Europe.
Atlantic, and the American years — 1984 to 1988
Those 1983 shows were seen by people from Atlantic Records, and Loudness became the first Japanese band to sign a worldwide multi-album contract. Before it took effect, Disillusion appeared in January 1984, recorded, mixed and mastered in London with Julian Mendelsohn — an engineer whose credits included Yes and Elton John — at the desk. An English-language version, with every vocal re-sung, followed that July.
Thunder in the East, the first Loudness album released worldwide, came out on 21 January 1985. Max Norman, known for his work with Ozzy Osbourne, produced. It reached No. 74 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart nineteen weeks, and on the US tour that followed, supporting Mötley Crüe, Loudness became the first Japanese band to play Madison Square Garden.
In 1986 the same set of sessions produced two records: Shadows of War in Japan in March, and Lightning Strikes internationally in July, resequenced with one song exchanged. The international edition reached No. 64 and spent fifteen weeks on the chart — still the band's best American showing. Hurricane Eyes followed in 1987 with Eddie Kramer producing, and a Japanese-language version appeared that December.
The mini-album Jealousy, released in May 1988, was the last recording by this line-up. In December that year Minoru Niihara announced he was leaving.
The years of changing singers — 1989 to 1999
The American vocalist Mike Vescera replaced Niihara and sang on two albums: Soldier of Fortune in 1989 and On the Prowl, the tenth-anniversary record, in 1991. He left afterwards for Yngwie Malmsteen's band.
In 1992 the band recorded the self-titled Loudness with Masaki Yamada of Ezo on vocals and Taiji Sawada of X on bass; founding bassist Masayoshi Yamashita had left before it. Takasaki produced, tuned down a semitone for a heavier sound, and the album entered the Oricon chart at No. 2.
Sawada and Higuchi both left in 1993. On Heavy Metal Hippies in 1994, Hirotsugu Homma came in on drums and Takasaki played the bass parts himself — at that point he was the only founder left in the band. Naoto Shibata of Anthem joined on bass at the end of 1994, and that line-up made three albums: Ghetto Machine in 1997, Dragon in 1998 and Engine in 1999, later collected as the three-disc set Loudness Buddha Rock 1997-1999.
The original line-up reunites — 2000 to 2008
In 2000 Takasaki brought the four founding members back together. Spiritual Canoe, released in March 2001, was the first album they had recorded in one room in thirteen years. A national tour followed, and from then on the band worked at a pace of roughly one album every one or two years.
Pandemonium came in November 2001, Biosphere in 2002, and three records in 2004 alone: Terror in January, the self-cover album Rock Shocks in October and Racing in November. Breaking the Taboo followed in 2006 and Metal Mad in February 2008.
After Metal Mad, Munetaka Higuchi took leave for treatment of liver cancer. He died on 30 November 2008, aged 49, after six months of illness. He had founded the band with Takasaki in 1981.
Masayuki Suzuki, and after — 2009 to now
The Everlasting, released in May 2009, was completed using drum tracks Higuchi had recorded before his death, with his successor Masayuki Suzuki playing on some songs. King of Pain in 2010 was Suzuki's first full album with the band and reached No. 21 on Oricon.
Eve to Dawn followed in 2011 (No. 36) and 2·0·1·2 in 2012. In 2013 the band founded Katana Music, their own management company and label. The Sun Will Rise Again came out through Universal in 2014, and from around this period invitations from overseas festivals arrived steadily enough that a European run each summer became routine.
Rise to Glory -8118- was released worldwide on 26 January 2018 — through Ward Records in Japan and earMUSIC elsewhere — the band's first new American release in twenty-seven years. Suzuki suffered a stroke shortly afterwards, and the band toured with Ryuichi Nishida supporting on drums; Suzuki returned to the stage for one song in September that year, on the last night of Metal Weekend at Zepp DiverCity.
Sunburst, the band's first double album, appeared on 29 December 2021 to mark forty years, on their own Katana Music label, and earMUSIC released it worldwide in July 2022. A forty-fifth anniversary tour has been running since 2025.
Members
| Name | Instrument | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Akira Takasaki | Guitar, backing vocals | 1981–present |
| Minoru Niihara | Vocals | 1981–1988, 2000–present |
| Masayoshi Yamashita | Bass, backing vocals | 1981–1992, 2000–present |
| Masayuki Suzuki | Drums, backing vocals | 2009–present |
| Munetaka Higuchi | Drums | 1981–1993, 2000–2008 (died 30 November 2008) |
| Mike Vescera | Vocals | 1988–1991 |
| Masaki Yamada | Vocals | 1992–2000 |
| Taiji Sawada | Bass | 1992–1993 |
| Naoto Shibata | Bass | 1994–2000 |
| Hirotsugu Homma | Drums | 1994–2000 |
Discography on this site
| Year | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | SUNBURST | Studio album |
| 2018 | RISE TO GLORY -8118- | Studio album |
| 2014 | THE SUN WILL RISE AGAIN | Studio album |
| 2012 | 2·0·1·2 | Studio album |
| 2011 | Eve to Dawn | Studio album |
| 2010 | KING OF PAIN | Studio album |
| 2009 | THE EVERLASTING | Studio album |
| 2008 | METAL MAD | Studio album |
| 2006 | BREAKING THE TABOO | Studio album |
| 2005 | Racing (English Version) | Studio album, English version |
| 2004 | Racing | Studio album |
| 2004 | ROCK SHOCKS | Self-cover album |
| 2004 | TERROR | Studio album |
| 2002 | BIOSPHERE | Studio album |
| 2001 | PANDEMONIUM | Studio album |
| 2001 | SPIRITUAL CANOE | Studio album |
| 1999 | ENGINE | Studio album |
| 1998 | DRAGON | Studio album |
| 1997 | Ghetto Machine | Studio album |
| 1994 | HEAVY METAL HIPPIES | Studio album |
| 1992 | LOUDNESS | Studio album |
| 1991 | ON THE PROWL | Studio album |
| 1989 | SOLDIER OF FORTUNE | Studio album |
| 1988 | JEALOUSY | Mini-album |
| 1987 | HURRICANE EYES (Japanese Version) | Studio album, Japanese version |
| 1987 | HURRICANE EYES | Studio album |
| 1986 | LIGHTNING STRIKES | Studio album, international edition |
| 1986 | SHADOWS OF WAR | Studio album |
| 1985 | THUNDER IN THE EAST | Studio album |
| 1984 | DISILLUSION (English Version) | Studio album, English version |
| 1984 | DISILLUSION | Studio album |
| 1983 | THE LAW OF DEVIL'S LAND | Studio album |
| 1982 | DEVIL SOLDIER | Studio album |
| 1981 | THE BIRTHDAY EVE | Studio album |
The band's live albums, compilations and anniversary box sets are not listed on this site.
A note on sources
The release list, dates, labels, catalogue numbers and running orders were taken from all sixty-eight product pages on the band's own site (loudnessjp.com) and from MusicBrainz release data for artist 513b6df2-f44c-4484-b99d-97f79266cb4a, with the two checked against each other. The band's history and current line-up come from the official site's own THE BAND page. Membership dates, production credits and chart placings were confirmed through the English Wikipedia article as an entry point, and only facts also carried by the official site or MusicBrainz are stated here. Every music video was checked through YouTube's oEmbed endpoint for the channel that uploaded it; no fan re-upload is included.
Trivia
Three times across twenty years, Loudness made the same album twice in two languages. Disillusion, from January 1984, was followed that July by an all-English version; Hurricane Eyes, released worldwide in August 1987, was followed that December by a Japanese-language one; and Racing, from November 2004, by an English version in April 2005. The band's own release index lists both halves of each pair as separate records.
Loudness began in 1981, when guitarist Akira Takasaki and drummer Munetaka Higuchi started the band after Lazy, the group they had both been in, broke up. Minoru Niihara joined on vocals and Masayoshi Yamashita on bass, making the four-piece that recorded the first album. The band's own site treats this as the starting point of everything that followed.
Straight after releasing their first album, The Birthday Eve, Loudness played their debut concert at the Asakusa International Theatre. The band's own site describes the performance as overwhelming and treats it as the point from which the group's reputation grew. For a band whose first record had appeared on 25 November 1981, it was a large hall to start in.
In July 1983 Loudness played their first shows on the American west coast and in Europe. According to the band's own site, people from Atlantic Records saw those performances, and what followed was the first worldwide multi-album contract ever signed by a Japanese band. The route abroad opened not through a pitch to a label but through the stage itself.
Thunder in the East, the band's first worldwide release, reached No. 74 on the Billboard album chart in 1985. The official site calls the placing exceptional for a Japanese band, and notes alongside it that the album stayed on the chart for nineteen consecutive weeks after entering. The second number is the more telling one: this was not a single week of novelty but more than four months of sales.
On the American tour supporting Thunder in the East, opening for Mötley Crüe, Loudness became the first Japanese band to play Madison Square Garden. The band's own site records it as a landmark. It came in their fourth year, on the first album they had released outside Japan.
The international edition, Lightning Strikes, went to No. 64 on the Billboard chart, above the No. 74 of Thunder in the East before it. The band's own site notes that it surpassed its predecessor. In Japan the same material had already been issued as a different product, under the title Shadows of War, resequenced and with one song exchanged.
In December 1988 Minoru Niihara announced he was leaving. The band's own site describes what followed as a run of line-up changes beginning with an American vocalist, and treats the whole stretch up to the 2000 reunion of the original members as one period. Across those years the band went through two other singers, two other bassists and one other drummer.
Current Members
Current line-up as published by the official site, verified on 2026-09-14.
Albums
Sunburst, released on 29 December 2021, marks the band's fortieth anniversary. It is their first double album and the first record issued on their own label, Katana Music; earMUSIC released it worldwide in 2022.
Rise to Glory -8118- is the twenty-seventh Loudness album, released simultaneously worldwide on 26 January 2018 — through Ward Records in Japan and earMUSIC in the US and Europe. It was their first American release since On the Prowl in 1991.
The Sun Will Rise Again is the twenty-sixth Loudness album, released through Universal Music Japan on 4 June 2014 — the first studio record made after the band set up its own label in 2013. A remixed US edition followed in 2015.
2·0·1·2 is the twenty-fifth Loudness album, released by Tokuma Japan Communications on 22 August 2012, in the band's thirty-first year. The first pressing carried a bonus disc.
Eve to Dawn is the twenty-fourth Loudness album, released on 14 September 2011. Akira Takasaki described it as guitar-driven and more aggressive than King of Pain, which had been built around the drummer. It reached No. 36 on Oricon.
King of Pain is the twenty-third Loudness album, released on 19 May 2010. It was the first full album with Masayuki Suzuki as drummer and reached No. 21 on the Oricon chart.
The Everlasting is the twenty-second Loudness album, released on 27 May 2009. It was completed using drum tracks Munetaka Higuchi had recorded before his death the previous year, with his successor Masayuki Suzuki playing on some songs.
Metal Mad is the twenty-first Loudness album, released by Tokuma Japan Communications on 20 February 2008. It was the last studio record with Munetaka Higuchi, who died on 30 November that year at the age of 49.
Breaking the Taboo is the twentieth Loudness album, released by Tokuma Japan Communications on 27 December 2006, and the seventh made since the original line-up reunited.
Racing (English Version), released on 6 April 2005, re-sings the whole of the previous November's Japanese album in English — the first Loudness record sung entirely in English since the 2001 reunion.
Racing is the nineteenth Loudness album, released by Tokuma Japan Communications on 25 November 2004. It brought back the band's classic logo, and an all-English version followed in 2005.
Rock Shocks is a self-cover album released by Tokuma Japan Communications on 27 October 2004, on which the reunited original line-up re-recorded the band's best-known songs of the 1980s.
Terror is the eighteenth Loudness album, released by Tokuma Japan Communications on 7 January 2004. Built around a theme of horror and dread, it is among the heaviest records the band has made, and the artwork carries the same theme.
Biosphere is the seventeenth Loudness album, released by Tokuma Japan Communications on 4 September 2002 — the third record by the reunited original line-up.
Pandemonium is the sixteenth Loudness album, released on 21 November 2001, just eight months after the reunited line-up's first record. All the music is credited to Loudness and all the lyrics to Minoru Niihara.
Spiritual Canoe is the first album by the reunited original line-up, released on 7 March 2001. It was the first time Takasaki, Niihara, Yamashita and Higuchi had recorded together since Jealousy in 1988.
Engine is the fourteenth Loudness album, released by Rooms Records on 7 July 1999. It was the third and last studio record by the line-up of Takasaki, Yamada, Shibata and Homma.
Dragon is the thirteenth Loudness album, released by Rooms Records on 5 August 1998 — the second record by the line-up of Takasaki, Yamada, Shibata and Homma.
Ghetto Machine is the twelfth Loudness album, released in Japan by Rooms Records on 25 November 1997. It was recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, and was the first album with bassist Naoto Shibata.
Heavy Metal Hippies is the eleventh Loudness album, released in Japan on 21 December 1994. After Taiji Sawada and Munetaka Higuchi left, Hirotsugu Homma came in on drums and Akira Takasaki played the bass parts himself. Chris Tsangarides recorded and mixed it.
Loudness, released on 10 June 1992, is the only studio album by the band's third line-up: Masaki Yamada of Ezo on vocals and Taiji Sawada of X on bass. Akira Takasaki produced it himself and took the tuning down a semitone. It entered the Oricon chart at No. 2.
On the Prowl, released on 25 February 1991, marked the band's tenth anniversary. It pairs English-language self-covers of early Loudness songs with new material, and was the second and last album with Mike Vescera.
Soldier of Fortune, released on 17 September 1989, was the first Loudness album with the American vocalist Mike Vescera after Minoru Niihara's departure. Max Norman and Roger Probert produced; it opened the band's second era.
Jealousy is a mini-album released only in Japan on 25 May 1988. It was the last recording by the original line-up; Minoru Niihara left the band at the end of the domestic tour that supported it.
The Japanese-language version of Hurricane Eyes, released for the home market on 10 December 1987. Minoru Niihara re-sang most of the songs from that August's international edition with Japanese lyrics.
Hurricane Eyes is the seventh Loudness album, released worldwide with English lyrics on 10 August 1987. Eddie Kramer — whose credits include Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix — produced. A Japanese-language version followed that December.
Lightning Strikes is the international edition of Shadows of War, released on 25 July 1986 with a new running order and "Ashes In The Sky" added. It reached No. 64 on the Billboard 200 and spent fifteen weeks on the chart.
Shadows of War is the sixth Loudness album, released first in Japan on 24 March 1986. The same material appeared internationally that July as Lightning Strikes, in a different running order and with one song exchanged.
Thunder in the East, released on 21 January 1985, was the first Loudness album issued worldwide. It reached No. 74 on the Billboard 200 — unprecedented for a Japanese band — and stayed on the chart for nineteen weeks, with a US tour supporting Mötley Crüe.
The English-language version of Disillusion, released on 1 July 1984. Every lyric from the Japanese original issued that January was re-sung in English, in a version made with distribution outside Japan in mind.
Disillusion is the fourth Loudness album, released on 21 January 1984. It was recorded, mixed and mastered in London in 1983, with Julian Mendelsohn — an engineer whose previous credits included Yes and Elton John — at the desk.
The Law of Devil's Land is the third Loudness album, released by Nippon Columbia on 21 January 1983 and later distributed in Europe by Roadrunner Records. That July the band played its first shows on the US west coast and in Europe.
Devil Soldier is the second Loudness album, issued by Nippon Columbia on 21 July 1982. No Japanese engineer at the time had the experience to record heavy metal, so the band brought in the American Daniel McClendon for the sessions.
The Birthday Eve is the first Loudness album, issued in Japan by Nippon Columbia on 25 November 1981. Guitarist Akira Takasaki and drummer Munetaka Higuchi formed the band after Lazy broke up, with Minoru Niihara on vocals and Masayoshi Yamashita on bass; their debut concert at the Asakusa International Theatre sold out.