METAL MAD

Metal Mad is the twenty-first Loudness album, released by Tokuma Japan Communications on 20 February 2008. Its eleven songs, the title track among them, declare the band's position with the directness of a record named after what it is. It was the eighth album by the reunited four — and, as it turned out, the last studio album Munetaka Higuchi played on. After its release Higuchi took leave for treatment of liver cancer, and following six months of illness he died on 30 November 2008, aged 49. He had founded the band with Akira Takasaki in 1981 and played on every album of both the first era and the reunion. Loudness continued afterwards with Masayuki Suzuki behind the drums.