TMG II

TMG II arrived twenty years after TMG I. Tak Matsumoto, Eric Martin and Jack Blades are joined by Matt Sorum — of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver — on drums, with Yukihide “YT” Takiyama on backing vocals, Jeff Babko on keyboards and Daniel Ho playing kane, koto, sanshin and taiko. Released by Vermillion Records on September 18, 2024, it reached No. 3 on both the Oricon weekly albums chart and Billboard Japan's Hot Albums. The opening “Crash Down Love,” written by Blades, restates the band in a single riff. BABYMETAL guest on “Eternal Flames” and LiSA on “The Story of Love,” putting current Japanese singers inside the group's American hard-rock phrasing. Traditional Japanese instruments change the scenery on “Jupiter and Mars” and “Dark Island Woman,” while “My Life,” “Endless Sky” and “The Great Divide” place Eric Martin's voice at the center. Eleven songs in roughly forty-four minutes make this a shorter, more clearly assigned record than the debut. The closing “Guitar Hero” puts Matsumoto's playing in the lead without turning into a display of technique — it still sounds like a band. Alongside the standard edition, a numbered limited pressing came with a signed metal plate and a premium edition added a Blu-ray of the 2004 Zepp Tokyo show, so the album doubles as a document of the reunion.