LOUDNESS – Dragon + Ghetto Machine [2 albums remastered] (2020)

Both albums are groovy heavy rock akin ’90s GEORGE LYNCH / KXM, some classic bluey heavy like BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION (Glenn Hughes), and a touch of LIVING COLOUR.

Akira Takasaki is the driven force behind these albums, really guitar-oriented and quite heavy / dense at places, especially ”Dragon”. There’s some awesome guitar work and I really like Masaki Yamada (the band’s vocalist in the Nineties, ex-EZO) aggressive tone, perhaps the most ‘American sounding’ Japanese-born singer of LOUDNESS history.

While similar in vibe, ”Ghetto Machine” is less darker, bluesy based hard rock wioth a sharp production, heavy at places yet classic rock influenced at others – listen to ”Evil Ecstasy” and tell me if it doesn’t bring to mind BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION.

Dragon – originally released in 1998
01 – 9 Miles High
02 – Dogshit
03 – Wicked Witches
04 – Crazy Go-Go
05 – Voodoo Voices
06 – 回想(Kaisou)
07 – Babylon
08 – Crawl
09 – Forbidden Love
10 – Mirror Ball
11 – Taj Mahal
12 – Nightcreepers

Ghetto Machine – originally released in 1997
01 – Ghetto Machine
02 – Slave
03 – Evil Ecstasy
04 – San Francisco
05 – Love and Hate
06 – Creatures
07 – Katmandu Fly
08 – Hypnotized
09 – Dead Man Walking
10 – Jasmine Sky
11 – Wonderman

Akira Takasaki – guitar
Masaki Yamada – vocals
Hirotsugu Homma – drums
Naoto Shibata – bass

cd1 cd2