Label: Dissonance Productions
Release date: 15. 5. 2020
Production: Tokyo Blade
Album length: 55.49 min
Genre: Heavy Metal / N.W.O.B.H.M.
Rating: 8.5/10
Tokyo Blade are yet another big veteran of metal’s classic era, or more precisely of the N.W.O.B.H.M. days, the movement that burst out at the turn of the seventies into the eighties. Hats off to bandleader and guitarist Andy Boltonfor his stubbornness, dogged resolve, dedication and perseverance. A short intro is a must here, because Tokyo Blade are simply legends of that cult scene from the old days, when metal was an innocent kid full of dreams and big hopes. After two studio albums, Tokyo Blade stumbled into a total artistic void and, along the way, fell apart twice. Their self-titled debut from 1983 and its follow-up “Night Of The Blade” (1984) are cult classics of the heavy metal universe, records that helped define the genre and that anyone who takes their metal orthodoxy seriously knows inside out. After that, though, the band sank into oblivion, flailing around in different genre waters and putting out some very strange albums. Naturally, it all went up in smoke. The moment they sacrificed their real logo in exchange for the bland design scribbles that shamefully replaced it, it was clear that the soul and heart were no longer sincere and that the band was just chasing commercial success. Well, Tokyo Blade only started coming to their senses in the last decade, so from 2010 on, and finally found a real connection with their roots with the albums “Thousand Men Strong” (2011) and “Unbroken” (2018). The latter especially is a more than worthy heir to the legacy of the band’s classic days.
Interestingly, the current Tokyo Blade lineup is basically the one from the days of “Night of the Blade”, except that Alan Marsh sang on the debut, then skipped “Night of the Blade” and all its successors, only to rejoin for a short spell, first in 1995. In fact, “Dark Revolution” keeps the spirit of the eighties preserved and intact, except that Tokyo Blade have hopped in a time machine and jumped almost 40 years from the past into the present. Forty? Damn, how time flies.
Let me say right away that Marsh still sings superbly. His, let’s call it, “upper vocal register”, built on an excellent “head voice” approach, still sounds impulsive, piercing, bristling, ultra-musical and catchy, especially for his age. Just as the energy demands, which on the new album again looks for a grateful reconnection with the first half of the eighties. The songs are interestingly, at their core, very simply put together and deliver a highly infectious musical payoff, since they move almost every time along the line A minor – G major – F major and variations on that theme, of which there aren’t really that many. The phrases are backed by bristling drum slaps that know nothing but a full-on gallop. Picture a combination of early Saxon riffs up to and including “Denim And Leather” and Judas Priest phrases from the “Screaming for Vengeance” (1982) era, only weighed down almost paranoically with ornaments run through triad harmonies, which is the trademark of N.W.O.B.H.M. tradition. Mid-eight passages are naturally here, and classic solos inside them. So when you compare Toyko Blade to early Iron Maiden, the latter turn out to be real “progressive” complicators.
“Dark Revolution” goes straight into your ears. In that sense it works hypnotically, like a fresh, crunchy bread roll. It grabs you right away. It’s not short on sweeping energy, octane voltage, cheek, mocking mischief and occult superstition. What does stick out a bit is the realization that only two years have passed since its predecessor “Unbroken”, so the album no longer feels as fresh, inspired and defiant as that one did. Many songs are written and arranged in a similar key, though they’re played with tremendous heart and burning fire, which counts! You feel it across the album, and that goes for Alan Marsh too, who breathes soul into the tracks with his cocky vocals. Still, the songs are arranged so that they’re all rather long, and the album runs almost a “hefty” 56 minutes, which for an album with this kind of genre aura is of course significantly too much. Under 40 minutes would have done it. It’s hard to pick out highlights. The tracks all stand on equal footing, but personally I’ll single out Perfect Enemy, though this time I’ll leave the final verdict to you.
As I said … The band has finally saddled its steel Pegasus the way it should be done, reconnected with its roots, and “Dark Revolution” is a true-to-form continuation of the old-school recipe served up on its predecessor, which means the band has sensibly tied its current compositional aesthetic to the roots of its first two albums. That’s why “Dark Revolution” is a bold continuation of the band’s best times. Updated for 2020, that is, brought up to date. The production keeps a pleasing liveliness and extreme tightness. The tracks slap you one after another, and there’s not a single solitary song on the album that might happen to lean toward a ballad. Just an uncompromising charge through thick and thin. Fans of the N.W.O.B.H.M. days will be thrilled (again) after “Unbroken”, because with “Dark Revolution” Tokyo Blade have paid off yet another one of the many debts they owed their fans, who over the years had every right to lose hope that the band would ever reconnect with its early-eighties era. Welcome home once more (again), boys!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Story of a Nobody (05:08)
2. Burning Rain (05:56)
3. Dark Revolution (05:07)
4. The Fastest Gun in Town (04:16)
5. Truth Is a Hunter (04:51)
6. Crack in the Glass (05:04)
7. Perfect Enemy (05:09)
8. See You Down in Hell (04:46)
9. The Lights of Soho (04:34)
10. Not Lay Down and Die (05:28)
11. Voices of the Damned (05:26)
Lineup:
Alan Marsh – vocals
Andy Boulton – guitar
John Wiggins – guitar
Andy Wrighton – bass
Steve Pierce – drums
