My friend Jeff has been raving to me about early Loudness for a couple of years now...insisting that I check them out. Like most of us Stateside, I hadn't heard of Loudness until their major American release, Thunder In The East, landed on these shores in 1985. I liked it well enough, but hearing that their past albums were all sung in Japanese did not do anything to entice me to check their back catalog.
A month or so ago, I was in a full on early 80's Metal mode, and it struck me to finally check out the early years of Loudness. Not fully ready to immerse myself in the Japanese vocals of the first albums, I discovered that the band did an English version of their Disillusion album. I downloaded it and absolutely loved it. 80's Metal was in full effect.
Shortly after downloading the album, I hit ebay to try and find a copy on vinyl. I found this copy on the Music For Nations label...it was in the States, so I took the Buy It Now option at a fair price. Music For Nations was the original UK press for this album, and I thought that there may be a chance that it was the English version of the record. I found out later that I was wrong. The Japanese version has the cool artwork, while the English version has a photo of the band and the words "ENGLISH VERSION" in big bold letters on the cover. I'll gladly take the Japanese version for the artwork alone.
While I was grabbing the Loudness LP, I decided to look around the seller's ebay store to see if anything else interested me. I found the Japanese pressing of the Queensryche EP, and couldn't resist.
I enjoy Queensryche up through the Operation:Mindcrime LP, but their first release is easily the best.
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