I wore out the tapes of Thunder in the East and Lightning Strikes back in the 80's! lol. This was an early video I made for this channel, I hope you like the new content as this channel has come a long way since then...
I've been a huge Akira/Loudness fan since the early 80's. If you haven't done so I strongly urge you to check out their albums released in Japan prior to Thunder In The East. Birthday Eve, Devil Soldier, Law Of Devils Land, and Disillusion. These albums are absolute treasures and should not be missed by Akira fans.
Akira is great and i also got into him back in 84 with Loudness. Michael Angelo is another that can Pick every note in Arps with alternate picking. Technique wise Angelo is a freak of nature. but i liked Akira more for style and feel.
I wore out Michael Angelo's Star Licks vhs tape decades ago. Amazing and inspirational player. Sadly I have reached out to him several times for an interview and nothing.... not even a reply. We shall see what happens down the road as this channel grows...
@@YesYouCANPlayGuitar He is a very down to earth guy so i am not sure why you did not even get a reply? Just keep trying and maybe the law of averages will happen. Is there specific things you wanted to ask him he has never mentioned in his PODcast's or in interviews because he has been pretty candid about everything? (technique,gear, his past,etc). as for that star licks tape yeah same here, i had all of those tapes back then, Steve Lukather, Brian may, Rik Emmett, Carlos cavazo, Brad gillis,etc,etc. I had all of them.There was a music store in Philadelphia where i lived that rented those and the REH tapes out so i would take the VHS tapes home and copy them on a blank Scotch high grade VHS tape so they only cost me the cost of the blank tape(back then i think the blanks cost $5.99 each) I still have a few of them.👍
the studio version of this is from the album before Thunder in the East, Disillusion and is called "Exploder" and has a handful of other sections that are equally impressive
Thank you for posting, I made this video very soon into my TH-cam journey which seems like such a long time ago... I listen to Akira on my playlist every day now, as I did back in the mid 80's :)
@@YesYouCANPlayGuitar right on! I first heard Loudness on a local late night weekend metal show they'd play some import and "underground" stuff and guitar shredder stuff and Loudness fits in all 3 of those at the time. Also introduced me to Gary Moore and many others.
Was always a big fan of Akira. I had the Thunder In The East cassette lol. It's great to see him mentoring and being an influence to a lot of these young great Japanese guitarist we're getting to know and love. I saw a performance of Akira playing "Crazy Doctor" with Nemophila, and as good of a guitarist Saki is, she couldn't quite keep up when they performed the solo together (still sounded great). I always never liked how they tried to label him the 'Japanese Eddie Van Halen' because Akira had his own unique style and wasn't just some EVH clone. Even his tapping is super fast.
This is a great comment, and I agree. I remember in the metal mags back in those days (I was 10, 11, 12 years old kinda thing but really into it... and they compared him to Eddie a lot and even back then it had me scratching my head as I found their playing wasn't similar at all....
Loudness has been one of my fav bands since the end of the 90s. Each era has its own style and qualities. The pre-American era is full of gems, then their American career during which they turned a bit more mainstream but it led to such wonderful pieces as Thunder in the East. Then they went TOO mainstream with Mike Vescera. Some great guitar work during that period (Soldier of fortune, Slap in the Face etc. ) but man Mike's voice just didn't fit the band IMHO. During that time, the original singer Niihara founded the band Sly which turned out to be more like the original Loudness than the Loudness of that time. In 1992, they came back with an all-japanese lineup again, incorporating members from EZO and X-Japan, and realeased my favourite Loudness album ever, self titled "loudness" actually. Heavier, meaner, with perfect production. I still put this disc on par with the best of the best of the industry. Then, they started a weird grunge period that actually has its merits, singer Masaki Yamada's being one of my favourite metal singers, but i must agree that the original Loudness identity had completely disappeared at that time. Finally in 2001 they reunited with the original members, produced "Spiritual Canoe", very good album IMO that is also unfortunately their last album that's making sense to me. Since then, lots of weird thrash metal that's a bit below Akira if you ask me, as if he'd grown tired of playing actual melodies. Anyway, I'm writing this long winded comment pretty much out of love and respect for a band that's accompanied me for more than 25 years. Cheers
Love it every time Akira gets the recognition he deserves! He is a true Guitar God!
I wore out the tapes of Thunder in the East and Lightning Strikes back in the 80's! lol. This was an early video I made for this channel, I hope you like the new content as this channel has come a long way since then...
I've been a huge Akira/Loudness fan since the early 80's. If you haven't done so I strongly urge you to check out their albums released in Japan prior to Thunder In The East. Birthday Eve, Devil Soldier, Law Of Devils Land, and Disillusion. These albums are absolute treasures and should not be missed by Akira fans.
thunder in the east is an awesome album.
Soldier of Fortune album has the most amazing technique and Musicalness EVER in a guitar ~
Akira is great and i also got into him back in 84 with Loudness. Michael Angelo is another that can Pick every note
in Arps with alternate picking. Technique wise Angelo is a freak of nature. but i liked Akira more for style and feel.
I wore out Michael Angelo's Star Licks vhs tape decades ago. Amazing and inspirational player. Sadly I have reached out to him several times for an interview and nothing.... not even a reply. We shall see what happens down the road as this channel grows...
@@YesYouCANPlayGuitar He is a very down to earth guy so i am not sure why you did not even get a reply?
Just keep trying and maybe the law of averages will happen. Is there specific things you wanted to ask him he has never
mentioned in his PODcast's or in interviews because he has been pretty candid about everything? (technique,gear, his past,etc). as for that star licks tape yeah same here, i had all of those tapes back then, Steve Lukather, Brian may, Rik Emmett, Carlos cavazo, Brad gillis,etc,etc. I had all of them.There was a music store in Philadelphia where i lived that rented those and the REH tapes out so i would take the VHS tapes home and copy them on a blank Scotch high grade VHS tape so they only cost me the cost of the blank tape(back then i think the blanks cost $5.99 each) I still have a few of them.👍
Hailing from Singapore! One of my favourite group when I was in Secondary school in the 80s. Akira takasaki is crazy good.
Amazing!
the studio version of this is from the album before Thunder in the East, Disillusion and is called "Exploder" and has a handful of other sections that are equally impressive
Thank you for posting, I made this video very soon into my TH-cam journey which seems like such a long time ago... I listen to Akira on my playlist every day now, as I did back in the mid 80's :)
@@YesYouCANPlayGuitar right on! I first heard Loudness on a local late night weekend metal show they'd play some import and "underground" stuff and guitar shredder stuff and Loudness fits in all 3 of those at the time. Also introduced me to Gary Moore and many others.
Akira the best guitarist 80s for ever
Was always a big fan of Akira. I had the Thunder In The East cassette lol. It's great to see him mentoring and being an influence to a lot of these young great Japanese guitarist we're getting to know and love. I saw a performance of Akira playing "Crazy Doctor" with Nemophila, and as good of a guitarist Saki is, she couldn't quite keep up when they performed the solo together (still sounded great). I always never liked how they tried to label him the 'Japanese Eddie Van Halen' because Akira had his own unique style and wasn't just some EVH clone. Even his tapping is super fast.
This is a great comment, and I agree. I remember in the metal mags back in those days (I was 10, 11, 12 years old kinda thing but really into it... and they compared him to Eddie a lot and even back then it had me scratching my head as I found their playing wasn't similar at all....
Loudness has been one of my fav bands since the end of the 90s. Each era has its own style and qualities. The pre-American era is full of gems, then their American career during which they turned a bit more mainstream but it led to such wonderful pieces as Thunder in the East. Then they went TOO mainstream with Mike Vescera. Some great guitar work during that period (Soldier of fortune, Slap in the Face etc. ) but man Mike's voice just didn't fit the band IMHO. During that time, the original singer Niihara founded the band Sly which turned out to be more like the original Loudness than the Loudness of that time. In 1992, they came back with an all-japanese lineup again, incorporating members from EZO and X-Japan, and realeased my favourite Loudness album ever, self titled "loudness" actually. Heavier, meaner, with perfect production. I still put this disc on par with the best of the best of the industry. Then, they started a weird grunge period that actually has its merits, singer Masaki Yamada's being one of my favourite metal singers, but i must agree that the original Loudness identity had completely disappeared at that time. Finally in 2001 they reunited with the original members, produced "Spiritual Canoe", very good album IMO that is also unfortunately their last album that's making sense to me. Since then, lots of weird thrash metal that's a bit below Akira if you ask me, as if he'd grown tired of playing actual melodies. Anyway, I'm writing this long winded comment pretty much out of love and respect for a band that's accompanied me for more than 25 years. Cheers
Since you love sweeping, you must check out Galneryus - The Promised Flag live. Syu Galneryus is the king of melodic sweeping !!!