For a second, I thought that Loudness had gone the Iron Maiden route by releasing an unnecessary double album. And on the surface, it may seem that way. ‘Sunburst ~ Gamushara’ is barely eighty-five minutes long and could easily have been an even better hour-long album. However, Loudness did go through the effort of at least creating chapters that make sense stylistically within the album. Another reason to give the album the benefit of the doubt is that it is easily one of the best albums Loudness released in the twenty-first century. The key characteristic that makes it so good is spontaneity.

As much as I liked some of Loudness’ recent albums, they were always attempting to be something. They often sounded like Akira Takasaki was trying to keep up with the times by favoring meaty, Pantera-esque riff work over melody, whereas 2018’s highly enjoyable ‘Rise To Glory’ may have tried to overcorrect things a little in its old school-isms. On ‘Sunburst ~ Gamashura’, it seems like the band just wanted to write the best songs they possibly could, with little to no worry which metal trend it would fit. As a result, the album is the most successful blend of classic and modern Loudness the band has released thus far.

Interestingly, this change in approach has made the more contemporary-sounding songs a lot better as well. That might be a result of the more varied context, but twenty-first century Loudness had very few tracks as exciting as the dark, threatening galloper ‘The Nakigara’ or the heavy stomper ‘Kaso Genjitsu’. They feel like an integral part of the album, however, because their sound is equally organic as the more traditional material, such as the yearning melodic opener ‘OEOEO’ (yes, seriously) or ‘Hunger For More’, which could have been on ‘Thunder In The East’. It all fits and it all makes sense.

Creating chapters, as stated in the beginning of the review, is most obvious at the beginning of the second disc, as it starts with four tracks that are obvious nods to the band’s seventies hardrock influences. Not the best songs on the albums from a compositional standpoint, although I really love ‘Emerald No Umi’ due to the massive, goosebumps-inducing riff that carries it, but the joy of playing them is tangible. I also wish all Loudness ballads were at least as good as ‘All Will Be Fine With You’. Closer ‘Wonderland’ also feels like ballad, but more a doomy one, like ‘Rain’, which closed ‘Rise To Glory’.

Takasaki dominates the songwriting on ‘Sunburst ~ Gashamura’, having written most of the music and lyrics, the latter of which were often written by singer Minoru Niihara on recent records. While I expected this to be a problem, ‘Sunburst ~ Gamashura’ easily features Niihara’s best performance on a Loudness album in many years. Yes, his vocal cords still sound worn, but more care has been put into his vocal melodies this time around. Two of the album’s highlights were contributed by other band members, however. The aformentioned ‘The Nakigara’ has contributions from drummer Masayuki Suzuki, while ‘Stand Or Fall’ is prime Masayoshi Yamashita. The way the song builds up to a quasi-prog hardrocker with excellent riffs is very reminiscent of ‘Black Wall’, another excellent composition by the bassist.

‘Sunburst ~ Gamashura’ is much better than I expected it would be. In fact, I am surprised Loudness still had an album this good in them. It is certainly my favorite album of theirs since ‘2012’ and possibly since their self-titled thirty years ago. How little care the band has for what boxes to tick to still be seen as relevant really elevates the album above their other recent output. Even the most modern elements have found their way into the album organically and the songs are generally really good. Bonus points for the cover art, which might just be the first Loudness cover I actually like.

Recommended tracks: ‘The Nakigara’, ‘Stand Or Fall’, ‘Nihon No Kokoro’, ‘Kaso Genjitsu’