Volcano can be considered a spin-off of experimental thrashers Gargoyle. The band is led by former Gargoyle guitarist She-ja, and on their first two albums featured Gargoyle drummer Katsuji Kirita. Musically, Volcano operates in similar territory as well, though without the trademark occasional weirdness of the early albums of She-ja’s old band. Instead, Volcano focuses on a blend of thrash metal, traditional heavy metal, power metal and melodic death metal – in that order – with distinct neoclassical guitar leads and occasional more bluesy hard rock detours. She-ja’s guitar playing shows clear influence from Gary Moore, for example.

Another mainstay in Volcano has been their fantastic singer Nov of Aion and Jigoku Quartet fame, and his voice is part of why I think Volcano will appeal to the international metal audience more than most other Japanese power/thrash bands, despite a healthy dose of awkward English. Nov has a timbre somewhat similar to OverKill’s Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth, which should make Volcano sound a little less alien to western ears. The rest of Volcano’s line-up has been surprisingly solid as well: both their bassist Akira Tanaka and their fantastic drummer Shunsuke ‘Shun’ Ohyama have been part of the band since 2010.

In the mid-to-late 2010’s, Volcano was particularly prolific, releasing an album between the 13^th and the 15^th of July every year between 2015 and 2018, with the next one coming less than a year and a half later. The band may have been saving up material, as they did not release any albums for a decade after their sophomore album came out. Although their release schedule isn’t quite as busy these days, Volcano still gigs frequently, and there is always a chance that there is new material on the horizon.

9. Godspeed (2020)

Unlike any other Volcano album, half of ‘Godspeed‘ was written by other members than She-ja, who usually handles all or nearly all the music. My guess is that he was burned out on writing so much music in so little time for its predecessors, because despite great contributions by Akira and Shun, the songwriting generally doesn’t sound quite as inspired. ‘Godspeed’ also takes uncharacteristically long to get going. The back half of the album is certainly the better half, and it ends on a particularly high note. ‘Godspeed’ is a fine melodic thrash metal album, but when compared to Volcano’s other works, it does end up falling a little short. A prime example of why I insist on not calling these album rankings “worst to best”, however, as the album isn’t bad at all.

Recommended tracks: ‘D.R.’, ‘Grief’, ‘Raise Your Fist’

8. Melt (2015)

This is the biggest leap in quality in this ranking. The first album of Volcano’s annual mid-July album release wave is in a way the most adventurous one of the bunch, which is simultaneously its biggest strength and its biggest weakness. ‘Melt‘ is home to some of Volcano’s best songwriting, but it’s also kind of chaotic, and that keeps it from finding the right dynamic flow. Also, there isn’t a single song on the album’s latter half that does anything that hasn’t already been done better in the first few songs, though ‘Die Number Nine’ does have Volcano sounding closer to Slayer than they ever have. Sometimes, the messy nature of the album and its great songwriting come together in great ways, though, hence the stupidly catchy ‘Tokyo Panic’. ‘Melt’ is flawed, but extremely enjoyable nonetheless.

Recommended tracks: ‘The Mother Earth’, ‘Aim,Shoot,No,Kill’, ‘Tokyo Panic’

7. Juggernaut (2016)

‘Juggernaut’ is what you get when you streamline the approach Volcano went for on ‘Melt’. This has resulted in an album with a considerably better flow than its predecessor, ditching the fun, but frankly kind of reckless experimentation in favor of a sound built on great thrash riffs and melodic lead guitar work, featuring catchy songwriting even on the most aggressive tracks. It also feels a little more concise, though it is only two songs and roughly five minutes shorter than ‘Melt’. While the playing is as tight as ever, ‘Juggernaut’ has somewhat of a rock ‘n’ roll feel to it that helps it stand out among the stylistically similar mid-period Volcano albums. Unless you really like the death metal elements on ‘Melt’, the increased focus makes ‘Juggernaut’ the more consistent and much stronger album of the two.

Recommended tracks: ‘Blood Soldier’, ‘To Lost Night’, ‘Get Mad Child’

6. Darker Than Black (2018)

In all honesty, ‘Darker Than Black‘ and ‘Juggernaut’ could switch places on this ranking any day. ‘Darker Than Black’ has higher peaks, though the small handful of more chaotic, death metal-inspired moments are quite disruptive to the flow of the album. Also, the incredibly loud, compressed mastering job distorts very audibly at times, which doesn’t exactly do the rhythmically denser moments any favors. Songwriting-wise, ‘Darker Than Black’ is a bit more traditionally thrashy than the albums it’s bookended by, at times sounding closer to Bay Area thrash metal than any other Volcano album, although it is as full of neoclassically-inspired leads and classic heavy metal guitar melodies as one would expect from the band. ‘Darker Than Black’ is a bit too straightforward sometimes, but it packs quite an impressive punch.

Recommended tracks: ‘Guardian Deity’, ‘Horror’, ‘Flight to the World’

5. Violent (2000)

Volcano’s debut album is probably the one that has moved up and down the hypothetical version of this list that only existed in my head the most through the years. It features some of the catchiest songwriting on any Volcano album, though the production as a whole is sometimes slightly too polished for its own good, as it especially pushes Katsuji to the background, where I don’t think he belongs. This will only be noticeable when you hear it after one of their later albums, though, and the guitar tone on this Fredrik Nordström-mixed album is positively lethal. The back half of the album is slightly more creative, but as a whole, ‘Violent’ has a fairly pleasant flow. What also helps there is that at thirty-nine minutes, it is the shortest Volcano album by a decent margin.

Recommended tracks: ‘Cloud Covers’, ‘Kill All of Me’, ‘Ghost’

4. Tenka-Musou (2024)

It had been a while since Volcano took this long a break between two albums – ‘Tenka-Musou‘ came out exactly four years and four months after ‘Godspeed’ – but the break had done them well. ‘Tenka-Musou’ feels like a back-to-basics affair, as it has a renewed focus on a combination of traditional heavy metal and thrash metal, with the melodic death metal elements being almost entirely absent. The overall sound is surprisingly laid-back for an album featuring riff work this aggressive, though there are a few hardcore-infused songs that will kick your teeth in. She-ja’s guitar leads are among their most melodic and bluesy to date, and the album’s atmosphere facilitates that. While this style of metal typically requires a little more urgency, it all works remarkably well on ‘Tenka-Musou’.

Recommended tracks: ‘Disappear’, ‘From the Abyss’, ‘Gekijō’

3. Leviathan (2017)

Since ‘Leviathan’ was released bang in the middle of Volcano’s annual mid-July release wave, it kind of got lost in the shuffle for me. Which is a shame, because it is easily one of their best albums. It completely does away with the melodic death metal influences and focuses entirely on thrash metal and more melodic heavy metal that only occasionally crosses over into power metal territory. ‘Leviathan’ is the Volcano album that sounds closest to a Gargoyle album with Nov on vocals. Where it excels over any other Volcano album, possibly including the higher-ranking ones here, is that the songwriting is so distinctive that every song stands out. Listeners won’t mistake two songs on the album for each other, as every one of them has at least one catchy vocal and guitar hook without detracting from the overall aggression and intensity.

Recommended tracks: ‘Tiger’, ‘Democracy Intersects’, ‘Antagonism’, ‘Wasteland the Wind’

2. Mythology (2011)

With a decade between ‘Mythology’ and its predecessor, it isn’t an overstatement to call the album a comeback. And although one Volcano album has higher peaks, it might just be their most consistently fantastic album. Really, the only parts I don’t like are the verses of ‘Gunpowder’, due to Nov’s unnecessarily distorted vocals. ‘Mythology’ carefully dials up the death metal factor in Volcano’s music, but fortunately, that does not go at the expense of the thrash metal aggression in the riff work and the classy traditional heavy metal melodicism in the songwriting. There genuinely could not have been a better introduction for what is still the band’s line-up to this day, and it feels like She-ja had something to prove. For starters: that he’s a great songwriter. Even the semi-ballad ‘Shine in the Dark’ is exceptionally strong, partly due to his excellent guitar leads.

Recommended tracks: ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’, ‘Warrior’s Play’, ‘Phantom Society’

1. Davi (2001)

After a promising debut album, ‘Davi‘ is the sound of Volcano realizing what they are best at and focusing on just that. That doesn’t mean that experimentation is a thing of the past; the sleazy rock ‘n’ roll vibe of ‘The Wild Obscene Nights’ and the Hammond solo that seems to come out of nowhere on ‘Child Eyes’ prove just that. But damn, there is some incredible thrash metal on ‘Davi’, and the melodic bits sound just a bit more aggressive than usual. Part of that may be because of She-ja’s more abrasive guitar sound, but I blame the songwriting. ‘Progress’ is both the greatest and the most underrated song in Volcano’s discography in its ominous aggression, with the vaguely Artillery-esque ‘History Cries’ not far behind. Repeated spins never fail to make me realize that the deeper cuts like ‘No Way Man’ are every bit as good, right down to the annihilating closer ‘Barbwire’.

Recommended tracks: ‘Progress’, ‘History Cries’, ‘Absurd’