ARTIST: Loudness 
TITLE: Crazy Nights
YEAR RELEASED: Compilation
CHART ACTION: None
SINGLES: Crazy Night, Let It Go, So Lonely, This Lonely Heart, You Shook Me
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Committed 80’s metal heads may know more
LINEUP: Minou Niihara, Akira Takasaki, Masayoki Yamashita, Munetaka Higuchi. Michael Vescera replaced Niihara in an effort to gain a US audience. Didn’t work.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Japanese heavy metal pioneers’ English major label output is compiled here. It’s better than a lot of their contemporaries.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: They came, they saw, they tried, they didn’t quite make it. Armed with riffs, a decent guitarist in Akira Takasaki, and a knowledge of the contemporary heavy metal scene, Loudness signed with Atco Records and make a try at stateside success.
The translated lyrics into English with some help, added some keyboards on occasion (from guys like Greg Giuffria) and the the results was pretty decent mainstream metal. The vocals didn’t really have any more accent than the Scorpions or other European metal bands, and they got a cult following by touring relentlessly.
Alas, in 1989 they made a play for the big time here, and got an US singer to front them. Well, it didn’t change their sound really, and didn’t break them. What’s worse, they alienated many Japanese fans. So…not good. They then lost their US contract and US singer bailed on them mid-tour to sing with..Yngwie Malmsteen. Welp.
You could do a lot worse than Loudness for your 80’s metal fix. Really, they’re a perfectly decent band that could fit right in with your Priest, Maiden, and Def Leppard.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: In 2001, they got the original band back together (OK, bass player Yamashita replaced the original original within a few weeks) until drummer Higuchi died of liver cancer in 2008. They regrouped and are still going strong. Their Wikipedia page is definitely translated from Japanese.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No
GRADE: B: They were decent enough that they should have had hits instead of some of the hair bands.
But Is It Any Good? 