#nokemono

[jupijitter]

Happy Halloween

[vinylspinning]

Lazy: Earth Ark (1980)

Japan’s Lazy was formed in 1973 by five teenaged school mates, including a pair of future Loudness founding members, guitarist Akira Takasaki and drummer Munetaka Higuchi.

But though Lazy took their name from the popular Deep Purple song and had every intention of aping their heroes’ heavy metal sound, business managers and producers eventually pressed them into service as, essentially, a boy band that could actually play their instruments.

YouTube videos abound showcasing the band’s sugary J-Pop and regimented choreography -- guaranteed to both horrify and amaze (I mean, those moves are pretty sweet!) hard-nosed metal-heads who later came to worship at the altar of six-string genius Takasaki.

Luckily, by the release of Lazy’s fifth LP, Earth Ark, in 1980, they were starting to break free of those Top 40 shackles (see here), as evidenced by no-holds-barred head-bangers like “Dreamer” and the hectic “Dreamy Express Trip,” which clearly sowed the seeds for Loudness.

Meanwhile, both the title track and “Time Gap” harked back to the group’s original inspiration, Deep Purple, thanks to Shunji Inoue’s distinctive Hammond organ, often locked in deadly duels with Takasaki’s razor-sharp axe-work.

Alas, Lazy were also still hedging their bets with lightweight, often Japanese-sung fare like “僕らの国でも” (containing the amusingly incorrect chorus: “Everywhere ... everybody is a misery”), “Lonely Star,” and the power ballad “天使が見たものは.”

And maybe it was this indecision -- whether to follow their muse or cater to the pop fan base they’d acquired -- that ultimately convinced Takasaki and Higuchi to split in 1981 and launch Loudness with singer Minoru Niihara and bassist Masayoshi Yamashita.

More Japanese Hard Rock & Metal: Blues Creation’s Demon & Eleven Children, Boris’ Akuma No Uta, Bow Wow’s Signal Fire, Earthshaker’s Earthshaker, Eternal Elysium’s Spiritualized D, Flied Egg’s Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine, Flower Travellin’ Band’s Satori, Food Brain's A Social Gathering, Gedō’s Gedō, Genocide’s Black Sanctuary, Loudness’ Devil Soldier, Murasaki’s Murasaki, Nokemono's From the Black World, Sigh’s Imaginary Sonicscape, Speed, Glue & Shinki’s Eve.

[vinylspinning]

Nokemono [野獣]: From the Black World (1979)

This isn't very clear from the murky cover portrait, but the album is called From the Black World and the band is 野獣, which I'm told are the Japanese kanji characters for "The Beast," but when spoken phonetically sounds out "Nokemono."

Get it?

Seriously, I couldn't make this shit up and, no, I have no idea if the band were in on the joke ... probably.

But these heavy metal hopefuls hailed from Tokyo and got their foot in the music industry door in 1978, when they entered and won a battle of the bands hosted by the Yamaha Music Foundation, then got to open for Judas Priest's next tour as their prize.

Later that year, Nokemono were invited to perform at the EastWest Festival (a resulting live album included three of their songs) and were soon hard at work on this 45-year-old debut, released through a label called Sounds Marketing System, Inc. (*)

Before we go any further, let's set the scene ...

At the end of the '70s, hard rock and heavy metal experienced a huge popularity surge in Japan, thanks to visiting Western heroes like Priest, Queen, the Scorpions, and Cheap Trick, to name but a few, as well as homegrown talent like Bow Wow, Murasaki, and Lazy, featuring future Loudness axe-grinder Akira Takasaki.

Nokemono were ready and willing to join this metal militia, even though their members sported rather silly, single-word pseudonyms -- namely vocalist Ace, guitarists Rolla and Bunchan, bassist Cherry, and drummer ... erm, Popeye.

But before you mock, know that these boys could really play, displaying ample skill and power, even though the album's somewhat thin production harked back to the '70s' hard rockers, instead of the new breed of '80s head-bangers lurking right around the corner.

Regardless, fans of that older aesthetic will find lots to love about the galloping staccatos, cascading twin harmonies, and limber leads (their fluid dexterity reminds me of Uli Jon Roth, surely an influence) in highlights like "Run Away," "Terrible Night," and "The Closed City."

Meanwhile, the requisite power ballad, "Path on the Ashes" (which may or may not be a lament for Hiroshima), doesn't break any new ground, but is very well put-together and adds acoustic guitars, synthesizers, even Hammond organ.

And as was often the case, at the time, these tunes were sung primarily in Japanese, despite their English titles, so a few were either compromised (the title track sounds like "from ... the bwack waro") or simply lost in translation ("Ant Hell"?).

No matter: in the balance of things Nokemono's lone long-player (they sadly broke up the next year and weren't heard from again until a 40th anniversary concert in 2017) is exceedingly enjoyable and remains a cult favorite among serious collectors of Japanese metal.

And a serious, borderline psychotic collector is what you have to be to invest the sometimes exorbitant prices required to secure a vintage copy of these exceedingly rare, as-yet never reissued vinyl pressings (even a promo like this one), but I've got no regrets!

* Despite its officious, corporate name, this was a well-established Japanese independent that represented fellow hard rockers Bow Wow and distributed albums by foreign heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath, Motörhead, and Accept.

More Japanese Hard Rock & Metal: Blues Creation’s Demon & Eleven Children, Boris’ Akuma No Uta, Bow Wow’s Signal Fire, Earthshaker’s Earthshaker, Eternal Elysium’s Spiritualized D, Flied Egg’s Dr. Siegel’s Fried Egg Shooting Machine, Flower Travellin’ Band’s Satori, Food Brain's A Social Gathering, Gedō’s Gedō, Genocide’s Black Sanctuary, Lazy’s Earth Ark, Loudness’ Devil Soldier, Murasaki’s Murasaki, Sigh’s Imaginary Sonicscape, Speed, Glue & Shinki’s Eve.

[grenadinexo]

Yay I'm super proud of you! You did a great job, cutie! Enjoy it 🥰

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[frankiesmithposts]

Oh, you gotta hold on to love Oh, you'd better hold on to love

[frankiesmithposts]

A dream come true

[demecchi]

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made it ^-^ here Thank you so much <3 

[scorpiofactsdaily]

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