Round one down, on to round two…

Japan has always loved hard rock and metal and has produced their share of bands of the same ilk, bands such as Bow Wow, Loudness, Anthem, and EZO, who first appeared in the early 80’s under the guise Flatbacker.  Towards the late 80’s, KISS man Gene Simmons helmed their first stateside release on Geffen Records with the band now known as EZO.  The self titled release sported a bit of a heavier KISS\Crue crunch with some really cool melodic hooks.  Vocalist Masaki Yamada is pretty damn versatile and quite unique, easily moving between a smoother lower range singing style into more of a midrange gravelly growl.  Songs like “House Of A Thousand Pleasures”, with its chunky, muscular riff and solid drumwork from Hiro Homma and “Million Miles Away” with its swinging groove and excellent hook are great examples of how this band could write some simple but solid rock tunes (check out the speedier “Black Moon” for another change of pace).  Their second album, Fire Fire is my favorite as the production is a little bit brighter and the guitars seem to be more in your face.  Unfortunately, EZO split around 1990 and Yamada and Homma eventually went on to join fellow countrymen Loudness for a brief period.

Those of you familiar with Seattle metal\hard rock in the pre-grunge era definitely know Queensryche, likely know Metal Church, and may have a passing familiarity with Fifth Angel, a short lived band with a couple of strong discs.  Their self titled disc originally came out on Shrapnel Records and produced by Terry Date, features powerful vocals from (Dr.) Ted Pilot, excellent guitar playing from the team of James Byrd and Ed Archer, and slamming drumwork from Ken Mary.  Songs are suitably epic with quite a few solid mid-paced riffsters (“Cry Out The Fools”, “Fifth Angel”) thrown in with the occasionally speedy cut (“In The Fallout”, “The Night”), overall bringing to mind European power metal such as Helloween or Accept mixed in with MSG, Scorpions,  and Yngwie Malmsteen (especially in the lead guitar work).  Disc #2 (Tiime WIll Tell) came out a couple of years later, this time manned by Rush-man Terry Brown who brings a much smoother production style in comparison to Date.  Still, there are some strong cuts like “Dangerous Love”, “Angel Of Mercy”, “Cathedral”, and “We Rule” but the production change leaves this disc sounding more like a heavier Dokken.  Not that that’s a terribly bad thing, but with some sweetening of the vocals and choruses makes it appear as if the record company meddled with this disc looking for a hit (check the chorus of “Wait For Me” or “Broken Dreams” for examples).  After many years, this band has reunited with some members but hasn’t put out anything new.

As I’ve mentioned before, I worked in a record store right before the grunge explosion hit and we always received samplers from Concrete Marketing, who handled promotions for a number of bands during that period.  The samplers were always cool and offered up a number of different metal\hard rock oriented bands, which is how I got my first exposure to the awesomely cool alternative metal band Animal Bag.  These guys were a bit hard to describe, almost a bit of acoustic funk here, ballsy rock there, and a whole lotta psychedelia mixed together to form an interesting concoction.  I’ve fortunately picked up three of their releases and all three couldn’t be any different:  Their introductory self titled disc is a wild batch of eclectic and atmospheric tunes, bringing to mind The Doors eastern influences (“Cheerful Mary In The Rain”), Hendrix\Guns N Roses guitar freakiness (“Everybody”), Zeppelin acoustic touches (“Mirrored Shades”), and modern day funkiness like Faith No More and Saigon Kick (“Hate St.”).  Second disc is an EP called Offering, a mixed bag of originals and covers with an absolutely astounding version of Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s “Wooden Ships” that has become one of my favorite covers of all time-  amazing that this is even more laid back and psychedelic than the original; just gorgeous guitar and vocal interplay between Luke Edwards and Rich Parris.  Lastly third disc is the unreleased “Image Damage”, a disc much heavier than the first two leaning more rock than the acoustic touches found on the first two.  Unfortunately the band broke up during a record company shake up as grunge had now taken over the music world in the States.