Black Empire

Anthem have long been one of my favorite Japanese metal bands, throughout the 80s, 90s and 21st century. Their penchant for composing simple, by the book melodic metal with catchy vocal lines (in both Japanese and English) has produced nary a weak moment in their career. They've always been better than Loudness (the two bands have shared members) and other bands that have seen more spotlight, and it's a shame. This new album, Black Empire, their 13th full-length, is ample evidence why.

Let's start with the cover art...just how pensive is that image? Yet it makes perfect sense to me. On to the production...never has an Anthem album sounded this good. Granted, they've never NEEDED to sound this good because the music is generally such high quality (but I can think of at least a few albums where the vocals were too loud and the mix was way off). But here you get an exemplary balance where all the instruments can shine, including the use of synths on many of the tracks. Every lick of just about every solo on the album is perfectly placed to provide an adventure within the track...yeah, the way solos SHOULD always be played on this type of album.

The title track kicks off the album with mid-paced Judas Priest style guitars layered in Eizo Sakamoto's unmistakable vocal presence. The chorus is catchy and highlighted by the light keyboard flourishes. This is prime 80s radio ready power metal here, make no mistake. It's catchy and quite accessible. "Heat of the Night" starts a little faster, with a definite German speed/power metal vibe under some shrill guitar wailing. It is clear at this point that Anthem intends to really kick our asses on this album. I couldn't be happier. Another great chorus with good off-vocals. "You" is a rock and roller through and through, with the roots Priest/Sabbath influence to its riffing and the erupting melodic chorus. "Go Insane" is hyper and melodic and once again lays a smacking down. Again, Akio Shimizu's guitar wails add a layered haunting to the bridge riff. "Walk Through the Night" is an extremely cheesy radio ballad with female guest vocals, it's straight out of like 1984 or something but I love it. "Emptiness World" is back to rocking. "Telling You" is anothers highly 80s rocker which reminds me of Def Leppard, King Diamond and Saxon from that period. "Pilgrim" is an epic instrumental, slower-paced tune with beautiful neo-classical guitar melodies and some wonderful shredding. "Awake" is another melodic, anthemic metal number and the album closer "Perfect Crawler" is once again back to the Priest way of doing things. I have no problem with this since Priest themselves seem incapable of doing it anymore.

The bottom line, this is a fantastic new album from Anthem and I am thrilled to see them releasing such superb material so deep into their career. I will be listening to this for some time and in addition it's likely to make me break out their discography yet again. One of the world's premiere melodic heavy metal bands even if they've never had an inkling of the respect they deserve. This is more likely to appeal to classics 80s metalheads and j-rockers than to the Dragonforce/Rhapsody sect of Johnny-come-lately ADD-induced symphonic shred power metal fans, but who cares. It rocks like there is no tomorrow, and that is all I want to hear when see the Anthem logo.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Since reforming in 2001, the road has been rocky for Anthem. They've released a string of brilliant Metal albums that all suffered from one glaring flaw or another, while still remaining great releases on the whole. Still, with such a well-known and respected group of musicians comprising the new lineup, most Anthem fans got the sense that the band could do better. 'Black Empire' is proof that those fans were correct.

The main achilles' heel of modern Anthem is the lack of a strong track to close out the album and a general lack of strong tracks around the middle. 'Black Empire', however, doesn't share any of the flaws that 'Immortal' or 'Eternal Warrior' suffered from, while still possessing and even surpassing those records' respective strengths.

The album opens with a memorable Speed Metal title track that showcases some very impressive vocal performances by now-superstar vocalist Eizo Sakamoto. Sonically speaking, think Painkiller-era Priest or Timebomb-era U.D.O. and you will get a sense of what Anthem were going for with the title track and the album's first single 'Heat of the Night'. The latter is definitely one of the album's highlights and has a chorus that rings in your head for weeks. We can instantly see that the band is experimenting with some very light keyboard elements in a way that fans of the group haven't seen them do since 'Domestic Booty' in the early 90's. For those gunshy of such things, let me assure you that they in no way detract from the heaviness in the early part of this album, which continues in a slightly more downpace fashion with 'You', which has since turned out to be one of my favourite songs on the record.

In the past, track #3 would be about the point at which the quality would fall off. Not drastically, mind you, but certainly more than a band of this caliber should permit. Well, apparently Anthem isn't taking the bait this time. 'Go Insane' is yet another strongly-written rocker with a very addictive bridge and chorus, punctuated by a blistering guitar solo in now-typical Anthem fashion. As if to drive the point home, Sakamoto-san belts out "Don't Need No Acclimation / NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" 'Walk Through the Night' is the album's lone ballad, but rather than dragging the proceedings down, it helps enhance the overall experience with yet another great chorus. Eizo has really outdone himself, here, and brings a depth of feeling to the vocals that has been somewhat missing since Morikawa left the band in '92.

I will refrain from track-by-track analysis, but the main highlight of the latter half of the album is the impossibly catchy 'Emptiness World' and the album's killer closer, 'Perfect Crawler', the latter of which sees Akio Shimizu showcasing some absolutely brilliant guitarwork. The album's obligatory instrumental, 'Pilgrim', is probably the album's only weakness, mostly because it isn't all that interesting to listen to when compared to, say, 'Ground Zero' from 2002's 'Overkill'. Even so, if you want to hear Akio Shimizu play guitar for awhile, it's not exactly like pulling teeth.

In short, the new Anthem has finally done it: an album of all killer, no filler. I can't recommend this enough for fans of Judas Priest, U.D.O., and classic Loudness. If you're not put off by the jaw-dropping prices of Anthem's imported material, this is a must-purchase.