Out of the three big Japanese rock/metal bands of the 80’s, Earthshaker were the least well known behind Loudness and Bow Wow. The band were formed in ’78 and this is their second album, and the copy I have is on Music For Nations. Weirdly enough, even though the song titles are written in English (apart from the opening track), they are sung in Japanese. This does take away from the vibe for me as it’s really hard to sing along and get to know the tracks.
The songs are pretty basic and not setting the world alight, and the production is a bit flat. Musically, in places, it’s in the NWOBHM style and I can see why MFN signed them. In quieter moments, they are very AOR before it became fashionable. The stand out track for me is Drive Me Crazy, which is a fairly standard up tempo rocker but outshines anything else on the record. The best I can say is it’s an ok album.
6/10 from The Grooveman.
