Although part of the NWOBHM, Tokyo Blade were after the initial burst of bands. This album was not released until ’83, by which time Saxon had released 5 albums. This is an original copy on Powerstation Records. This is not a bad album despite a very flat production, but the energy and enthusiasm is there in overload. I also remember seeing them at the time, and they were really good live. It helps in metal circles if you have a good guitar player to feed off, and Andy Boulton was not a bad player. The songs are very of the time, and looking back all these years later, a big smile does appear on my face – it was such a fun time to be around as new bands were appearing every second – some good, some not so.
Anyhoo on to the record. The opening track, Powergame, is a typical NWOBHM metal romp, as is second track Break The Chains. If Heaven Is Hell has a very Maiden feel to the song as I’m sure they were influencing a lot of bands of the time. Side 1 close out track, On Through The Night, is not that great of a tune if I’m honest, and is the weakest song so far.
Over to Side 2 and Killer City could almost be a Maiden outtake – the similarities are striking. Liar is my favorite on the album as it has a nice intro and cool riff – even though the main lyric line sounds like Charlotte The Harlot. Tonight has a very stock riff and sounds as though it was a last minute addition – not a lot of thought went into it that’s for sure. The final track, Sunrise In Tokyo, starts with the NWOBHM riff, a riff that all the bands of the time used, and some still try to get away with using it today (Tygers Of Pan Tang).
Unfortunately, they never had the tunes to match the enthusiasm. They have split up and reformed numerous times, but if you were not good enough the first time around, then things ain’t gonna change much.
6.5/10 from The Grooveman.
