Search - Loudness :: Heavy Metal Hippies

It's never pretty when metal goes grunge

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 09/03/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"In some ways, you have to feel a little sorry for Japanese metal icons Loudness. They (or their record company) never seemed quite satisfied with the band's success. They were always changing the formula, from singing in English to hiring an American vocalist to jumping on that most unfortunate of American musical trends - grunge. By 1994 the market for the traditional heavy metal that Loudness did so well was decidedly cold, so the band tried their hand at grunge with the ridiculously-titled Heavy Metal Hippies.



For Heavy Metal Hippies, Loudness was back to an all-Japanese lineup, but the only original member left was guitar wizard Akira Takahashi. Honestly, the lineup for this particular stinker really couldn't have mattered less. It's never pretty when metal bands try to go grunge (see Dokken's Dysfunctional or Pink Cream 69's Change), and Heavy Metal Hippies is no exception. This band needs to be screaming about Shadows of War and having Rock and Roll Crazy Nights, not wallowing in melody-free guitar sludge and catering to Generation X whiners. They're too good as musicians for this sort of thing, and they lack the integrity of the Seattle bands. Loudness doing Soundgarden is entirely unconvincing, and doesn't do anyone any good.



Unless you're the most dedicated of Loudness fans, I can't recommend Heavy Metal Hippies at all. As a grunge album it's bad, as a metal album it's worse, and as a Loudness album...it's just better off forgotten.



Edition Notes: Wounded Bird reissued Heavy Metal Hippies in 2005. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time the album has been issued in the US. Like all Wounded Bird reissues, the album has not been remastered nor is there any bonus material. Of course, I don't think I'd necessarily want to hear b-sides from this particular album."