To celebrate his 40 years of career, Loudness did not do things halfway. After a long tour, he offers his twenty-eighth album, "Sunburst" that is a double album for more than one hour and twenty minutes of music.
The first part starts badly, the first tracks lacking of catchy melody. The level goes up with 'Yamato Damashii', a track in a 80's heavy metal style carried by the rough vocal of Minoru Niihara, guitar lines worthy of Scorpions and an effective epic chorus. 'Crazy World' and 'The Sanzu River' have an airy feel and a heavy thrash tone a la Megadeth, while 'Stand Or Fall' is effective with a riff close to Black Sabbath, some emphasis, some darkness brought by a violin tune and an excellent solo worthy of Iron Maiden.
The second part suffers from the same defects, between disjointed, flat and without strength ('Shining 80's' looking like a bad Van Halen's unreleased) and more interesting tracks ('Emerald Ocean', 'Hunger For More'), offering a nice hoarse vocal, a fast rhythm and a good energy. Finally, 'All Will Be Fine With You' is a beautiful Celtic ballad carried by Niihara's veiled vocals with a nice emotional side.
As one could fear, "Sunburst" is a victim of the double album syndrome. Loudness wanted to please but was too greedy and signs an average record. A simple album would have had much more impact by keeping the best Heavy Melodic tracks in the melodic heavy in which the Japanese excel.