Tokyo Blade – ‘Dark Revolution’ [Album Review]

Picking up the scattered puzzle pieces of yesterday’s past, Tokyo Blade hit back with Dark Revolution. Just as fierce as any face punch released in the early ‘80s, this is a prime slab of beef to be practice-punched and KO’d with ribs breaking. As clever as anything penned by Accept, Scorpions, or Iron Maiden, this overlooked English band made its debut in the ‘price is right’ section of LPs that just weren’t selling but were flooding forth from the gates of metal music. The juice is worth the squeeze, though, and Tokyo Blade is just as profound and potent as they were back in 1984.

Dark Revolution has that great arena rock you were searching for when discovering new groups at the prime of your sexual inhibitions. Plenty of head-and-fist-banging anthems while sweating out your hormonal desires. “The Fastest Gun in Town” screams an obligatory “give it all, give it all, give it everything you’ve got” with a responding chorus cry from the residing choir that yes, this is what we’ve all been looking for.

https://youtu.be/-VcyJ-08yPk

The back half of this release, “Crack in the Glass” and “Perfect Enemy,” hone in on a Michael Schenker vibe that can commit no foul in my books. The only negative I have to add to this golden globe of metal greatness is that everything is played and recorded in the same key, which tends to make the album sound like one long song. There’s nothing wrong with that if tunnel vision is your thing, but great artists tend to trick the listener by changing tunings in the studio. Hell, Ted Nugent uses the same bar chords for four-fifths of his songs.

If you want to revel in that nostalgic ‘80s sound with contemporary production, I would definitely recommend Dark Revolution, as it will feed the jones to scratch the itch when politics didn’t seem so complicated, you didn’t have to worry about bills or money, and life was about the song, the girl, and a beer. Tokyo Blade has aged with grace, as have their audience. Please welcome back Tokyo Blade with stereos blazing. The only difference these days is that your four-year-old will be bitching about the volume instead of your Grandmother.

Dark Revolution Track Listing:  

1. Story of a Nobody
2. Burning Rain
3. Dark Revolution
4. The Fastest Gun in Town
5. Truth Is a Hunter
6. Crack in the Glass
7. Perfect Enemy
8. See You Down in Hell
9. The Lights of Soho
10. Not Lay Down and Die
11. Voices of the Damned

Run Time: 45:05
Release Date: May 22, 2020
Record Label: Dissonance Productions / Back On Black (Vinyl)