Originally released in 2004, RockShocks is essentially a "best of" the Loudness discography, primarily focusing on their earlier work. Recently in metal we have seen a number of bands go back and re-record old songs or even full albums as a new, modern sounding mix. This is a route such notables as Destruction, Dimmu Borgir, and Saxon have all been a part of. While flying relatively under the radar, Loudness is doing the same thing here. For those listeners who are not too familiar with the music of Loudness or for those who are looking for a sort of summary of their most credible work, RockShocks is an ideal disc. The band's early sound was a combination of traditional metal along with some of the proto-thrash elements that were prevalent with many bands in the mid 80s. While the high-pitched singing of Minoru Niihara may tend to be more of an acquired taste, the strength of Loudness seems to be in the guitar wizardry of Akira Takasaki. Undoubtedly influenced by the likes of Eddie Van Halen and other guitar heroes, these compositions are chock full of tasty guitar riffs and shredding solos. Songs like "Crazy Nights" & "Like Hell" showcase the band in their top song writing form and make it easy to see why this band shot to popularity not only in their home country but also on a global scale.

This latest version of RockShocks was released in 2006 by Crash Music and contains three additional bonus tracks off of the 2005 Driven album. To be honest I am not exactly sure why this was re-released or if the three additional tracks bring anything more to the table. Maybe this was done to make the album more accessible or maybe just a moneymaking ploy, but either way it's hard to find anything to fault with this disc as it's a great introduction to Loudness' music and (if you really like what you hear) may even be a gateway to digging up some old classic 80s albums. Sayonara.

written by Joe Grammatico

Playing time: 78:54