Band : Tokyo Blade
Album title : Thousand Men Strong
Label : Fast Ball Records
Distributor : Rock Inc.
Release Date : 16/03/2011
Release : CD

Those were the days my friends…  When in 1983 Tokyo Blade released their first studio album simply called ‘Tokyo Blade’ it hit me like a sledgehammer.  This was NWOBHM at it’s best.  Sadly the toll of their success in a certain way also meant the demise of the group, since band members started going in an out of the band.  The follow up album, ‘Night Of The Blade’ was also a very good piece of work, but then I lost sight of the group.

So you can imagine my surprise when I received this album.  Sadly enough it was only a promotional copy, meaning I didn’t get to complete songs, but rather samples from each song.  So it’s more difficult to form an opinion. When I plaid it for the first time, it was as if the eighties had come back.  Again this sounds like top notch NWOBHM.  And there’s not even one ballad on the album.
For fans of a bygone era, I have to mention that all members of this Tokyo Blade line-up, were also in the original version, except the singer.Alan Marsh’s place has been taken by new vocalist Nicolay ‘Nick’ Ruhnow, a German, but you couldn’t tell by listening to his English pronunciation. So I’d say this album is a very strong come-back, let’s hope this time the band lasts a little longer.

90/100

Erik Morren.