Formed as Killer, then Genghis Khan in '81 and eventually settling with Tokyo Blade in '82, the band released their first self titled record in '83. 'Night of the Blade' followed in '84, but not before welcoming in new singer, Vicki James Wright who stuck around until '86. Tokyo Blade offer up a fairly common but quite good dosage of classic 80's NWOBHM on this second record. The album is energetic, very catchy and has just enough of that 80's cheese to make it a lot of fun. The tempos very from each song, sometimes mid-paced to faster total rockin' numbers, a great sense of flow during/between songs and with higher ranged vocals expertly performed by Vic too. The lyrics are mostly centered around love/relationships, but others, such as, 'Night of the Blade' seems to be about Jack the Ripper or at least a nighttime killer, whereas, 'Warrior of the Rising Sun' is about a samurai warrior, 'Dead of Night' vengeance, and, 'Unleash the Beast' is a bit elusive lyrically, but what a great, memorable, fast paced killer song it is! You can guess the themes of, 'Someone to Love,' 'Rock me to the Limit,' 'Lovestruck' and 'Lightning Strikes,' and, yeah sure its corny, but amusing all the same.
Guitarists Andy Boulton & John Wiggins come up with tons of fetching and head bobbing riffs as well as some really impressive solos too. Sure its not quite Dave Murray or Adrian Smith impressive, but enjoyable for sure and just vintage metalness at its finest. Steve Pierce's drumming is pretty basic, no surprises, but he does a good job, also the bass guitar of Andy Wrighton, although audible, is not as prominent as it feels like it should be during some moments. Vic's vocals are typically 80's higher pitched vocals and I figure you either love or hate that sort of thing, personally I dig it quite a bit. Interestingly ex-vocalist Alan Marsh originally recorded the vocals for this album, but after departing, Mr Wright subsequently re-recorded the vocals... curiously they left Alan's backing vocals intact, so both vocalists appear on the album. Also the album is ridiculously short at just thirty four minutes, but I guess a CD re-issue exists with eight bonus tracks.
Throughout the past thirty years Tokyo Blade has existed and non-existed, they've released nine albums, many compilations and even at one point an American version of the band was around, but nowadays 4 of 5 members from this line-up continue onward with German singer Nicolaj Ruhnow handling the vocal duties. My guess is Tokyo Blade never attained a great deal of fame, which is a shame since, 'Night of the Blade' is a total gem and just fantastic too.
I think one of the reasons why the band didn't get more popular is the seemingly frequent lineup changes. It's always going to be a battle when a band changes singers, and I think Marsh's early departure affected the band, even though the band pressed on with re-recordings. But, either way, it's still an awesome album.
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