LOUDNESS / XYZ-A frontman Minoru Niihara recently discussed a variety of subjects with BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai, including the passing of Loudness drummer Munetaka Higuchi last year (November 30th, 2008) and the new XYZ-A record Learn From Yesterday! Live For Today! Hope For Tomorrow!. A couple excerpts are available below:

On Loudness versus XYZ-A: "You can probably say that Loudness projects take priority. When I don’t have any Loudness projects I’m working on XYZ-A stuff. Loudness is more like an Akira Takasaki Band and he is pretty much in control, but in XYZ-A all the members are very active in the songwriting. Balance-wise, I think I’m always pouring the same amount of energy into the both bands. If we are talking about varieties of music, in XYZ-A we can try different types of music and we may have more fun because of that."

On the latest Loudness album: "The Everlasting turned out to be a very good album. As you know, we made it with all the recordings Munetaka had done, and it took time to edit those recordings, but writing music and recording went very smoothly. However, I had to stop in the middle of a song at times since I got very emotional remembering Munetaka. It was a very hard experience, needless to say. I hope we will never have to do this kind of recording again. It was too much."

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A review of XYZ-A's new album is available here. It can be purchased at this location.

As previously reported, BW&BK;'s Japanese colleague and supporter Takashi Kanazawa has submitted an overview of the "Sorrowful Night" tribute show to Higuchi, who passed away on November 30th, 2008 following a long battle with liver cancer. Kanazawa played host for the interview portion of the night, which included the official introduction of the band's new drummer, Masayuki "Ampan" Suzuki:

"Loudness concert entitled Sorrowful Night was held at Ebisu Liquidroom in Tokyo on November 29th, the night before one year anniversary of the death of Munetaka Higuchi.

Milky Z, whose songs were produced by Munetaka before he passed away, opened the show. Along with band's original songs, they played a cover of Loudness' ballad 'So Beautiful' from 2002's Biosphere album.

Loudness opened with 'Fire Of Spirit and followed by 'Flame Of Rock', 'Hit The Rails' and 'I Wonder' from their latest release, The Everlasting. Along with post-reunion songs like 'Cross', 'Metal Mad', 'Breaking The Taboo', classics such as 'Let It Go', 'Crazy Nights', 'Crazy Doctor', 'Never Change Your Mind' and 'S.D.I.' were played. One of surprises that wowed the audience was 'Shadows Of War (Ashes In The Sky)', played in the encore. The song has not been played for years.

After the concert, a talk show / interview was held with all four members attending to talk over memories with Munetaka including a lot of behind-the-scene stories. Masayuki 'Ampan' Suzuki (seen in the 'Metal Mad' clip below) expressed his mixed feeling of being a replacement of Munetaka and how hard it is technically to play with monstrous players in this band.

During the talk show, which lasted well over one hour, Akira revealed that the band will start writing in December and possibly release new album around spring 2010. To coincide with the release, Thunder In The East North American and European tour are being planned.

Never-before seen footage of Munetaka giving lesson to members of Milky Z, 'Ares' Lament' from the tribute concert held two weeks ago and 'S.D.I.' from Shibuya-AX concert in February 2006 were shown.

To clear up the delicate position in the band (though Akira stated earlier that he is the official drummer, not support), Masayuki 'Ampan' Suzuki was officially appointed as the drummer of Loudness."