Japan's leading traditional heavy metal band, Anthem, will release Nucleus, an entirely re-recorded greatest hits album now available with English lyrics for the first time, on March 29th. They have released a live video for the song "Bad Habits Die Hard", taken from their 1988 album, Gypsy Ways. It is the first in a series of three live videos set for release in the coming weeks. 

Check out a music video for the song "Black Empire", below:

On the eve of the bands 35th Anniversary, their popularity in Japan remains as high as ever and their worldwide fan base continues to grow. Thus the idea of an all English re-record of their biggest hits came to be.

Band leader and bassist Naoto Shibata comments: "Our re-recorded greatest hits album with English lyrics, represents all that this is Anthem’s nucleus. I am honoured from the bottom of my heart that we can present this to our fans. Anthem will keep doing our best to move forward heading for the future as always. I hope you all will enjoy Nucleus.”

Mixing and mastering for Nucleus were done by the legendary Jens Bogren. His works based on elaborate theories and a great store of knowledge helped Anthem achieve their goals on this release. Nucleus is heavy with Jens' fat sound and rich low-end that he has made the worldwide heavy metal standard.

This re-recorded greatest hits, including a variety of their classics is a monumental work, which perfectly shows the musical quality of Anthem and proves that they can be ranked as a global act in the international metal scene.

Anthem guitarist Akio Shimizu states: "Those 13 songs were not easy to re-record at all, however I believe they fully got the sound and the expression of today’s Anthem while being true to the originals at the same time. Please give it to a listen and feel the details of the album with the fresh mixing by Jens Bogren."

Vocalist Yukio Morikawa says of the recordings: "Singing all the songs in English was not easy at all for me, but I hope this album will show the world that Japan has a band like us who loves metal this much. I hope you enjoy Nucleus!"

Nucleus will be released in North America via Golden Robot Records on March 29th and can be pre-ordered here. The album will be available elsewhere via Nuclear Blast Records.

Tracklisting:

Disc 1:
"Immortal Bind"
"Black Empire"
"Overload"
"Stranger"
"Linkage"
"Eternal Warrior"
"Ghost In The Flame"
"Venom Strike"
"Awake"
"Omega Man"
"Pain"
"Echoes In The Dark"
"Unbroken Sign"

Disc 2:
"Victim In Your Eyes"
"Gold & Diamonds"
"Blast"
"Frozen Fate"
"Are You Ready?"
"Machine Made Dog"
"Hunting Time"
"Engraved"
"The Sign"
"Pain"
"Wild Anthem"

"Immortal Bind" lyric video:

Introduction to band's history:

Trailer: