Spiritual Beast Records reports:

SOLITUDE, the Japanese heavy metal quartet rising from the ashes of SACRIFICE (Japan - not to be confused with the Canadian thrashers), is finally releasing their second album, Brave The Storm, after 8 years since its predecessor, Virtual Image, which is being re-released.

Sacrifice (Japan) was one of the forerunners of the Japanese heavy/thrash scene back in the 80s to early 90s, releasing 3 studio albums, Crest Of Black (1987), Total Steel (1990) and Tears (1992), and sharing the stage with SODOM, NUCLEAR ASSAULT, CASBAH, OUTRAGE, and X JAPAN among many others.

To this day, Crest Of Black is considered as a classic by many fans around the world.

The founder of both bands, Akira Sugiuchi explains the difference between the two bands: "Sacrifice was a band with an ardor VENOM and NWOBHM. With Solitude, there are of course NWOBHM influences, but there's no boundaries in the music, regardless of whether it's in the trend or not."

Due to popular demands, Solitude appeared at Headbangers Open Air festival in Germany in 2003, and their performance was praised by various media, with Germany's Rock Hard magazine describing them as "the highlight of the festival".

A clip of their performance can be seen below.

Having contributed to a tribute album to one of their heroes, SAXON, for Eagleution - A Tribute to Saxon in 2004 (on Remedy Records / Germany), they soon started recording a new album but various issues delayed the whole process more than they had expected... But now they are back with a new album entitled Brave The Storm! The album was produced by Fuyuhiko Inui (BUCK-TICK, DAY AFTER TOMORROW, MAVERICK, etc.) and the mastering duty was handled by Alan Douches (THE AGONIST, MASTODON, etc.) at West West Side Music in New York.

The current lineup of the band is:

Akira Sugiuchi (vocals / ex-Sacrifice)

Shingo Ida (guitars)

Toru Nishida (bass / ex-Sacrifice)

Takamasa "Mad" Ohuchi (drums / ex-Anthem)

One song is currently available for streaming at the label's official MySpace page. More on the band at this location.

Upcoming tour dates:

April

17 - Apollo Theater - Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
24 - Clapper - Osaka, Japan
29 - Mission's - Tokyo, Japan