[Album Review] Anthem - (1987) Bound to Break - 9.5/10

[Painkiller]

Artist: Anthem
Release: Bound to Break (1987)
Rating: 9.5/10

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Bound to Break is the third Anthem album, and inarguably one of their very best releases, which isn't that far behind the eight-punch-combo perfection Tightrope. It's also the first Anthem album to be handled by famous Thin Lizzy, Anvil, and Judas Priest producer Chris Tsangarides, who'd continue to mix the band's later outputs. Hiring Tsangarides in the studio allowed the band to go for a more Americanized sound, albeit without sacrificing their own integrity. It was the very album that helped kick off the band's short-lived tour of the United States that same year in 1987, yielding a live album to document their success on North American soil.

The style of the music is more or less comparable to what was heard on Tightrope, but it's arguably a tad less aggressive and more melodic than its predecessor. "Show Must Go On!" and "Soldiers" are two songs that are full of hooks, with multiple layers of guitar and vocal harmonies wrapping them around. Even "Machine Made Dog" is another one of the band's stabs at churning out an anthemic hit, and it's a sure winner. Like I said, there's more of an emphasis on the melodic structure of most of the songs, but you can still headbang to the thrashy title track that opens the album, as well as the chorus-heavy "Headstrong", so all is well. "Fire'n'the Sword" closes off this near-perfect album, and like all other great tunes preceding it, the song does a great job at delivering the last couple of punches. Anthem was well on their way to superstardom, only to be overshadowed by Loudness' massive success in even their home country. Being that 1987 also saw the release of the very commercialized Hurricane Eyes, which debuted the band's "This Lonely Heart" music video, Anthem could never beat Loudness at their own game. That's also not even accounting for the fact that Loudness was already singing in full English, whereas Anthem and many other Japanese metal bands were still combining their native language with the occasional English lines in choruses and such.

Regardless of the outcome, Bound to Break is a worthy addition to any true metalhead's collection. All musicians are still at their very peak of creativity, only to be held back just a tad by the slightly Americanized sound, although nothing of value was truly lost. Sadly, it was also the last Anthem album to feature Eizo Sakamoto on vocals, who'd be replaced in 1988 with the Graham Bonnet-inspired Yukio Morikawa on the next handful of albums. Sakamoto would return to the band and record his vocals on all releases from 2001 to 2012.