[Album Review] Ex. Danger - (1986) Tyrant into the West - 7/10

[TadakatsuH0nda]

I-It's Not Like I Like You or Anything: Part 1 - 7/10

I tried numerous times to get into Ex. Danger, the instrumental skill was always there, but every time I tried there was one gigantic road block, that being the band's voice Yuzo Shimazaki. I just couldn't do it, it was too much. I laughed at these guys for years, going so far as to play Ex. Danger to horrify friends with the numerous unbelievably bad vocal performances in this band's catalog. I don't know how it happened, but somewhere in-between playing them as a joke and now I've grown to, for the most part, enjoy their music, spearheaded by their album Tyrant into the West. Gradually, while at work, I slowly began whistling their melodies and to my horror even humming some of Shimazaki's vocal lines. How was this possible, this wasn't supposed to happen, not with these guys. I've ripped apart fundamentally better bands for less, yet Ex. Danger somehow managed to pull through and climb from the blazing tire fire of bands doomed by terrible singers.

Ex. Danger has an instrumental core with undeniable talent which I never gave enough credit to initially, however, it's tragically combined with some of the most bafflingly stupid vocals to ever bobble their way into a Japanese heavy metal act, which is a huge shame, because I'll now admit this band would be worth checking out for fans of the scene any day if it were the instrumentals alone, but when you add the vocals to the mix it's incredibly difficult taking Ex. Danger with any degree of seriousness, as was my case for several years. There's no two ways about it, Yuzo Shimazaki's voice is simply atrocious; imagine a drunk Klaus Meine singing with earplugs stuffed up his nose, then between some of his lines, he unleashes a terrifying nasally "hwaaaah" rocketing them into the crowd and hitting some poor kid between the eyes... He only came to enjoy a metal show, not to be assaulted with Yuzo's vocal incompetence. Really though, listen to Rock Kingdom for just one example, you'll see exactly what I mean.

As a positive, Tyrant into the West benefits immensely from being short and sweet, in fact it's only about the size of an EP though it was sold as an album back in the day. All 6 songs average just over 5 minutes each in length. Playing a melodic heavy/power metal ranging from mid to fast-paced songs, Ex. Danger sticks squarely to their strengths here, and with that in mind, holy shit am I glad they didn't try to make Shimazaki sing a ballad or something, that'd be simply unbearable. The closest we get to that is the track 1999 which starts pretty relaxed, but thankfully it picks up quickly and doesn't look back, becoming a galloping, lively metal song for the rest of its duration.

Ex. Danger's instrumentalists admirably overcome Shimazaki to make this album a reasonable success, against all odds. The group's biggest strengths are easily guitarist Seiji Yoshimi and keyboardist Kazuhiro Nakatake. They bring to the table pretty much every redeeming quality about this band; great melodies, well-executed solo sections, a fair bit of complexity, both aggression and emotion; their chemistry as a duo is abundantly clear. Seiji Yoshimi's riffs in particular are consistently excellent throughout the album. Ex. Danger's rhythm section doesn't offer anything profound, though they effectively support the heavy lifting that Yoshimi and Nakatake are doing. The album's production is okay for the most part, but I find the bass to be too quiet the vast majority of the time.

I pointed out Rock Kingdom earlier as an example for vocal misfires on this album, but in all honesty it's also one of the band's strongest tracks. A slow and dramatic song with a good atmosphere, a ton of killer riffing and a great solo section, it's an effective choice to open the album with on the band's part. Though I'm sure they didn't intend for it to be this way, Rock Kingdom acquaints you with what to expect from the rest of the release, with Ex. Danger's very best (and worst) traits front and center, clashing spectacularly like an impending train crash you can't look away from. As a newcomer, Rock Kingdom as the intro track is almost a test, if you can handle a song as jarring as that, you'll likely be able to stomach the rest of the album fine.

I would say my favorite song on Tyrant into the West is definitely Midnight Angel. It's the fastest song on the album and to me is Ex. Danger at the best they were capable of being. Midnight Angel opens with an explosive, exciting riff quickly joined by fluttery power metal keyboards and the track just exudes energy nonstop all the way through in a NWOBHM influenced fury. Shimazaki's singing is even tolerable for the majority of the song, with a surprisingly decent chorus too. Vocals aside, Midnight Angel isn't unlike something Breeze Least or similar countrymen of the era could have made. Another higher-intensity track in this vein is Get it Makin' Time. As for the remainder of Tyrant into the West, Burning Generation and Dead Point are two slower-tempo heavy metal tracks, they're a bit more laid back than what's found on the rest of the album, they're probably the least interesting as well, though the guitar work is still solid.

Ex. Danger were an undeniably talented band that just happened to make an exceptionally poor choice in the vocal department, one that in all likelihood contributed towards a premature end to the band. It's unfortunate for sure as it diminishes what's otherwise a really strong product. Tyrant into the West isn't something I envision a lot of people enjoying, at least not initially, it certainly wasn't my cup of tea either for years before it just gradually started to click, and even then I'll never fully get past the singing. This album is a lot to digest given everything mentioned above and while it's flawed, to its credit it's quite catchy and memorable as well. It wouldn't hurt to check this out if the issues I talked about didn't put you off, and honestly Shimazaki is way more entertaining than what you get with most bad singers, so if nothing else, you'll get a good laugh out of it. All things considered, I find myself wondering how differently things could have gone for Ex. Danger if they simply had a better voice, but that we'll sadly never know.