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| TOKYO BLADE - s/t LP | |
HRR 274, ltd 500, 150 x black vinyl + 350 x white/ red splatter vinyl, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, lyric sheet, 4 page promo insert, promo photo, obi | |
| Alan Marsh - Vocals Andy Boulton - Guitars John Wiggins - Guitars Ray Dismore - Guitars Andy Wrighton - Bass Steve Pierce - Drums | |
| -Powergame -Break the Chains -If Heaven Is Hell -On Through the Night -Killer City -Liar -Tonight -Sunrise in Tokyo -Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | |
| SOLD OUT! | |
There was a time in the early 1980's when Tokyo Blade were destined to become the next Iron Maiden. With fantastic albums such as their self-titled debut and the follow up “Night of the Blade” Andy Boulton (guitars), Alan Marsh (vocals), Andy Robbins (bass) and Steve Pierce (drums) showed enormous promise. But somehow it wasn’t to be – history was not kind to them! Tokyo Blade never became the next superstars of the glorious New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement.
However, Tokyo Blade have left a rich legacy of some timeless Metal songs (for example “If Heaven is Hell”, “Midnight Rendezvous” and “Night of the Blade”). Before turning to the Tokyo Blade name, they formed as Killer. In around 1983 Killer changed their name to Genghis Khan because another band was using the name as well (for example the Swiss Killer and later on Killer from Belgium).
In 1983 Tokyo Blade inked a deal with the British label Powerstation Records (who quickly released the “Powergame” 7" single). Along with the first albums by Iron Maiden and Angel Witch “Tokyo Blade” is still regarded as one the best debut records of the entire New Wave Of British Heavy Metal period. High Roller Records is proud to re-issue this long-deleted classic once again on glorious vinyl.
“We just chose our favourites, really”, says Tokyo Blade guitarist Andy Boulton regarding the song selection on the first album. “Alan Marsh and I were always changing songs around.” The album was originally issued in America, Canada, Japan, Germany/Holland (Roadrunner) and France (Bernett).
Andy Boulton tries to remember if there were other offers apart from Powerstation Records: “Possibly Music for Nations but I can't really remember. We felt that the label was spending as little as possible to promote our first album.”
According to Andy Boulton, despite the history of Killer and Genghis Khan some people still perceived Tokyo Blade as a brand new band: “Yes, I think some fans thought so, the real hard core fans like to dig a little deeper into a band's history. With the first Tokyo Blade album we wanted the name Genghis Khan to be removed once and for all.”
In early 1984 Tokyo Blade played the legendary Aardschok Dag in Holland. Andy Boulton remembers: “It was a great experience for us to play. I think it was our first gig ever in Europe and we fell in love with Europe as a result. When we toured Europe everyone seemed to have a copy of our first album. I'd still love to move to Europe to live.” By the end of the year 1984 there was a fair chance that success-wise Tokyo Blade could have become the new Iron Maiden … It was a very exciting year for the band! “Ah, yes”, sighs Andy Boulton. “But fate had other plans for us and sadly we sunk deeper and deeper into debt. Then the arguments and mistrust started until sadly we were forced to call it a day.”
Matthias Mader