Spiritual Canoe ~輪廻転生~

One might have thought that the return of Loudness' classic line-up from the eighties should have put an end to the band's at times confusing experimental era with the previous line-up throughout the mid- to late nineties. However, that isn't quite the case here. Just a look at the odd album title and the ugly cover artwork should have been strong indicators that Loudness was still all over the place in the early years of the millennium.

Spiritual Canoe is still a quite experimental record but it has more consistency than the previous four albums. This is mostly due to a tighter rhythm section as opposed to meandering performances, the return of heavier riffs as opposed to psychedelic soundscapes and especially more focused songwriting with thirteen overall short and mostly concise tracks with a running time of about sixty-four minutes.

There are still a few quite odd moments on this record such as the nerve-firing vocal effects in the repetitive ''The Hate That Fills My Lonely Cells'', the rap passages in the bouncy ''How Many More Times'' and the endless guitar solos in the weak closer ''The Power of Love''.

Most of the experimental tracks however also have a few addicting and focused moments and don't go entirely berserk. ''The Seven Deadly Sins'' has a canny demo sound with an overtly present bass guitar and noisy drum sound and doesn't seem to blend in with the rest of the album but the song itself isn't too bad with its rawer note that meets a few nice guitar tones. The experimental guitar sounds in ''A Stroke of Lightning'' are once again over the top but the main riff is memorable and the vocals stay focused on Loudness' more traditional hard rock and heavy metal style.

There are also some entirely great tracks on this album which are mostly the half-ballads. ''Touch My Heart'' has an almost danceable touch thanks to its vivid bass tone and rhythmic drum passages that meet surprisingly mellow vocals and simple and efficient guitar riffs recalling the band's glorious years one and a half decades earlier with a more playful touch. ''Never Forget You'' has an airy guitar tone and melancholic vocals recalling the band's mellower successes of the mid-eighties and should please fans of old date since it's easily the most accessible track on this record.

An honorable mention goes to the fast, heavy and stressful ''Climaxxx'' which is indeed titled very appropriately. If you feel like going crazy for about four minutes, crank up the volume and unleash this monster somewhere between groove metal and punk rock. It will kick your ass and blow your mind even if it doesn't fit with the rest of the album at all.

In the end, Spiritual Canoe isn't a return to form yet but a step in the right direction. The album finds a good balance between experimental tracks, songs with focused and meandering parts and a few hits recalling the band's original sound from the eighties. This first record after the reunion of the classic line-up can be seen as a transitional effort. It would have been better for the band to take some more time to release its first record of the new millennium and combine this album's greatest cuts with the best songs from the successor that was already released a few months later for a more consistent effort. Still, Spiritual Canoe is an average release by Loudness' standards which was a positive thing back in those days. Faithful fans can grab this release without hesitation, occasional fans should buy this record as part of the excellent Columbia Years Selection but new fans should rather start with one of Loudness' classic albums.

In the late 90s and early 2000s Loudness kept releasing album after album, all awkwardly titled, mostly featuring generic and dull material. This was one of two albums they released in 2001, and neither was very good. After this album, they wisely slowed down the pace a little, until realizing it was time to seriously reconsider their strategy towards the end of the decade.

Spiritual Canoe is my favorite of the wacky titles, which is so oddly ridiculous it's very promising. The title track, sadly, is merely a one and a half minute instrumental, but we do get a full song titled The Hate That Fills My Lonely Cells, which doesn't disappoint. The singing sounds like vague African chanting or something similar, before another droning chorus kicks in. This sort of depressing bantering and droning is so out of place for Loudness it becomes an unintentional comedy track.

The first track, meanwhile, starts with oddly undistinguished drumming, before launching into a mediocre riff played on a terribly recorded guitar. The very distant vocals kick in afterwards, and frankly, trusted singer Minoru Niihare wasn't suited to this sort of low, droning singing. It sounds like Loudness attempting Panthera mixed with nu-metal. It doesn't work; it plays to none of Loudness's strengths, many though there be. It will be the dominating sound of the album, however; and truly, you do get used to it.

The third track, luckily, is a bit of a traditional metal song. It showed the boys still had it. It's a little slow and too groovy, but it functions. It is unfortunate the awful production holds it back a little. This could have been a classic in their 80s catalogue – compliments are due. The remainder of the tracks are Loudness' customary trashy songs, intertwined with groovy but sad ballads – they have had many since their interesting self-titled album. Loudness wasn't born to play that sort of music, but they adapted into it comfortably. None are true classics, and one is usually better off listening to bands experienced in those styles; but if you are very fond of Loudness, the tracks on here are hardly a bad alternative.

The ballads are lovably tempered this time around: hardly the wimpy trash they sometimes produced. I must, however, object, out of sheer outrage, to a metal band writing a song called The Power of Love without a trace of irony. The song is excessively long and meandering, like the album itself. The title track, which introduces it, is a neat instrumental, however.

Despite the decent material, I do leave this album with a great sense of melancholy. It's not merely that the album's content is decidedly dark, but that the context makes me hopelessly sad. Something about a metal giant resorting to badly recorded albums with such horribly dark material, in complete contrast to their earlier work, leaves me a very weary. Nevertheless, the album is not without its appealing qualities. It feels like the band was very down about their lack of success, and that translates to very melancholy, but oddly enticing, music. Even the title starts to make a little sense. It does feel like a lonely but spiritual canoe trip on a big winding river, straight out of Loudness' Heart of Darkness. It is not an album to play often, nor is it truly great; but as an intriguing chapter in the life of a great band, it isn't to be overlooked entirely either.