Tokyo Dragons
Hot Nuts

No, I didn't make a huge mistake in writing. I actually want to talk to you about the Tokyo Dragons: some unknown, or almost unknown, Tokyo Dragons. If you want to do me a favor, don't associate them or, even worse, confuse them with the MTV-generation band just because both groups' names start with the word "Tokyo". Here we are not talking about a calculated "pop-rock" formation, led by an effeminate leader who will spend 1000 euros a day on hairstyle, makeup, and waxing to ensure that his (crappy) image creates debate and drives purchases.

Here in Tokyo Dragons' house, they play true rock, strictly aged, raw, impactful, and with a considerable explosive charge. Their debut ("Give Me The Fear") in 2005 was a bolt from the blue. An excellent debut-tribute to AC-DC and Thin Lizzy, just to be clear. Music written with the sole intent of shaking and courting every auditory apparatus that loves the most classic hard rock. In 2007, the mustachioed singer-guitarist Steve Lomax, together with his crew, tries again.

Luckily, the sound is not refined, smoothed, sweetened, or glossy to try to reach a larger number of listeners. The band is clearly still passionate about what they do, and they couldn't care less if the commercial response isn't impressive compared to their undeniable skill in recalling the past. In Great Britain, they are respected and are young enough to believe that, by continuing down this path, sooner or later they will break through. In this chapter, there are 0 ballads. 10 powerful, rough, short but intense tracks, which would be a spectacle to hear live. The production, entrusted this time to Kurt Bloch, does justice to the dirty and full sound of the guitars that almost never perform particularly fast solos and are in perfect harmony with Lomax's rough and seasoned voice. Add in excellent backing vocals, mighty riffs, and that touch of melody in the choruses, sufficient to keep the tune in mind, and there you have it.

The Tokyo Dragons are the kind of band you can appreciate at any moment of the day because they don’t know preliminaries, intros, outros, symphonic breaks, tediously prolix endings, and the lightning-fast neoclassical instrumental self-indulgences that are so trendy to impress the young adolescents, who believe that playing guitar means knowing how to do ultra-fast tapping. For the Tokyo Dragons, this is nonsense. In "Hot Nuts," the British remind us that even though it's 2007, all it takes is 4 minutes per song, two guitars, a bass, a drum, and a lot of passion shouted behind a microphone to create an energetic and impactful record. To see for yourself with what’s written, I recommend listening to "On Your Marks", "Keeping The Wolf From The Door", "Rock My Boat", "On Fuel" and "Ramblin' Jack".

I prefer the debut, but it doesn't really matter. What counts is that we are still at those excellent levels. "Hot Nuts," in the end, completely satisfied me. Four stars are exaggerated, I know. But let's exaggerate to draw attention to some young folks who deserve it!