This is Loudness of the new Millennium! 'Racing' is a fast paced hard driving album that truly makes Loudness shine! The songs are all amazing! If you like Heavy Metal, than this is metal at its best! I am sick and tired of reading reviews on how Loudness does not sound like they used to in the 80's. The 80's are gone! Move On! Akira smokes, his guitar work is incredible as ever and certainly fit the title of this concept CD. If you like the song SPEED, then hold on, cause here we GO!!!! With tracks like, "Lunatic", "Believe It Or Not" and the high speed rocker, "Crazy Samurai" the music on this album absolutely shreds.

This the heaviest album Loudness has done to date. 'Racing' proves that Akira doesn't give a damn about the America market. Though "Thunder in the East" and the other "Americanized" releases are brilliant,'Racing' though very modern, has a mood more like what I experienced the first time I heard "The birthday eve" in 1981. If your new to Loudness, this is a great place to start. If you know Loudness, "Racing" will prove to be exactly what you've come to expect: brilliant! This is the kind of stuff that got me into Japanese metal in the first place. Huge amounts of respect must be given to them as a band for their ability to pen decent lyrics in English and rock the western world at a technical level that few western bands can attain. As far as I am concerned, Loudness ranks as one of my all time favorite metal bands. They are technical, an excellent guitarist (who doesn't get the recognition that he deserves) and a fine singer who sang in the upper register, and they wrote catchy songs. DOMO ARIGATO! Anatagata wa Saikou desu!

Highly Recommended