- Before I start typing down my comments to "Chaos Dragon Rising," I must first take the time
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to reintroduce to all you readers the members of Japan's own Terror Squad. This 4-piece psycho machine
consists of throat-shredding vocalist Kouichi "Sonicriot" Udagawa, dragon-head guitarist Keiji "Lord of Nightmare" Ohzeki, bloodletting bassist Hiroyuki "Anarchy Beast"
Maekawa, and hyper-tense drummer Hirofumi "Frankensteiner" Fujioka. After assaulting the status quo
with their ultra-hardcore 1999 debut, "The Wild Stream of Eternal Sin," (which I understand sold over
10,000 copies worldwide) Terror Squad spent one year putting together the riffs and melodies of
"Chaos Dragon Rising," an LP that was also released independently through the WorldChaos label.
"Chaos Dragon" can best be described as a kamikaze of bullet-speed thrash metal that exhales hot volcanic lava
and broken glass onto the most savage masses of crowd-surfers and drunken mohawk maniacs. As gentle and as subtle as a 50-car pile-up on
Highway 666, this album incorporates the anarchic spontanaity of "Wild Stream" with a steady helping of cherry
blossom acoustics, creating a thunderous retro-80's sound somewhat similar to the works of Iron Maiden, Motorhead, and Saxon. What's even
better is that at least some the 11 axe-grinding tracks are shrieked and sung in both the English AND Japanese languages. And of course how can
I possibly forget to mention Takahiko Kawaguchi's stark and monochromatic manga artwork drawn on the jewel sleeve's
pages? If you are a growing fan of Jrock (especially hard-hitting bands like Dir en Grey and Jade Jurassic), I recommend
"Chaos Dragon Rising" as an essential addition to your collection.
"New Born Race!! Break your chain! By your own way, F*#K ALL THE SYSTEMS!!!"
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