TOKYO BLADE Night of the Blade ... The Night Before LP , BLACK [VINYL 12"]

High Roller Records, reissue 2021, black vinyl, ltd 200, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, lyric sheet, poster, Mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in September 2020. Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels... Featuring original lead vocalist Alan Marsh


Wiltshire’s favourite New Wave Of British Heavy Metal outfit Tokyo Blade did not have an easy start into their career by any stretch of the imagination. Before settling on the name Tokyo Blade, the band was initially called Killer and then Genghis Khan (under which name they recorded a privately pressed double 7” single in 1983). When Alan Marsh (vocals), John Wiggins (guitar), Andy Boulton (guitar), Andy Robbins (bass) and Steve Pierce (drums) finally became Tokyo Blade, they were widely tipped to become the next big thing of the glorious NWOBHM, following in the footsteps of Iron Maiden.
The band’s self-titled debut album, originally released on the then new Powerstation Records in 1983, took the British public by storm. The record received excellent reviews in the press, which widened Tokyo Blade’s fan base quite considerably. When it became time to write and record the songs for their second album “Night Of The Blade”, one could have assumed that the mood inside the Tokyo Blade camp would have been rather optimistic. But this was actually not the case. “I do wonder sometimes what would’ve happened if my dear mother had never bought me my first guitar and if I had never formed my first band,” wonders original guitarist Andy Boulton today. “It’s been a very long and tough road for Tokyo Blade since that first record but I don’t have any real regrets. It would’ve been nice if we could have just made a living from music, so that we could concentrate on doing that but we all have day jobs, like everybody else we have to work for a living. I’ve enjoyed making music all of these years and I’ve enjoyed seeing the fans at shows even more, I have no real complaints.”