Cherry Red [Release date : 21.11.25]

A 4CD boxset of the best of Tokyo Blade’s 14 albums (and more). It’s not called a “Best Of”, but that’s what it is.

CD1 : selections from Midnight Rendezvous (1984) and Night Of The Blade (1985).
CD2 : selections from subsequent albums, ending with 3 tracks from Fury (2022) and 2 tracks from Time Is The Fire (2025).
CD3 : Live in Holland (1984)
CD4 : Rare and Unreleased.

CD1 captures the tracks at the core of Tokyo Blade’s debut and follow up albums, Midnight Rendezvous and Night Of The Blade. Brutally honest heavy metal, with tunes, just crying out to be used as a soundtrack to the international birth pangs of NWOBHM.

Both got vigorous nods of approval from the heavy metal cognoscenti.

‘Mean Streak, ‘ Love Struck’ and ‘If Heaven Is Hell’ were the high watermark… 3 of the 10 chosen ones from those first two albums. All on CD1.

Like almost every rock/metal band you could care to mention they encountered the disappointingly familiar litany of label turmoil, personnel changes and ill judged decisions.

Band members left and sometimes they came back. Like a movie. The band survived.

Strangely, they chose to widen their musical horizons, a brave but perhaps foolhardy decision.

After cycling through many albums (and personnel), like No Remorse (1989), Burning Down Paradise (1995), Thousand Men Strong (2011) , a secure future still proved elusive.

Then in 2014, the classic lineup reformed. Originals Andy Boulton (guitar) and Alan Marsh (vocals) were reunited with new originals, Steve Pierce, Andy Wrighton and John Wiggins.

The future looked bright(er).

Fury (2022), a 15 track return to heavy metal sanctuary, born of Covid isolation, lauded by fans and media alike, hit the ground running. This was focused, self aware heavy metal, each track cutting its own path through a post NWOBHM soundscape that had virtually been disappeared by the rise of European Power Metal.

‘Blood Red Night’, ‘Kill Me Till I’m Dead’ and ‘Life Leaves A Scar’, are the 3 standout tracks featured on CD2.

The follow up, Time Is The Fire (2025) is an entire album of un-reinvented wheels, armed with dark and profoundly dramatic lyrics and melodies. Heavy metal to remember.

The second CD closes with its standouts, ‘Moth To Flame’ and ‘Don’t Bleed Over Me’. Raw expressions of today’s life and times.

CD3 is a recording of the band captured live, in all its rough edged glory, at the Earthquake Festival in Holland, 1984.

CD4 contains 14 unreleased songs, personally curated by Andy Boulton from his enormous archive of unused Blade material. A treasure trove indeed. Many of these tracks showcase the band at their most full throated, and their most committed. They are a reflection of the band’s migration from the gritty visceral realities of seventies NWOBHM, to the present day, revealing a tightly cohesive, dynamic outfit.

Marsh is great form all the way through this previously shelved material, with ‘Last Of The Renegades’, the industrial metal leanings of ‘This Dying Light’ and the six minute metal epic ‘Serenade’ all benefitting from his carefully channeled vocal energy.

The booklet includes up to date interviews with Boulton and Marsh, conducted by NWOBHM historian and author, John Tucker. It also contains rare photo material from the band’s personal archives.

Beware The Blade is quite some package. *****

Review by Brian McGowan

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