Album review : TOKYO BLADE – Hoist The Colours High

Cherry Red [Release date : 21.08.26]

The unquenchable flame that is Tokyo Blade is about to release its 14th studio album in a career lasting the best part of 50 years.
Hows that for durability?

Hoist The Colours High is their second album of 2026. (We reviewed Time Is The Fire back in February).
And that on top of last year’s 4CD boxset reissue.
Prolific as well as durable.

As a child of the eighties, the band has always been associated with the cultural phenomenon known as NWOBHM. Even now, it’s hard to shake off, but if you trace a line from the reformation of the original line up in 2014 (they broke up in 1985), to Hoist The Colours High, they’ve progressively found their way onto higher ground.

Only on ‘When The Hammer Falls’ and ‘Too Wired To Sleep’ do we detect trace elements of the distant past, the NWOBHM DNA is almost impossible to erase.
But otherwise, this new album doesn’t sound like anyone else.
This is Tokyo Blade.

And the band, then and now is Alan Marsh (vocals), Andy Boulton (guitar), John Wiggins (guitar), Andy Wrighton (bass) and Steve Pierce (drums). They write and produce their own stuff.

Their lyrics have always been, at best, serviceable. But their lyrical game has most definitely been upped here. So many songs, like ‘Last Man Standing’ and ‘She Was A Soldier’ are full of sharp, observational narratives.

A handful of songs truly standout musically.

There’s a lot of moving parts to ‘I’m Gonna Rise’ and ‘Devil In The Red Mist’. Both swagger and rage, but every piece is oiled up and running like a dream.

Elsewhere, the sultry, powerfully provocative ‘Mr.Nobody’ spits ire. An attitude mirrored in ‘Sweet Desolation’ . The arrangements, like on so many tracks here, is full of purposeful riffing and bolted to the floor rhythms.

And all that said, the album’s most compelling track is probably ‘This Time’, a rolling thundercloud of dark notes and haunting lyrics.

For lots of different reasons, this their best album yet. No question. ****3/4

Review by Brian McGowan

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BLACKLIST UNION Madame Butterfly (BLU Records)
DIAMOND RAIN I Need Love (Pride & Joy Music)

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