| Japan’s leading traditional heavy metal band, ANTHEM, will release Nucleus, an entirely re-recorded greatest hits album now available with English lyrics for the first time, on March 29th On the eve of the bands 35th Anniversary, their popularity in Japan remains as high as ever and their worldwide fan base continues to grow. Thus the idea of an all English re-record of their biggest hits came to be! Band leader and bassist Naoto Shibata comments: ‘Our re-recorded greatest hits album with English lyrics, represents all that this is Anthem’s nucleus.
I am honoured from the bottom of my heart that we can present this to our fans. Anthem will keep doing our best to move forward heading for the future as always. I hope you all will enjoy Nucleus”. Check out the lyric video for Immortal Bind from the album here!
https://youtu.be/zoWlK9bthsE Mixing and mastering for Nucleus were done by the legendary Jens Bogren. His works based on elaborate theories and a great store of knowledge helped Anthem achieve their goals on this release.
Nucleus is heavy with Jens’ fat sound and rich low-end that he has made the worldwide heavy metal standard! This re-recorded greatest hits, including a variety of their classics is a monumental work, which perfectly shows the musical quality of Anthem and proves that they can be ranked as a global act in the international metal scene. Akio Shimizu: Anthem guitarist states: ‘Those 13 songs were not easy to re-record at all, however I believe they fully got the sound and the expression of today’s Anthem while being true to the originals at the same time.
Please give it to a listen and feel the details of the album with the fresh mixing by Jens Bogren.’ Vocalist Yukio Morikawa says of the recordings: ‘Singing all the songs in English was not easy at all for me, but I hope this album will show the world that Japan has a band like us who loves metal this much. I hope you enjoy “Nucleus!’ Watch the album trailer and introduction to Anthem’s band history here
https://youtu.be/NjSGSfJK4mQ Nucleus will be released in the US via Golden Robot Records on March 29 and can be pre-ordered here
www.smarturl.it/anthemnucleus ABOUT ANTHEM
Formed in Tokyo in 1981, Anthem turned heads with their intense and heated performances. They released their major debut, “Anthem” in 1985 and continued to tour relentlessly.
The band’s popularity grew with the release of their 2nd album, “Tightrope” in 1986, and they were able to break into the American market with their 3rd full length, 1987’s ‘Bound To Break’ Vocalist Eizo Sakamoto left shortly after, and was replaced by Yukio Morikawa for “Gypsy Ways” (1988) and “Hunting Time” (1989), both extremely successful releases which cemented their reputation as leaders of Japanese traditional heavy metal. Following the release of “No Smoke Without Fire” (1990), Anthem found their new guitarist, Akio Shimizu, who was 21 at the time. Impressed with his talent, leader Naoto Shibata decided to finish their next album, “Domestic Booty” (1992) with Shimizu, before disbanding after the release tour.
The band’s return was spurred by 2000’s “Heavy Metal Anthem” – an album of Anthem songs rearranged by Naoto and Akio, featuring Graham Bonnet on vocal. Its release and subsequent Japan tour led to huge demand among fans for an Anthem comeback. Instead of reforming the original lineup, Shibata decided to move forward by writing new music with a new lineup of Akio Shimizu (guitar), Eizo Sakamoto (vocals) and Hirotsugu Honma (drums).
They released a total of 6 studio albums between 2001-2010 – “Seven Hills”, “Overload”, “Eternal Warrior”, “Black Empire” and “Heraldic Device” – proving that Anthem was very much an active band. To further strengthen their position at the top of Japan’s metal scene, Anthem switched labels for the 2012 release of “Burning Oath” – on which guest musician Isamu Tamaru played drums on all but one song.
Though still an official member at the time, a performance-affecting injury that Homma could not fully recover from led to his eventual departure. At the end of 2013, Naoto recruited Yukio to rejoin the band, and support drummer Isamu became a permanent member to finalize the current lineup of Shibata Naoto (bass) , Akio Shimizu (guitar), Yukio Morikawa (vocals) and Isamu Tamaru (drums).
Akio Shimizu also works as a producer for other Japanese artists, and has shared the stage with Michael Schenker Fest as a guest guitarist on their September 2018 Japan tour. Anthem put out 15th album, “Absolute World” in 2014 and celebrated a successful 30th Anniversary Tour the following year.
From the release of 2016’s “Engraved” to its subsequent nationwide tour, the band found themselves busy on nationwide tours of Japan, proving that Anthem to be at an all time high.
All of which was captured for tour documentary “Attitude 2017 -Live and documents-“ which was released in February 2018. Follow Anthem
facebook.com/heavymetalanthem
twitter.com/anthem_official Anthem are:
Naoto Shibata (Bass)
Akio Shimizu (Guitars)
Yukio Morikawa (Vocals)
Isamu Tamaru (Drums) | 
