Tokyo Blade: Hoist The Colours High
Tokyo Blade: Hoist The Colours High
Dissonance
Release date: 21/08/26
Review by: Jon Deaux
7.2/10
Fourteen tracks is quite a gamble for any record in today’s world—normally, any album reaches a point where it feels that it has found a good place to rest after ten. This album doesn’t hit every mark, but it sure swings hard enough to put a dent or two in the wall.
Some bands grow old gracefully. Some bands shuffle through decades like an irate pub landlord staggering under a load of pints. And then there’s Tokyo Blade, somehow finding themselves in 2026 sounding younger than many metal acts a fraction of their age. Hoist The Colours High comes out fast on the heels of Time Is The Fire and their retrospective boxset (big enough to be considered affordable housing), and against any rational expectation whatsoever, absolutely refuses to function as a legacy album.
‘Screaming Evil’ kicks things off with as much subtlety as being audited by the devil himself. Andy Boulton’s guitar tone is still glorious, sharply-cut steel. Alan Marsh comes across as someone who has been yelling incoherent warnings into a black hole for forty years and can’t believe anyone still isn’t listening. ‘Too Wired To Sleep’ takes that feeling and runs with the idea.
Listening to Hoist The Colours High is like getting stuck inside a stolen cop car racing through the New Wave of British Heavy Metal after midnight. The riffs fly past in a dizzying blur, like road signs in a driving rainstorm. All of the choruses feel constructed to be screamed at the top of one’s lungs by those whose knees make noise whenever they stand up.
The titular track takes center stage, offering a fist-bumpin’ anthem that waves its piratical flag without dipping into novelty-metal territory. No parrots. No rum-filled costumes. Straight-up heavy metal done properly, with conviction. ‘When The Hammer Falls’ lives up to its name exactly as promised, like an accident on a construction site with an added melody.
It’s the refusal to sound nostalgic that makes this album work so well. Tokyo Blade isn’t putting together their greatest hits here. Songs like ‘Get Me Outa This,’ ‘Last Man Standing,’ and ‘Mr. Nobody has enough edge to give the impression that the band has a lot of unfinished business. ‘Mr. Nobody’s especially fun to listen to, as it feels like the thoughts of a man who has finally become invisible and is using his gift for vengeance.
Not all of the songs hit top gear. ‘Sweet Desolation’ and ‘This Time’ pull back the gas pedal a little bit, though they work nicely as interludes between the next metallic mugging. In the meantime, ‘Don’t Need No Enemies’ provides a piece of life philosophy normally reserved for people whose friends have gone AWOL and taken all of their money.
‘She Was A Soldier’ stands out as one of the best tracks on this record, perfectly balancing drama with emotion without sounding cheesy. It’s a reminder that under all of that leather, denim, and amps, Tokyo Blade knows full well how to write memorable songs.
By the time you get to ‘Wasting My Time,’ it’s pretty clear what the joke is—this album has no intention of wasting your time. The band remains sharp throughout all fourteen tracks. There are too many veteran metal bands releasing albums because it’s a matter of contractual obligation. Hoist The Colours High shows a band that still loves the sound of their own amps, terrifying the local rodent population, despite some unnecessary songs.
In a time when so many classic bands simply coast along on their past accomplishments, Tokyo Blade still churns out new material with commendable regularity. While not every song manages a knockout blow, this record has enough to remind listeners why they have been listening to this band for over four decades now. While they are associated with NWOBHM, they refuse to turn into nostalgia acts.
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