I do not understand why someone releases such a record. Urudium is a project of a Japanese guy with the name Shane Lightning Yamash. He is responsable for all the guitars, drums, bass and even the vocals. A multi-instrumentalist that took the time and the pains to record a complete album with 13 songs.

His singing sounds as if a pig gets kicked in the nuts by a complete soccer team. I haven't heard such human sounds since the screams of my neighbours wife, giving birth to her child. Because of the English titles I could discover him singing in English, but it would have been no problem if he had stuck to Japanese, you would hardly be able hear the difference.

Another thing that's far from o.k., is the production. Especially the drums and sometimes the bass are too up front in the mix. Even before Shane starts to sing, the drum sound is the first thing that catches your ear and not in a very positive way. So far the negative things, musically it is a little better. You will discover some good ideas in there and in the song "Money Said" the link with Testament is very clear. Most of the songs can be categorized as speed metal with some thrashy influences, and it probably would be listenable without any vocals.

For me Loudness and Anthem will always be the two bands from Japan that could compete with rest of the world, and this release even makes that clearer. I think it is very brilliant Shane can play all these instruments, but next time make an instrumental record and hire someone to mix it. To me this album is redundant.