Customer Reviews

Golden Black

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One of the reasons we even started SF Burning Online was because we were all Guitar Wolf fans. I saw Keith Martin at a Guitar Wolf gig in San Francisco one night, and this website was born. When I hear songs like "Missile Me" and "Wild Zero" I remember that feeling of spontaneity and creativity. We were lucky to see some of the last concerts they did with Billy. We were lucky to do an interview with Guitar Wolf a few years ago. We even had some video of Billy two weeks before he died in March 2005. Now that he is gone, these songs have never sounded so solid. Many people are wrong to think that Guitar Wolf is a Japanese version of American rock and punk rock. When you hear songs like "Invader Ace" and "Kawasaki ZII 750 Rocknroll" you know the opposite is true. Yes, now English-speaking bands have covered these songs. Guitar Wolf's influence will be felt forever. This is a great collection and tribute to the band that has been awesome for twenty years. The fans have picked their favorites. Now you have them!

Gave this as a gift, my daughter loved it. She has already but the CD on her mp3 player so she can have it with her all the time.

Well known to be one of the most savage rock `n' roll bands of all time, Japan's guitar wolf has been doing `lock `n' lol' for 20 years, and this recording has music from 1997 to 2005, the year that the band's bass player Billy died. Hard to describe their songs other than a sheer blur of guitar and drum mayhem with screeched vocals. The energy is incredible, as is the apparent lack of musicianship as the band embraces a pure 'smash, smash, smash' attitude. Nearly every song follows in the same vein, but it's all great biker fun. The loudest, fastest, most insane rock `n' roll band ever. Not for the faint-of-heart, more for the thick-of-ear.

I hate it when you buy a greatest hits album and its only 40 or 50 minutes long. My feelings have always been, "If an artist can't fill all of their own "best of" CD with good music, they shouldn't be releasing a greatest hits."

So I'm happy to see that Guitar Wolf's "Golden Black" is over an hour long, and has 26 ear splitting tracks (chosen by fans) on it. Though, perhaps, the length of this compilation might actually be its biggest downfall (more on that later).

First, we have to talk about Guitar Wolf. They're big in their native Japan, have a dedicated cult in the US, and this release ends up being a rather appropriate document of what they've done so far, showing the world what they did with Billy on bass, knowing that Guitar Wolfs subsequent releases will define a new era for them.

So this is their anthology of the first line up, and it does a good job of showing everyone who Guitar Wolf was, and why they're important.

Guitar Wolfs music is hard to review, though, since their legacy is a string of releases that don't really waver in sound or quality. Guitar Wolf do one thing, and so far they've done it really really well.

What is their "One Thing?" you might ask? Guitar Wolf plays raw, dirty, lo-fi garage punk, with a strong 50's rock influence, all driven to extremes. If you mixed "Raw Power" by the Stooges, "Leave Home" by the Ramones, and a handful of Link Wray recordings, then played the resulting music through a mega-phone, you might start to get the idea. Its amazing how they are able to take rock n roll to new extremes yet never lose what makes that kind of music so exciting in the first place.

But really, just listen to the samples, you'll get the idea. And you'll either love it or hate it.

I love it, there are few bands who capture the pure spirit of Rock and Roll like Guitar Wolf can, the image, the speed, the energy, the "just make it louder, louder LOUDER" ideal... and the rockabilly undertow and complete lack of pretensions only adds to the fact that these guys are the real deal. These guys are rock and roll.

This packed full best of shows you all that, every side to it. Its all lo-fi and driven into the red, though the different recording sessions actually do result in different sounds for the same thing. You even get a semi-ballad in "I Love You OK" that manages to sound genuine even in its ragged rawness.

The track listing is superb as well, you get a taste of everything they've done, with many tracks pulled from "Jet Generation" and "Planet Of The Wolves" both fantastic albums that are out of print. Some tracks are availabe for the first time in the US, and some were only released as singles, so dedicated fans will still find things to enjoy.

The only problem is that it might be TOO long. I'm very happy that this disk gives you all the Guitar Wolf it can, but a new fan might want to only listen to a few songs at a time. This much Guitar Wolf taken in all at once hurts the individuality of each song.

But for people wondering where true rock 'n' roll has gone, give this a spin, it will restore your faith.

After watching the movie Wild Zero, I had to listen to the band responsible for that movie. I am a big fan of punk rock, thrash, heavy metal, and what might be called simply "extreme music." Guitar Wolf is very extreme music. Intentionally lofi, with recording levels beyond the red, piercing feedback and squealing, and so much distortion it's almost unlistenable... if that sounds interesting to you then check out Golden Black, Guitar Wolf's Greatest Hits release. Their music sounds like it was recorded in a sewer tunnel during a nuclear explosion, it's faster than the Ramones could ever dream of playing, has triple the distortion of a Slayer album, and I can't understand a word they sing, but it's brilliant! The attitude of this music is everything, and Guitar Wolf has that in spades. It's kind of like a Japanese version of Motorhead meets the Sex Pistols playing Sonic Youth songs backwards. Or something like that. "Punk metal noise thrash?" "Heavy speed feedback rock?" There are no labels to define Guitar Wolf, like "there are no boundries in rock and roll." My favorite songs include: Can-Nana Fever, Wild Zero, Loverock, Fujiyama Attack, Roaring Blood.

Yes Guitar Wolf are a japanese punk rock band and yes, they are fantastic as this collection will show.

After a while it starts to get on my nerves...maybe a song or too is fun, but like the Ramones there is little depth.