Fire Away – 92%
By Tadakatsu, originally posted May 16th, 2021. Minor edits November 26, 2021.
Nagoya heavy metallers Sniper began their run in 1981, led by then-teenage hotshot guitarist Burny, who at the time was awestruck by the NWOBHM movement that was taking the rock world by storm. Finishing up high school, Burny did as many other young and aspiring metal musicians had, rounding up some friends to form a band and from there the quartet began taking steps towards a debut record. The group’s first major building block in achieving this goal was to go through the grueling Yamaha band battle circuit, with Sniper most notably appearing at MidLand ’82. Sniper didn’t win, and to be clear, very few acts would pull out victories at those events, given that there were countless competitors at any given tournament. The most important thing Sniper achieved here however was the fine-tuning of their collective skills. With a couple more years of experience and with a little more material written including two brilliant demos and a debut single, now was the time to put forth their first full-length, Open the Attack.
With a short and sweet runtime of 31 minutes across 8 songs, Sniper sticks to their guns, so to speak, as from the word go they proceed to rock their audience’s faces off with an unrelenting storm of their signature speedy heavy metal. Among Open the Attack’s fastest songs is the opener which is also the title track. This one starts off with singer Kinny shouting “Alright, Open the Attack!!”, immediately kicking into a riffy, double-bass laden scorcher of a heavy metal track. Everything about it is great; the rhythm section which leads the way with a purposeful assault, the steady vocals of Kinny Kitao and especially the guitar work of Burny. This track is a clear tone-setter for what’s to follow over the remainder of the record.
While the album slows things up slightly for the handful of tracks immediately following the opener, the band never plays anything less than a mid-paced heavy metal and there’s not a single weak track to be found. Among these songs you’ve got Hard Time, Over the Sky and Dedicate which are more of a vocal showcase than most of the other tracks on the album and of course all three feature some of Kinny’s best work. Also among this middle section of the album is Open the Attack’s slowest track, Black Rain, which is a riff-oriented, thumping metal song which in particular boasts one of the album’s better solo sections. Following this solo, the band kicks things into high gear again, with double bass drums speeding things up before a final chorus brings things back down and closes the song out.
It’s a toss up as to which song is my favorite on the album, but it’s undoubtedly comes down to one of Never Change or Fire; both are excellent and are also by no coincidence the final two tracks on the album. The most intense song on the album, Never Change is a riffy monster of a NWOBHM-tinged speed metal track which features all four Sniper members playing their asses off; you’ve got the rhythm section giving their best performance of the record, supporting Burny’s playing to perfection with rock-steady drum work from Shunji Itou as well as interesting and creative bass licks and riffs courtesy of Rommy. As for Fire, while not quite as fast as the blistering Never Change which came immediately before, it may very well be the heaviest track on the album (Black Rain is about as heavy) and again is very-much NWOBHM inspired. If Never Change is the most riff-showcasing track on the album, Fire is undoubtedly the soloing showcase, as for this one Sniper would utilize Marino shredder and friend of the band, Raven Ohtani, who alongside Burny unleashes what can only be described as a dizzying spectacle of dueling guitar excellence winding the album to a close in as exciting of fashion as it began.
Perhaps the most impressive trait of Open the Attack is the fact that guitarist Burny wrote the majority of this record’s material (and the next one) when he was only 16-17 years old. To be this good at such a young age he must have been wielding a guitar since he was practically in diapers. In addition to songwriting skills far beyond those which someone his age should have possessed, he could back it with incredible playing to match his writing; straightforward but catchy, creative and exciting riffing as well as some extremely impressive guitar solos, he could do it all despite his young age.
Outside of the obvious impressive work of Burny, another one of this band’s biggest strengths is singer Kinny Kitao. He won’t blow you away with vocal operatics or anything, he’s just a good, reliable higher-register singer who sticks to his strengths; in particular he’s very clear and expressive in his vocal delivery. He’s very much a comparable to vocalists like Kyoji Yamamoto of Bow Wow or Ace from Nokemono. In addition to the considerable musical chops Sniper possessed as a collective unit, these guys were flat out cool, with lyrics you wouldn’t usually see from the relatively reserved Japanese bands of the era, with multiple tracks themed around war and bombings, in particular nukes and nuclear fallout.
Sniper’s debut, Open the Attack, is one of my favorite albums, and in my opinion easily one of Japan’s finest 80s heavy metal records, on par with the very best works that Loudness, Anthem and similar Japanese stalwarts were offering at the time. You just don’t get much better than this; it’s balls-to-the-wall heavy metal excitement from beginning to end, tight instrumentation, spectacular guitar work, even a pleasant guest appearance; it’s everything you could want in a classic heavy metal record. This immensely talented group of kids would stick around for a few more years after this and they’d even put out one more album and a handful of demos before lineup turmoil forced them to call it quits. With Open the Attack, the stars aligned for Sniper and while they never hit it big, they were garnering overseas attention at one point with a handful of metal magazine features, all thanks to the quality of this record. While they still remained a good band until the end, Sniper sadly could never capture quite the same magic they had achieved here for one reason or another, and with that they became a somewhat forgotten, albeit excellent chapter in Japanese metal’s story.
Originally Written for Japanese Metal Forum.
Minor edits November 26, 2021.