Melodic metal's new standard-bearer: Tokyo Motor Fist

Stephen H. Provost is the author of Pop Goes the Metal: Hard Rock, Hairspray, Hooks & Hits, chronicling the evolution of pop metal from its roots in the 1960s through its heyday as “hair metal” in the 1980s and beyond. It’s available on Amazon.

Mötley Crüe emerged from the Sunset Strip scene in the early ’80s, attired in black and smeared with a heavy dose of fierce-looking makeup as they cranked out driving, heavy rock.

Cuts like Live Wire caught my attention immediately, and I wasn’t the only one who saw more than a passing resemblance to early KISS. The energy reminded me a lot of the hungry young band that had cranked out rockers like Deuce and Firehouse seven years earlier

KISS had been my favorite band through most of high school. But when the Crüe hit the airwaves with Too Fast for Love in 1981, KISS had lost its way. They’d released a disco song, a watered-down pop album (Unmasked) and a misguided if sometimes intriguing soundtrack to a nonexistent movie (Music from “The Elder”).

For all Crüe’s promise, however, I never bought one of their albums. I liked them enough to download some of their stuff, such as Too Young to Fall in Love, Looks that Kill and Same Ol’ Situation. But I never became a huge fan. They might have looked like KISS’s heirs apparent, but the crown never quite fit them the way I thought it would.

Still, when I saw Mötley Crüe open for KISS on a 2012 tour in Irvine, Calif., I had high hopes. But Crüe’s performance was underwhelming, and by the time it was halfway through, I was ready for KISS to take the stage. The KISS set rocked, as usual, and it just confirmed why Crüe was the supporting act and KISS was the headliner, even all those years later.

The point of all this is that, no matter how promising a band might seem, it’s very difficult to follow in the footsteps of a legendary band. But is it impossible?

I present for your consideration a band called Tokyo Motor Fist. Yes, that’s really their name. I have no clue as to what it means. A fight scene from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift perhaps? If someone in the know wants to contact me, I’d be grateful; I couldn’t find an explanation online.

Enter TMF

But the non-sequitur name isn’t what drew my attention to Tokyo Motor Fist and its self-titled debut album. Nor was it the fact that the lead singer, Ted Poley, once fronted an ’80s metal band called Danger Danger, or that guitarist Steve Brown was in another ’80s band, Trixter.

The redundantly named Danger Danger had a minor hit with a redundantly titled song called Bang Bang, a decent cut but hard to distinguish from the glut of hair-metal offerings around at the time. Trixter hit the Billboard 200 three times, but never got higher than No. 65. One in a Million, which reached No. 75, showed exhibited the kind of hooks you’ll find from Tokyo Motor Fist. But to be honest, I never paid much attention to either Trixter or Danger Danger; I was too busy listening to bands like Def Leppard.

That’s how Tokyo Motor Fist, which formed in 2017, got my attention. I’m not sure how I came across them online, but when I did, the first post I read noted their similarity to Def Leppard. Then I read another piece that said the same thing.

Considering the Leps are one of my top five all-time favorite groups, I had to check this out. I fully expected TMF to disappoint, the same way Mötley Crüe had. But to my surprise, they didn’t. Now, I’m not saying they’re Def Leppard, but they’re not a letdown either. Far from it. In fact, their sound is about as close to Hysteria-era DL as you can get. The vocal mix is uncannily similar. But TMF is not a ripoff. Anything but. The tunes are 100 percent original, and they’re better in their own right than almost anything from the heyday of melodic metal back in the ’80s. (That includes Trixter and Danger Danger.)

What’s on the first record

The album kicks off with an instantly catchy power riff that sets up Pickin’ Up the Pieces, a great opener that sets the tone for everything that follows. Love Me Insane follows and continues the same theme: a “bad” relationship that’s somehow also pretty damn good.

Shameless sounds a bit like something Enuff Z’nuff — a severely underrated but melodically gifted band — might have come up with. It’s followed by Love, which could be a sequel to the title cut from Hysteria. It’s got the same relaxed feel, and even though it doesn’t rock as hard as most of the other stuff on the album, it just may be the best track.

The next two tracks, Black and Blue and You’re My Revolution, both feature some heavy drumming by Chuck Burgi, who — like bassist Greg Smith — has played with Rainbow, Joe Lynn Turner, Billy Joel and a host of others. The latter cut is literally the only track on the album that didn’t connect with me (the double-barreled drum attack was fine, but the tempo was just too fast for my taste).

I needed a change of pace after that one, and the band provided it with Don’t Let Me Go, a fantastic power ballad reminiscent of Def Leppard’s Goodbye, off Euphoria.

(Incidentally, there’s more than just a sonic connection between TMF and Def Leppard: Guitarist Brown has twice played with the Leps. In 2014 and 2015, he subbed for guitarist Viv Campbell while Campbell was being treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and in 2018, he stepped in for Phil Collen when Collen had to deal with a family emergency.)

Put Me to Shame is a defiant, hard-rocking number that sounds like a lost track off Def Leppard’s Pyromania. Then there’s Done to Me, which made me think it was metal’s answer to Billy Squire’s The Stroke.

The album closes with Get You Off My Mind, another killer ballad, and Fallin’ Apart, an up-tempo number with a real groove that races across the finish line. It’s a great closer, one of those songs with a chorus that shoots you into the next verse like a roller-coaster coming out of a big drop and into a long, fast turn. You’ll be holding on the entire way — and loving it.

More to come

I just discovered this album today, and I haven’t stopped playing it since. I don’t remember the last time that happened with a melodic metal album — there just aren’t that many around these days (especially good ones). Props to Frontiers Records, which has almost single-handedly kept this kind of music alive by signing a bevy of ’80s-era bands and their successors. TMF is among the best of them.

Come to think of it now, I do remember the last time I got excited about a melodic metal release: It was Def Leppard’s self-titled album in 2015, perhaps their strongest record since Hysteria. Tokyo Motor Fist is in the same class, and that’s some elite company.

Put simply, if you like melodic metal, you’ll love this album. It may be the best melodic metal album to come out in the past 30 years.

And that’s not all: There’s even more good news. The band has a new release in the works called Lions, which is due out July 10. It has released the lead track, Youngbloods, which is every bit as strong as the material off the first album. The title track even features a contribution from former Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung, which should be interesting to hear.

I seldom preorder albums, but I’ve already ordered this one. You should, too. I’m confident Tokyo Motor Fist will not disappoint once the wait is over and I’ve got it in my hands. Or, on my iPod.

In the meantime, though, if someone could please just tell me what that name means ...