LOUDNESS frontman Minoru Niihara's other band, XYZ-A, will issue a Best Of compilation in Japan on May 14th entitled A To Z. It will feature songs from the band's four studio albums (Asian Typhoon, Metalization, Life, and IV) and two new tracks, 'In And Out' and 'Spreading Your Fire'. More details will be revealed soon.

The album is now available for pre-order at this location.

As previously reported, BW&BK scribe Carl Begai recently caught up with Niihara to discuss Loudness' new album, Metal Mad, and the band's longevity. The following is an excerpt from the interview, with Niihara discussing his second go-round with the band since their 2001 reunion. Niihara was initially fired in the late '80s and replaced by Michael Vescera (OBSESSION) in the mistaken belief it would give Loudness a stronger foothold in North America.

"Yes, I realize it's been seven years already and that's how long I had been with Loudness for the first time around," says Niihara. "Time flies and I never thought we would last this long. It's a nice surprise. Especially after we got back together, we've tried to do new things and also have done some experiments with our music, which made some original fans not very happy, to tell you the truth. However, I believe that trying to do something new was one of the reasons that Loudness have been around for so long. If we had done all the same things over and over, we probably would have gotten bored and gone separate ways. When I think back, we have changed a lot over the years; the depth of our musical knowledge, our technical abilities,experience as musicians, and of course now we all are older. For that we probably have a different approach to the band, but one thing which has never changed is our passion for rock music. We also understand more about business part of this industry and that helps us enjoy the making music part more."