Young guns go for it
Artiste: Tank
Nationality: British (English)
Album: This means war
Year: 1983
Label: Music For Nations
Genre: Heavy Metal
Tracks:
Just like something from Hell
Hot lead, cold steel
This means war
Laughing in the face of death
(If we go) We go down fighting
I (Won't ever let you down)
Echoes of a distant battle
Chronological position: Third album
Familiarity: "Filth hounds of Hades", "Power of the hunter", "War machine", "Still at war"
Interesting factoid: This was the first time Tank became a quartet, with the addition of Mick Tucker, who also wrote some of the songs, giving the band a more melodic approach than they had on previous albums, and softening the raw edge that had characterised those two outings.
Initial impression: Keyboards? ****ing KEYBOARDS??? On a TANK album???
Best track(s):Just about everything
Worst track(s):I (Won't ever let you down) Apart from sounding like a slushy love ballad (which it's not) it's a little cheesy.
Comments: This is one of the Tank albums I didn't feature when I focussed on them for the special I did on the NWOBHM some time back, and I must say I'm more than surprised to hear keyboard leading the line on the intro to the opener, though it soon settles down into the sort of music I expect from Tank, indeed most bands from the NWOBHM era: big grindy snarling guitars, gutteral vocals and thundering drums. Heavy metal as it was meant to be! Mind you, the opener,
Just like something from Hell is over eight minutes long, something that would not have been typical for a British metal band of the time. Works well though and doesn't seem forced or overlong.
As you would probably expect with a band who call themselves after a fighting machine, many of the tracks on this and other albums of theirs concern war and conflict, with tracks like
Hot lead, cold steel, the title and the closer,
Echoes of a distant battle, but that shouldn't be taken to mean that they put no thought into their songs. All the tracks here are well composed and flawlessly played, and to be honest I would have thought, listening to this, that it should have been the album that allowed Tank to break into the big time. It just has that sort of professional feel on it that would have made it stand out. Unfortunately though it never happened to them, and they disbanded in 1997, though reformed in 2002 and have been putting out albums sporadically ever since, although founder and vocalist Algy Ward has since left the band.
There's plenty for metalheads to get their rocks off to on this album, as the twin guitar attack of Tucker and Peter Brabbs drives everything along, and Ward's growly vocal, while never descending into death vocals territory, is the perfect metal voice to snarl these lyrics at you. The pace of the album is pretty breakneck, it doesn't slow down for a moment to allow you to catch your breath, and if you're headbanging to this, well all I can say is have some Voltarol ready for your neck cos it is gonna be sore!
Oh, and no ballads. No, seriously: I know it's unexpected, but no slow songs at all. No, really!
Overall impression: Unpretentious, hard-edged, kick-your-face-in metal that reminds me what it was like to be young! Oh, so long ago...
Intention: I think I still have a few Tank albums to listen to, but I really should devote a little more time to them.