Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
This Means War ranks as one of the plushest sounding productions on this year’s list, as Tank put out their third studio album in just two short years. 1982 had been a busy year for the band, as they had put out their stinging debut Filth Hounds of Hades (see 1982 review) without doubt one of the quintessential speed metal albums of its time. The band then disappointed on their sophomore set Power of the Hunter, which was a largely mixed and muddled affair despite having a couple of strong salvos for Tank fans! For 1983 frontman Algy Ward and the Brabbs brothers Peter and Mark (much like Raven’s set-up here) decided to augment their trio into a quartet, with the arrival of another guitarist in Mick Tucker ex-White Spirit, who in turn brought to the band a much bigger guitar sound. The overall result would see the band evolve, into a much plusher melodic sounding outfit compared to the Filth Hounds of Hades days just a year earlier. This Means War would be highlighted by a number of characteristics that would put it as being both quite unique and influential for its time and these points can be highlighted like so. 1) The songs and feel of the album would be dramatically slowed down to slower-tempos, something that certain thrash bands would soon adopt after their first few albums. 2) The said production moves away from what characterized a lot of NWOBHM bands of this time and instead gives us a bright sound without losing too much of the band’s venom (no pun intended) again something that certain thrash bands would adopt and this is largely down to the production values of John Verity ex-Argent on the album. 3) The album starts with a slick and atmospheric keyboard intro and this would be something that would be used by certain metal bands in the 1980s on certain tracks, just think Van Halen here 1984, but it’s the next point that is probably the most worthy of note. 4) The album only has seven songs fitted into less than 40 minutes of playing time, meaning that the average song time on nearly all the songs is around five minutes, which is surprising as band’s of this ilk were used to working with three minute tracks. In fact the opening cut “Just Like Something from Hell” far exceeds this and clocks in at around eight and a half minutes. I’m guessing that guitarist Mick Tucker was brought in largely for this, in order to really flesh out the band’s sound over these extra minutes. This results with an album that a number of future metal bands would soon adopt style-wise as well, as metal bands would greatly increase their song lengths over the ensuing years. Through all this though, the band maintain their yardstick with a collection of strong riffs that don’t for one moment trade-in their characteristic blood and guts approach to their sound and the album remains a heavy and loud example of where polished metal was heading around this time. As an album This Means War doesn’t give us anything complex with its lengthy songs, so it can’t be compared to say something like Metallica’s …. And Justice for All which had even longer songs anyway, but it can be compared to other future albums for its song length and scope. The album is often criticized as being pretentious, due to the fact that its overly long songs, don’t really give us too much in the way of complexity, with its detractors then saying what is the point of extended songs that don’t really challenge the listener from a technical perspective....... I guess they have a point here. Overall the album certainly isn’t as strong or as biting as their debut Filth Hounds of Hades, but it’s still an achievement that demonstrates how the band were able to go from crude on their debut, to mixed on their second and then onto fleshed out by their third album in just over a year.

Algy Ward- Bass/Vocals
Peter Brabbs- Guitar
Mick Tucker- Guitar
Mark Brabbs- Bass

Production- John Verity

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History