Come with me back to the heyday of British heavy metal, to a time when bands like Iron Maiden and Motorhead stalked the earth, and you couldn't turn around without hearing a squealing guitar solo or a thunderous drumbeat. A time when heavy metal was undergoing a resurgence, which would lead to the rise of some really fine metal bands, the demise of others and a whole studded-double-fistful of totally mediocre ones, as well as some which though they faded away, did not deserve to. The time period is the tail-end of the 1970s, and as one decade surrendered to another, disco was dead and punk was spitting its last vitriolic epithets at the world, raising two defiant fingers and going down fighting, but going down anyway. Metal was the new genre on the rise, and out of the ashes of both the older “hard rock” bands like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, as well as the better and more, ah, musical, of the punk bands which had come up in the turbulent mid-seventies, a new race of warriors was being born, and going forth to deliver their message to the world. And that message was, pretty much,
PLAY IT LOUD!
Part the third, in which ancient history comes face-to-face with modern warfare, and somewhere out in the forests of the night, a lonely wild animal howls...
In this, the third section of my look at the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, I want to look at three more bands, all different. One became a stalwart of the genre, bestriding the metal scene like a colossus, linking muscular, tattooed arms with heavyweights like Maiden and Priest, while another flew the flag for the remnants of punk, successfully melding elements of both, the third only releasing one album before receding into the mists of heavy metal history.
With their founder having been in one of the seminal punk bands of the previous era, the Damned, Tank were always going to have a more punky, thrashy sound to their music, and with the likes of Motorhead and Raven, they epitomised the faster, less cultured if you will side of heavy metal; with bands like Maiden and Leppard concentrating more on intricate solos and deep lyrics, and gaining a “brand identity”, Tank were all about how fast they could play, how loud they could play and how powerful they could be. This total lack of restraint is evident from their debut album, the tastefully named
Filth Hounds of Hades.
Filth Hounds of Hades - Tank - 1982 (Kamaflage)
There's no gentle run-in as the album opens on “Shellshock”, with a semi-African chant and bongo drums, and you definitely get the idea of a tribe of warriors preparing for battle. Then suddenly the drums and chanting stop, and Algy Ward, singer, bass player and founder, yells “Wakey wakey!” and the song gets going with superfast power guitar and thundering drums. You can hear the similarities to Motorhead here, though even at that I believe Tank to be more melodic than Lemmy's bunch, who to me a lot of the time just sounded like pure noise. Ward certainly has a decent and powerful voice, not screaming or growling but able to deliver the lines well enough, with a certain ragged quality to his vocal. “Struck By Lightning” more or less follows directly on from the opener, with not too much difference between then two tracks, then “Run Like Hell” is a bit different, a little more rock/metal than punk style, and rather surprised to find it fades out. Metal doesn't
fade out! Works though.
There's no doubt that Peter Brabbs is a man who knows how to play his guitar, and he takes centre stage on this album, while his brother (I assume?) Mark bashes away on the drums, but is capable of a certain amount of restraint when it's required. In fact, by the time “Blood, Guts and Beer” hits, the album has lost a little of its freneticity and has settled down into a really good metal album with some powerful hooks. Nothing radio-friendly, certainly, but then Tank were never really about the hit singles. There's an almost Mick Ronson-like guitar opening to “That's What Dreams Are Made of”, like something off “Ziggy Stardust”, or even classic rockers Steppenwolf, and the guys are really rockin' now. Some great punching percussion from Mark Brabbs, his brother's guitar riff running right through the song and affording it its identity, with a powerful solo worthy of Moore or Gorham in there too.
“Turn Your Head Around” kicks everything back into superhigh gear, while “Heavy Artillery”, despite the gung-ho, macho title, tones it down slightly, while still being balls-to-the-wall hard and heavy. There are no slow or soft songs on this album, it's all just a question of degrees of hardness, as it were. Some songs are faster than others, some crunchier, but one thing you can be sure: there will be no ballads! Tanks don't get involved in love scenes, they roll over them and keep going. Nowhere is this more evident than in “Who Needs Love Songs?”, which takes a blues/boogie beat and builds a heavy metal shuffle around it, with some great guitar and a very punk feel to it; however the lyric betrays the title, as Ward sings
”Who needs love songs? I do!” Still, if (for some insane reason) you're looking for ballads, look elsewhere.
That takes us to the title track, which is another fast, breakneck rocker which really showcases Mark's drumming prowess, a rolling, military style beat carrying the tune, and we end on the hilarious “(He Fell in Love with a) Stormtrooper”, with a strong boogie rhythm to it and a very fun way to end an album which really doesn't ever take itself too seriously, which is always a good place for a metal band to start.
TRACK LISTING
1. Shellshock
2. Struck by Lightning
3. Run Like Hell
4. Blood, Guts and Beer
5. That's What Dreams Are Made of
6. Turn Your Head Around
7. Heavy Artillery
8. Who Needs Love Songs?
9. Filth Hounds of Hades
10. (He Fell in Love with a) Stormtrooper
Perhaps eager to follow up their debut and cash-in on their success in the emerging NWOBHM, Tank could not have been accused of hanging around, deliberating about their next album, and it was out no more than six months later. Their third and fourth albums would follow within a year of each other, possibly too much too soon. Where other bands in the genre were taking a year, two years, or more to craft their next album, Tank seemed impatient and maybe impulsive and a little naïve, but despite their prolific output during the first half of the 1980s, they never quite hit the same spot with subsequent releases.
Power of the Hunter - Tank - 1982 (Kamaflage)
So Tank released their second album, mere months after their debut, and basically it's more of the same. Good atmospheric start to the opener, “Walking Barefoot Over Glass” (walking on broken glass ten years before Annie Lennox tried it, though with a lot less chart success admittedly than she would have), then it rocks out to keep the armoured machine rolling, while “Pure Hatred” slips a little back towards the punkish style of the debut, a little thin on ideas, and “Some Came Running” is a little more of a blues/boogie cruncher, certain sense of Zep's “Whole Lotta Love” about it. The old punk sensibilities come right back though for “T.A.N.K” (why didn't they just call it “Tank”?), which is very interesting as it's actually a full instrumental, something you just wouldn't expect to get on an album like this. It does however confirm that Tank are really great musicians, within the genre.
Nice chunky guitar intro then into “Used Leather (Hanging Loose)” before it kicks into high gear, with Ward's vocal a little less ragged - shall we say, more metal and less punk? The song is a little on the repetitive side though. Interesting choice for a cover version then, with the Osmonds' “Crazy Horses”, which I suppose in some ways does lend itself rather well to the heavy metal interpretation. Perhaps correctly, Tank avoid the “horses neighing” sounds made by the guitarist on the original, and yet without that there seems something lacking in the song.
After that, it's pretty much standard metal, flying along at fast to breakneck pace, with “Set Your Back on Fire” (Uh, yeah: don't try that at home, kids!) ,“Red Skull Rock” and the title and closer winding the album up adequately, but to be fair there's nothing that terribly special. I'd reiterate my contention that this album was rushed out too soon, but rather than learn from this “mistake”, they had two more albums out within a year of each other.
TRACK LISTING
1. Walking Barefoot Over Glass
2. Pure Hatred
3. Biting and Scratching
4. Some Came Running
5. T.A.N.K
6. Used Leather (Hanging Loose)
7. Crazy Horses
8. Set Your Back on Fire
9. Red Skull Rock
10. Power of the Hunter
1983 and 1984 saw the release of two further albums, neither of which made any impression, however they did change Tank's musical direction quite dramatically. With the addition of second guitarist Mick Tucker from White Spirit, the music became more planned-out, more melodic and less punky, and in certain cases quite long, leading to each of the two albums, 1983's
This Means War and 1984's
Honour and Blood both having an opening track which was over eight minutes long, almost unheard of for a metal band, certainly against what had previously been the Tank credo of rapid-fire metal tracks shot out in unremitting salvoes. Each of these albums also had a total of seven songs, as opposed to the ten of the first two. In 1984 both Mark and Pete Brabbs left the band, Mark being replaced by another White Spirit member, drummer Graeme Callan, while Pete was supplanted by Cliff Evans.
1987's self-titled would be the last Tank album for a while, as Ward broke up the band two years later, but they reassembled in late 1997 and returned with a new album, 2002's
Still at War, with yet another new drummer, this time Chris Bisland occupied the drumstool.
Still at War - Tank - 2002 (Zoom Club)
It opens, rather appropriately and satisfyingly for a band who had been away for over fifteen years, with the sounds of a rolling tank approaching - Tank are back! Then the title track gets going and you can hear the change in Algy Ward's voice, far less strained and scratchy and with a much more solid sound behind him from the reassembled band. The music isn't as frenetic or fast as on previous albums, and unlike the last few this one has eleven tracks, the longest Tank album to date. Definitely a fuller, more expansive sound to the guitars now, and they're giving off a purer metal vibe than the punk that characterised their original efforts.
It's a defiant statement of intent, and a powerful opener, and it continues into “That Girl's Name is Death”, with some growling guitar and a smattering of Metallica in the melody, with “Light the Fire (Watch 'em Burn)” goes a little back towards their heyday with
Filth Hounds of Hades: very fast, punkish, almost thrash in areas, then “The World Awaits” is a big, heavy, stomping cruncher, slowing everything down in an almost Sabbath/Dio vein. Great guitar solo from either Tucker or Evans, not sure which. Good, commanding vocal performance by Algy Ward, too: he's certainly grown up on this album, and so far I'd say this is the standout. Shows a lot of control, something Tank had been lacking up to now.
Back to hard, fast, headshakin' metal then with “And Then We Heard the Thunder”, then another heavy cruncher for “The Last Hours Before Dawn”, where Ward does his best Phil Lynott and the guys do some great work on the guitars. There's a clever and funny little intermission before the next track, with a constructed radio announcement while says “And now that we have your attention”, launching into “Conspiracy of Hate”, another fast heavy rocker with a lot of bite, then for a moment you think you're hearing a cover of Gary Moore's “Cold Hearted”, but it turns out to be “When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted”, another heavy, slow metal cruncher, though the riff is pretty much ripped off from Moore's 1982 song. Still, I guess you can forgive them for that. It's the “Return of the Filth Hounds” next, and for this throwback to their glory days the lads really pull out all the stops, racking everything up to ten and breaking the sound barrier in terms of speed. Other than the shouted intro though I'm not entirely sure what link this shows to the original song, but it's good to hear it mentioned again, and the wolves' howls at the end is a nice touch.
After that, “The Blood's Still on Their Hands” seems a little slow and plodding, a rather obvious and heavy-handed dig at the Nazis, perhaps all Germans, or maybe exending it to all mankind (but then, if that were the case it should be blood on
our hands, shouldn't it? Besides, they mention “deutschland” in the lyric...), but the album ends quite strongly on “The Fear Inside”, a fast rocker with some good chorus work and some fine guitar frenetics.
TRACK LISTING
1. Still at War
2. That Girl's Name is Death
3. Light the Fire (Watch 'em Burn)
4. The World Awaits
5. And Then We Heard the Thunder
6. In the Last Hours Before Dawn
7. Conspiracy of Hate
8. When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted
9. Return of the Filth Hounds
10. The Blood's Still on Their Hands
11. The Fear Inside
This is, then, where the history of Tank hits, if you'll excuse the metaphor, the mudflats. After
Still at War, which was generally well received, Algy Ward began making preparations for a new album,
Sturmpanzer, to be released in 2006, but it never saw the light of day and Ward, the founder of the band, who had been with them through all their, to this date, six albums, departed and was replaced by Doogie White, known to fans of Rainbow, Praying Mantis and Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force. In 2008, original drummer Mark Brabbs rejoined the band and Ward was replaced on bass by Chris Dale, who had played with Bruce Dickinson.
Pete Brabbs did not rejoin and in fact his brother left before the recording of Tank's next album, being replaced by Dave Cavill from Voodoo Six. This new lineup then released their first, and Tank's seventh, studio album, 2010's
War Machine.
War Machine - Tank - 2010 (Metal Mind)
It's interesting after almost thirty years of listening to Algy Ward to hear someone else sing with Tank, but if they were going to replace him then Doogie White was a good choice. His voice certainly seems to suit the material as the “new” Tank hit the world, and the album opens with “Judgement Day”, a heavy but somehow more controlled song, and you can hear White's Rainbow influence coming through, almost like that greatest of Rainbow icons, the late Ronnie James Dio. He definitely has a powerful voice, and this is more solid metal than previous Tank outings. There's another metal cruncher then in “Feast of the Devil”, with some quite Sabbath-style guitars from Cliff Evans and Mick Turner, though I do get the definite impression that White is trying to change this band into Rainbow. Well, Dio actually; perhaps not intentionally, but his voice has changed not only their sound but their whole direction entirely. Were I not told this was a Tank album, I doubt I'd be able to figure it out. Of course, there are none of the original members left at this point, so technically speaking you could say this is a new band, a new Tank, and I guess the direction they want to go is up to them.
“Phoenix Rising” takes things up a notch, speeding up the tempo and allowing the band to rock out a little more, sounding just a shade more like the Tank we know and love, but with a pretty hefty dose of Murray/Smith in those guitars, and that can't be bad. The title track then has that rolling tank sound again, which is certainly welcome, but then the song itself is another heavy cruncher: nothing wrong with that, but it sounds a little too like Sabbath/Dio for my tastes. Nice expressive guitar work, though, and a sort of Pink Floyd feel to the backing vocals, circa
The Wall. Ramping everything back up to ten then for “Great Expectations”, as the guys really cut loose, while “After all” shows Tank tackling their first ever ballad, that I've heard. To be honest, it's not that great, and I'd suggest they maybe just stick to the fast hard rockin'; some bands just aren't suited to the slower songs. Luckily, they soon get back to doing what they do best, and “The Last Laugh”, “World Without Pity” and “My Insanity” round off the album very well.
TRACK LISTING
1. Judgement Day
2. Feast of the Devil
3. Phoenix Rising
4. War Machine
5. Great Expectations
6. After all
7. The Last Laugh
8. World Without Pity
9. My Insanity
With the departure of Algy Ward, Tank really become a whole new band, and so it's hard to say where if anywhere their path now lies. After this album they replaced Cavill with Mark Frost, and two years later the occupant of the drumstool was yet another guy, this time the original drummer, Steve Hopgood, who never played on any of the Tank albums. Under this lineup they released their eighth album,
War Nation.
So it would appear that despite losing every single original member of the band, Tank are still a force to be reckoned with, three decades later, and like the armoured fighting machine from which they take their name, they just keep rolling on and on.