Kev Rowland Back in 1982, four longhaired metal maniacs from Frankfurt, Germany, decided to found a band, and as they weren’t going to be around for very long they also created a new form of music, Alcoholic Metal! Some thirty-five years later they are still going strong, and kicking up a storm with thrash metal, and have just released their seventeenth studio album. Unlike some, the line-up has been incredibly stable, with singer Gerre and bassist Frank Thorwarth there since the beginning, drummer Olaf Zissel since 1994, and guitarist Andy Gutjahr since 1998, and they’re not showing any sign of slowing down yet.

It is easy to dismiss Tankard as a comedy act, because of their innate sense of humour, and fondness of beer, but behind all that there is a band here that know what they’re doing, and see no point in changing now. This is thrash metal that could have come out of the scene back when it was starting, furious and over the top with riffing guitars and a drummer that refuses to quit, and vocals that are gruff and totally fitting. True, there aren’t many blistering guitar solos, but they have a style that has worked for them for a very long time, so why change it now?

If you have never partaken of the joys of Tankard, yet enjoy thrash, then now could not be a better time to put aside any preconceived ideas and raise a glass.

UMUR "Heavy Metal Vanguard" is the debut demo cassette tape by German kings of alcohol themed thrash metal Tankard. The demo was self-released in 1984. Tankard was formed in 1982 and went under the Vortex and the Avenger monickers in the early years before switching name to Tankard (German for "beer mug").

"Heavy Metal Vanguard" features 8 tracks and a full playing time of 30:54 minutes, so there is a good amount of material to listen to and judge by (if you were a label in those days). Stylistically the music on the demo is actually a bit surprising to me as I only know Tankard as a thrash/heavy metal act, but here they play some pretty aggressive hardcore punk with some heavy metal leanings. The trademark alcohol theme is already in place though (they´ve even dedicated a full track to it titled "Alcohol") and lyric wise they definitely belong in the metal camp rather than in the generally more politically motivated hardcore ditto. This is all fun and games and most tracks are about love for heavy metal ("Incredible Loudness", "Heavy Metal"), alcohol and typical death/destruction themes too ("Arson", "Mercenary").

Considering that "Heavy Metal Vanguard" is the band´s debut release, it´s quite a strong release, and although Tankard would develop their style greatly before the release of their debut full-length studio album "Zombie Attack (1986)", there are enough of the band´s trademark elements present on this demo to unmistakably make it sound like Tankard. The sound production is very raw and more or less sounds like it was recorded live in the studio, but the raw quality of the recordings suits the aggressive hardcore punk tracks well. A 3 star (60%) rating isn´t completely unfair.

Time Signature Metal warp...

Genre: beer thrash

Thrash and beer. Beer and thrash. Together they give birth to Tankard, Germany's - hell, the world's - number one beer-guzzling gut-flabbing thrash metal band.

On this their 14th album, there are not a lot of music innovations, maybe except slower tempos and more melody, but with Tankard, we don't want innovation or anything like that, we just want metal thrashing fun by musicians who know what they are doing.

And metal thrashing fun is what "Vol(l)ume 14" offers. Musically, it's thrash metal - end of story. Lyrically, the songs, true to the Universe of Tankard, touch bizarre and almost surreal typics like sniping you alter ego after a time travel gone wrong, being subjected to super effective hypno-therapeutic overweight treatment,b speed metal dating, satanic brain piercings (of death!) and of course beer-guzzling. There are also the obligatory songs about social injustice, the power of the media and so on.

My favorite tracks are "Time Warp", "Somewhere in Nowhere", "Condemnation" and "Brain Piercing öf Death", which I think is nothing less than a stroke of drunken genius!

Cheers!

Burp!