Since 1982, Tankard have flown the flag for old school thrash metal, standing shoulder to shoulder with Kreator, Destruction and Sodom as part of the ‘Big Teutonic 4’. Now, with some seventeen albums under a collective belt strained by the many beers the band have sunk, Tankard are releasing a collection, cunningly titled ‘Hymns for the drunk’, to celebrate the vital years they spent with AFM records. The band hold AFM responsible for reviving their career back in 2002, when they signed with the label, and there is no question that the three tracks from the blistering ‘B-Day’ stand as some of the strongest pieces in their mighty arsenal, although, as this compilation shows, the band rarely took their foot off the pedal throughout the early 00’s.
To be honest, if you know Tankard at all then you probably know what you’re going to get – full-blooded thrash with a beer fixation, delivered with a ferocious power that belies the comical artwork and song titles. Tracks are grouped chronologically, starting with 2002’s ‘B-day’ and ending with 2010’s ‘Vol(l)ume 14’, and one thing that rapidly becomes clear is Tankard’s musical consistency over that period. Like the AC/DC of thrash, the band deviate little from the template they laid for themselves with ‘Zombie attack’ (a reworking of which is included here) and so this album presents a thrilling trip through Tankard’s middle years with rarely a dip in quality in sight. First off we get three tracks from one of the band’s stand-out albums, ‘B-Day’. The need to head bang is immense as we are plunged directly into the brutal ‘Rectifier’ and things get no less intense as it is followed up by ‘need money for beer’ and ‘new liver please!’, all of which get the juices (and the beers) flowing nicely. Next up, we get three tracks from the raw ‘Beast of bourbon’ (the production of which sounds particularly gritty next to ‘B-Day’): the hyper-speed ‘slipping from reality’, the epic, trad-metalisms of ‘die with a beer in your hand’ (complete with harmonised solos) and the threatening fury of ‘we’re coming back’. Hurtling forward through the band’s catalogue, we head into ‘the beauty and the beer’ for ‘We still drink the old ways’, ‘the beauty and the beast’ and ‘metalometal’. Defying convention with regard to recording technology, the tracks actually sound weaker than the material recorded some four years previous, and whilst they are fine songs, it is a relief when we get to tracks from 2007’s ‘best case scenario’, which gave us re-recorded versions of early (non-AFM) Tankard tracks. From that record we get blistering re-workings of 1986’s ‘Zombie attack’ & ‘empty tankard’, as well as 1988’s ‘the morning after’, which is a pretty good way of shoehorning some classic tracks onto a compilation that only deals with the band’s latter years. Of course, there’s always a risk when it comes to re-working much loved material, but Tankard have rarely wandered off-course and ‘best case scenario’ was well-received at the time. From the same album we also get a medley featuring ‘alcohol, puke, Mon Cheri & wonderful life’ which, in all honesty, I could do without. Although a common feature in live sets, I’ve never been keen on medleys and this lightning speed charge, rolling four songs into one is no exception.
Racing towards the album’s conclusion (and the end of the band’s tenure with AFM records), we get just two tracks from ‘thirst’. First up is ‘Octane warriors’, a cracking track from arguably the weakest album represented here, although ‘stay thirsty!’ with its classic rock tendencies harks back nicely to ‘die with a beer in your hand’, and comes off better than I remember. Strangely, the final two tracks, ‘time warp’ and ‘rules for fools’, both from ‘Vol(l)ume 14’ are missing from our promo copy, which is annoying as they round the story of Tankard’s AFM years out nicely. ‘Time Warp’, with its martial beat and picked intro, is something of a Tankard epic, hinting at where the band would head with albums such as ‘one foot in the grave’, although the production on the original album is flawed and boxy. Final track, ‘rules for fools’ brings things neatly to a close, although the sonic issues remain and it would be interesting to see whether any remastering has been brought to bear to bring the tracks more in line with the rest of the material on this compilation.
Overall, ‘Hymns for the drunk’ is a fine compilation, detailing the band’s mid-period with AFM records. By including tracks from ‘best case scenario’, the band are able to include a number of old-school classics, and it’s clear that Tankard never allowed their focus to wander, maintaining their love of thrash in a way that many of their US peers failed to do. That said, over the course of the compilation, it is apparent which albums were given the necessary attention in the studio and which were undercooked. In this regard, both ‘the beauty and the beer’ and ‘Vol(l)ume 14’ come off worst, whilst ‘B-Day’ and ‘Best Case Scenario’ offer up the band at their most compelling. Without any rarities, it’s a compilation unlikely to appeal to long-time fans who already have the parent albums, but as a primer for those who have only encountered the band during their recent spate of excellent Nuclear Blast efforts, this serves its purpose very well. 8
