If you like metal but not Teutonic thrash legends Tankard then you need to reassess your choice of genre. As essential as Megadeth, Kreator, Slayer and Metallica with much of the humour that makes Anthrax so much fun, Tankard deliver incisively heavy riffs, lyrics about beer, being in a heavy metal band and, err, corporate expansion and top the mix off with cartoon-esque album covers that make you instinctively flock to their banner.
‘R.I.B’ is the band’s sixteenth album and yet the band not only show no signs of slowing down, they sound as fresh, as furious and as frantic as if this was their first release. Crisply produced by Michael Mainx, ‘R.I.B’ has the relentless fury of a juggernaut and the riffs to compete with ‘peace sells…’, in short it is a rip-snorting beast of an album that thrash fans will listen to obsessively for months to come. Opening with a moody instrumental, ‘war cry’ sits happily in ‘master of puppets’-era Metallica territory before the band tear out a multi-layered riff that sits between Slayer and Anthrax in terms of sheer, gleaming fury and technical proficiency. It’s an instant adrenalin injection to the heart, given a vicious kick by a chorus that is destined to become a mosh pit anthem this summer. ‘Fooled by your guts’ is every bit as unpleasant and brutal as its title, with a chorus that goes all the way up to eleven and a brilliant chorus that harks back to ‘among the living’ for inspiration. Slowing the pace, the title track opens on a doomy trip before slithering into a dark, horror-fuelled abyss complete with multi-tracked vocals and taut riffing. It’s pedals to the metal for ‘Riders of the doom’, a straight forward thrash blast with above average guitar playing and an impassioned vocal performance that underpins the anti-corporate lyrics. In contrast, ‘hope can’t die’ has a sinister bass line and atypical riffs flowing underneath its emotive and intelligently phrased lyrics.
As if the band needed another classic to their ever-growing list, the defiant ‘no one hit wonder’ tears the music industry’s disposable ethos a new one with a brutal thrash attack and cry of “we’re rolling thunder!” recalling vintage Metallica at their best and most obnoxious. ‘Breakfast for champions’ has some stunning riffs thrown about by a band who somehow make it sound easy, despite the myriad tempos and moods on offer in the song, whilst ‘enemy of order’ is a Slayer-infused thrashathon that positively seethes as the riffs mount up and huge gang chants swell the chorus to bursting point. It’s exactly this sort of head-banging monstrosity that makes Tankard so much goddam fun and there’s no question that metal fans will be left bouncing from the walls as the guitar riffs whip them into peaks of metallic ecstasy. ‘Clockwise to order’ doesn’t waste any time in tearing your face off, the band highlighting that, no matter how heavy the album has been to this point, it can always go one louder. The album’s finale is also its highlight as the band assert “even dead we’d go on tour!” and thus, at the close of the band’s sixteenth album, they somehow manage to sound as forward-thinking, as gloriously brutal and as soul-reapingly heavy as ever.
‘R.I.B’ is everything you could want from a metal album condensed into forty, perfectly metallic minutes. If you love thrash then elements of all the greats are here – a touch of Kreator, a hint of Metallica, plenty of Anthrax and Megadeth – it’s all thrown into Tankard’s cauldron and given a thorough working over, emerging soaked into alcohol and sounding fresh and exciting on the other side. Above all it’s just great fun, full of passion and delivered by some truly talented musicians. In short, if you don’t like Tankard you don’t like metal – now go and buy ‘R.I.B’
Special edition notes
‘R.I.B’ not enough for you? The special edition comes in a lovely hard-backed book (something Nuclear Blast have being doing very well for some time now) complete with lyrics, pictures and a forty minute bonus DVD capturing the band in top form at Graspop metal meeting 2013. It’s stereo only and the sound is comparatively weak (a typical issue when festival source material is used), but that’s not nearly as much of an issue as the fact that, with nine tracks delivered on a brightly lit stage to a group of fanatical fans, the DVD’s main result is to make you want to go and see Tankard live now and forever, so energetic is their performance. It’s not a DVD to watch regularly, perhaps, but it’s a welcome bonus and one that Tankard fans will most certainly want to get their hands on.
