Kicking off with first single ‘Only the Brave’ one of the biggest surprises I’ve had all year is how good Tygers of Pan Tang sound in 2016. It’s great, solid, traditional Hard Rock, great musically, great vocally and with a nice driving beat that makes you want to follow it deeper.
Signing with Mighty Music earlier in the year what you get here is the fruits of a very productive period of song-writing for the band in late 2015 and there’s definitely something good going on as this material is their best for years, ably mixed by Soren Andersen (Glenn Hughes, Mike Tramp) and mastered by Harry Hess of Harem Scarem fame. With the band producing themselves it’s a marriage made in heaven.
Aside from the single there’s plenty of other tracks to get stuck into here: ‘Dust’; ‘Blood Red Sky’ and closer ‘The Devil You Know’ all have that remarkable echo of the band of old, but with a cleaner sound; whilst there’s fire in the belly for the faster numbers ‘Never Give In’ and ‘Do It Again’. Elsewhere the groovy ‘Glad Rags’ is good fun; and the band does experiment a ittle, like on ‘The Reason Why’ a semi-ballad that’s a bit cloying but far from being a write off.
If you loved Tygers back in the day, love your NWOBHM, or just love fine Hard Rock then you’ll find a lot to love here.
