Tank-War Nation

Metal Mind
2012

When you think of NWOBHM act Tank you may think of Filth hounds and Power of the hunter and the raw semi-Motorhead sound that they were so good and cranking out at levels of volume back in the early 80's. Well, the early 1980's was a long time ago. There are no original members left in this band. Long time guitarist Mick Tucker and Cliff Evans have seniority here. Joining them are jorneyman vocalist Doogie White, bassist Chris Dale and Steve Hopgood replaces Dave Cavill who played drums on the previous album "This means war". Speaking of 2010's "This means war", when I heard it I was immediately struck why how it sounded very little like the old Tank much more like another NWOBHM act-Saxon. Well, don't expect this album to be a whole different from the previous one. The sound is definitely like Saxon with some Dio sprinkled in and not much of the hard driving music that defined Tank during their early days. Now don't run off just yet, I said it doesn't sound much like their early material. I didn't say it wasn't good, far from it. This is some strong, well-planned out metal with no holes, waste or filler. It's similar in style to the previous album and 4/5 of this line-up played on that album plus it was a mere year and a half ago. Still "War Nation" is a much better album than it's predecessor. The band seems certain of their musical  direction this time around. Every song is tight and they control the proceedings with skill and confidence. I kept waiting for a clunker to work it's way in there because I certainly have my doubts about a band with no original members. However they put my doubts aside. This sounds very little like the Tank 28-30 years ago. Yet it's still classic style metal played by some skilled veteran musicians and that's why it's worth hearing.