2015
Friends, family and fellow followers of all things loud and proud (and flat out the almighty f**kin' power cord!) this LP before us is hand's down the most eagerly-awaited releases of 2015! Or at least it was for me! Let me explain. Back in May of 2012 I covered this N.W.O.B.H.M. band's EP, "Hammerhead 2012", and at the time I made the remark that I hoped it wouldn't be too long before we would see a new full-length release from these Newcastle heavy metal merchants. Needless to say, "Cry Havoc" is long-overdue! Where have you been hiding Tysondog? Why the long wait? What took so long between then and now? I do have to wonder. The thing is that's neither here nor there. "Cry Havoc" is finally here and therefore we move on to the bigger question of the day. Was "Cry Havoc" worth the extra long wait? Is it everything that a long-time N.W.O.B.H.M. fanatic/Tysondog fan could ask for? For this N.W.O.B.H.M. fan/collector the answer is short and sweet. Yes! Yes, "Cry Havoc" is everything I could have hoped for and yes, even more! From the material to the overall production everything is just so right about Tysondog's latest. So much so in fact that it's almost hard to believe that this band goes all the way back to the early eighties and yet sounds this INVIGORATING and overall INTENSE! Credit that to the production job if you must seeing as it was handled by the one and only Jeff "Mantas" Dunn (founding member of Venom of course, but also with Mantas and Mpire of Evil!). Or at least it starts there as "Cry Havoc" feels like a release that Mantas would have his hands all over! And that my friends is a damn fine thing as Mantas is HUGE when it comes to REAL metal! Working with the material at hand (which is beyond heavy as it hammers away at your eardrums from the word go!) Mantas took what Tysondog had (strong as steel material!!!) and presented it in such a perfect way! Everything from John "Clutch" Carruthers's commanding lead vocals to the fabulous (read: shredtastic!) solos of new lead guitarist Steve Morrison (Judas Rising) is spot on and from the moment this one opens with the heavier than hell title cut it's all over! You are hooked from the start and treated to a very rare kind of album where traditional heavy metal, N.W.O.B.H.M., speed metal and even Motörhead-inspired heavy rock all combine in absolute perfect harmony! With Kev Wynn (bass), Paul Burdis (lead guitar) and Phil Brewis (drums) rounding out this mad pack of dogs things get nice and hot the move this long player moves along! With their N.W.O.B.H.M. roots still firmly in tack the band is never shy about branching out into new areas of hard rock and heavy metal as "Cry Havoc" showcases a seemingly reborn band infused with additional elements/influences such as AC/DC, Soundgarden (or really the very early days of Soundgarden when they were still heavily into all things post-Black Sabbath!), the aforementioned Motörhead and even early (solo) Rob Zombie/White Zombie! Lest you think that Tysondog is simply trying to appeal to modern day tastes pretty much everything about this five-piece band comes as as sincere, real and downright-honest with "Cry Havoc" sounding as close to classic metal as you can get! If you take anything away from this new release (other than how remarkable it is that they sound stunningly fresh!) it should be how Metal the album is compared to what's on the market these days! Pound for pound this LP is is as Metal as it gets which only helps to reaffirm the fact that there has never been a better time to be a N.W.O.B.H.M. fanatic then now! Due to drop on on April 20, 2015, "Cry Havoc" is yet another great release from a record label that is also home to such great N.W.O.B.H.M. bands as Avenger, Tygers Of Pan Tang and Quartz. "Cry Havoc" includes 12 brand new songs with not a dub to be found amongst the lot! You can actually hear one of this LP's cooler tracks, "Shadow of the Beast" (which features some prominent bass playing by Kev Wynn!) right here:https://soundcloud.com/rocksector/tysondog-shadow-of-the-beast although like I said there really isn't a bad song to be had here! "Cry Havoc" opens with the grueling punishment that is the title cut and from there it just heavy hitter after heavy hitter with solid tracks such as "The Needle", "Parasite" and "Nemesis" leaving little room for doubt as far as the integrity and intensity if 2015-era Tysondog! Doom metal fans should enjoy "Into The Void" as it has tasty classic metal licks sandwiched in-between vocals that out Ozzy even the Ozz man himself while "Playing with Fire" takes the harsher side of Judas Priest and gives it a heavy dose of heavy rock and roll! Speaking of the harsher things in life (or at least when it comes to the boiling hot "Cry Havoc"!) there is the number "Relentless" which could be seen as the missing link between old Tysondog and Pantera! And that's just a sampling of what's in store with "Cry Havoc"! The album, which is available for pre-order now as a special CD Fanpack direct from Rocksector Records at www.rocksector.com, is really the next evolutionary step for a band early releases balanced hard rock and heavy metal/speed metal so perfectly. It's N.W.O.B.H.M. after getting a face lift and a shot of adrenalin and at the end of the day it's simply an album that I can't help but ramble on and on about! "Cry Havoc" is not only a essential pick-up for fans of Tysondog, but it's a mandatory must-buy for those who still claim to love tried and true heavy metal and everything that it represents!
Review of Tysondog's "Hammerhead 2012":
http://metalmark.blogspot.com/2012/05/tysondog-hammerhead-2012.html
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