Mini Reviews-Bunker 66 and Tank

Bunker 66-Out of the bunker
Reinig
2010



Hailing from Italy this act reminds me of a bunch of guys got together one night to come up with a few songs that honored their influence. This was probably a result of sitting around listening to lots of albums ranging from Hellhammer to Venom to early Sodom to pre-Reign in blood Slayer and also including some hardcore like Discharge, The Exploited and Broken Bones. The result are six tracks of primitive blackened hardcore thrash metal that might have well been recorded in 1985 if I don't know different. Even the sound quality has that slightly rough feel around the edges that was on so many independent metal releases around twenty-five years ago. The vocals are slightly more clean than you may expect for this style, but just raspy enough to compliment the overall sound. The music does contain a few more involved passages too that show the band is more versatile than I figured. The lyrics range from drinking to radioactivity to war so nothing that new for this musical genre. This release was more powerful than I was expecting and the skill level is solid even if they are not breaking any new ground. So if you're in the mood for old style thrash with some bite then this is a band to check out.





Tank-War Machine
Metal Mind
2010

It's always a touchy situation when a band is in the position of attempting to soldier on with no original members. Doesn't happen that often, but it does happen and usually I am left wondering if the band in question should be allowed to use the name or not? Well, here we are with a version of Tank without vocalist/bass player Algy Ward. His voice was so much a part of their classic early 80's sound. In the new line-up we have guitarists Mick Tucker and Cliff Evans who were in the band from 1983 to 1987 and then both came back when the band started back up in 1997 and have been with the group since then. Completing the line-up are bassist Chris Dale (Atom Seed, Bruce Dickinson), drummer Dave Cavill (Zodiac Mindwarp) and journeyman vocalist Doogie White (Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteetn, Praying Mantis and a pile of others. If you are expecting Filth hound of Hades then you may be disappointed. Early Tank reminded me of Motorhead, but this album reminds me of another British band and that is Saxon. That's mainly due to the fact that Doogie White sounds a lot like Biff Byford. Also if you are expecting the chugging heaviness of early you may be surprised because of the tracks here are mid-paced although with a strong classic metal style always present. This may not sound like the Tank of the NWOBHM era, but it's still very good. Whether or not it should be called Tank is debatable, but there is no doubt that this is a fine slab of metal.

Mini-reviews-Suicidal Tendencies and Killing Joke

Suicidal Tendencies/No mercy-No Mercy Fool/The suicidal family Suicidal records 2010 In recent year countless bands have re-recorded their own music and the results have been as varied as the bands who have recorded them. If you were to ask me what band should re-record some of their old material then it would be unlikely that Suicidal Tendencies would be towards the top of that list. Even if I had to pick from their material I would of course choose their classic self-titled release. However they chose to re-record some material from their sophomore album "Join the army". Now I remember hearing that album when it came out and was left feeling cold. It was a step down from the debut in both pace and intensity. So I wasn't exactly thrilled when I heard they were re-recording tracks from it. They proved me wrong because the versions presented come firing out fast with more energy and spirit than I have heard from this band since their debut. There is speed, heaviness, aggressive vocals, shredding fretwork and a pounding rhythm section. If the songs had been good this time around then the band would have had hooked back then, but better late than never. There are also songs from No Mercy which was a side project for some members. It's a seamless fit though because the songs from both acts are similar in style and in quality. Add this album to the list of pleasant surprises for 2010. Killing joke-Absolute dissent Universal 2010 Killing Joke have been a huge influence on plenty of artists over the last almost 30 years including Metallica, Ministry, Prong and Kurt Cobain. The band has certainly gone through their share of line-ups changes over the years with the drummer position being the spot that has seen the greatest amount of turnover. Despite those personnel changes the band has managed to knock out an abum every couple years although their most productive period was during the 80's. During their career they have ripped though numerous musical styles including post-punk, metal, pop and early industrial. The major hype surrounding their new release was due to the fact that it is their first full length release with the original line-up in 28 years. Instead of following up on the sound of the albums released by the original line-up, Absolute Dissent is much more of a combination of the various sounds that this band has done over their thirty plus year career. Not a bad idea because at this point in their career no one is expecting them to re-invent the wheel and they have so many different sounds to choose from. Add to that a slightly raw almost live style production and this album begins to live up to some of the hype that's been swirling around for the last few months. They deliver crunching guitars, funky bass lines as well as some dark atmospheric moments as well. It was almost easy to be blinded by the strong moments on this album because there many. However a few plays found me knowing I liked the album, but getting a definite sense that they tried so hard to please everyone except perhaps themselves. There are some real crushing songs on here so many that they almost made me forget the couple of predictable ones. In the end "Absolute Dissent" is a fine effort with good results, but not the masterpiece that many hoped for.

Mini-reviews

These were some CDs I treated myself to for my birthday last month.

Breaker-Get Tough
This is a two CD set with the first CD being the 1987 release "Get Tough" and the second disc is unreleased songs, demos and other. This band has gotten some hype over the years so I had thought about getting this for some time. They are somewhat like a cross between Scorpions, Judas Priest and Accept. They have some very impressive songs, but most of the material is just good rather than great.

Autograph-Missing Pieces
I got this used for $6.99 and it's a collection of previously unreleased tracks and demos. All pretty typical of this band which means it's just alright. A few slightly heavier songs, but some rather routine ones too. The booklet with the memories from Steve Plunkett about how the bands got going was actually kind of interesting.

Leatherwolf-Stree Ready
This was Leatherwolf's third release and it came out int 1989. Leatherwolf kind of rode the line between metal and hard rock as they had lots of melodies, but a heavy sound as well, I think this might be their best album as everything kind of came together and it's very tight.

Mini-reviews

Here are some older CDs that I picked up recently.


Every Mother's Nightmare-s/t (1990)
I have had their second release for some time and just thought it was very average although it was hurt by poor production. I found there debut recently for $6.99 which I think is way less than what it normally goes for. They sound sort of like a heavier version of Poison in some ways and yes I realize that still doesn't mean they are very heavy at all. It's a little more rockin' than the bulk of the hard rock stuff that was spewing out all over the place in 1990. Yet I think the arrangements and okay vocals kept them from being that memorable.

Soul Kitchen-s/t (1992)
This one always shows up cheap on eBay and I normally skipped it because I knew nothing about. Finally I took a chance on copy that was under $2.00. The good news is it's a little like early Black Crowes, but the bad news is that it sounds even more like rotten popular hard rock of the time complete with mandatory sappy ballads. They have some groove here and there, but it's normally too subdued and too far below a few layers of lame, almost generic hard rock. Decent vocals and good production help it to be worth what I paid for it.

Metalium-Hero Nation and As One (Double disc set)
This two disc set cost $9.99 used which I thought was a decent deal. Hero Nation is the band's third disc and it's standard Euro power metal in the Helloween/Gamma Ray mold. The vocals seem to be the major focus and it just felt the music was pushed too far back. Also the music never really flowed as much as I was hoping, it came out and went yet it never truly that dynamic. A decent album, but all a little too tame. As One was the band's fourth disc and fares quite a bit better. The music soars and it's overall and more vibrant, it actually feels like there is some direction to what they are doing. The vocals are good although the lyrics are the same old cliches although the band doesn't try to pretend it's anything else. As a package it was worth what I paid.