Tank Albums (8)
'War of Attrition -- Live '81'
Release Date 5/22/2001
Tracks 11
Label Zoom Club/Windsor
See Album Tracklist and Review
'The Return of the Filth Hounds'
Release Date 8/25/1998
Tracks 10
Label Rising Sun
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What The Critics Say
On this album, Tank strains to match This Means War's critically lauded raunch, right down to aping its predecessor's blueprint: three songs on side one, four songs on side two. That's not to say the group's single-minded chugalug has gotten tamer: "The War Drags Ever On" shudders with a ferocity that would make Motörhead proud, but is also a ringer for the last album's "Just Like Something from Hell." The first side remains a seamless display of what made Tank comers in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal sweepstakes: blunderbuss guitars, cymbal-soaked drums, and vocals that sound like they're being phoned in from the bottom of a gravel pit. Tank shone brightest on these lengthy ruminations about the horrors of war; it's hard to imagine how Metallica could have stepped down a similar path without hearing these guys first. Side two is a more inconsistent exercise plagued by an insistence on riffing for its own sake. The gleeful dismantling of Aretha Franklin's standard "Chain of Fools" is the standout -- if only because it's so unusual in this context -- while "Too Tired to Wait for Love" and "Kill" pull off the old riotous majesty, but could stand some more well-rounded melodies. Honour & Blood is a solid outing that only suffers when stacked against its predecessor. Tank and riff-mad peers like Raven and Warfare would succumb to an '80s-era Darwinian logic that stranded them at the altar -- while Bon Jovi and Def Leppard sailed into poppier pastures and hit the jackpot. It's just like high school: The prevaricating prom kings got the cars and girls, while everyone else got to watch. ~ Ralph Heibutzki, All Music Guide
'This Means War'
Release Date 1/1/1983
Tracks 7
Label Music for Nations
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What The Critics Say
Bassist Algy Ward's mob scored a bull's eye with this successor to its more rudimentary debut, Filth Hounds of Hades. This Means War hits the mark with memorable riffs, vivid lyrics, and razor-sharp production that brightens the sound without sacrificing the bare-knuckled rock approach. Tank epitomized the fuzzier, faster 'n' louder pack aching for a place in the British heavy rock scene -- as its 1977 punk peers had only done several years earlier. "Just Like Something from Hell," "Hot Lead and Cold Steel," and "If We Go (We Go Down Fighting)" remain some of the most evocative looks at the hell of war, a quality that helped Tank stand above its more velocity-oriented peers. Indeed, the subject hangs over much of the album (except "I Won't Ever You Let Down"). The band's graphic lyrics leave little to the listener's imagination (as Metallica and Motörhead did on similar tunes like "Disposable Heroes" and "1916," respectively). Much of the band's lyrical authority stems from a gritty production driven by Ward's grungy bass and liberal use of the bass drum that so aptly defined the style of this era. Guitarists Mick Tucker and Pete Brabbs make an unholy racket that aims to leave the listener breathless and flattened; on this score, the band succeeded, creating a textbook example of '80s thrash metal. ~ Ralph Heibutzki, All Music Guide
'Power of the Hunter'
Release Date 1/1/1982
Tracks 10
Label This Record Co.
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Although they had spent much of the previous year supporting a famously devastating debut, Filth Hounds of Hades, while touring in tandem with some of Britain's heaviest bands (Girlschool, Diamond Head and their inspirational rabbis Motörhead), Tank inexplicably delivered an astonishingly restrained and civilized sounding sophomore effort in Power of the Hunter, their second album of 1982. To be fair, the until-recently sharp-fanged power trio almost recalled their recklessly irrepressible former selves on the hard-hitting title track, the refreshingly frantic "Red Skull Rock," and the instrumental "T.A.N.K."; but it was really rather telling that so much of the their suddenly scarce allowances of high-speed adrenalin were squandered on an instrumental, with two songs shoved all the way to the back of the album. Meanwhile, repetitive opener "Walking Backwards over Glass" (whatever the hell that means) seriously overstayed its welcome, a cover of the Osmonds' "Crazy Horses" was curious to say the least, the ridiculously named, bass guitar heavy "Set Your Back on Fire" sounded like second-rate Kiss with a leering Gene Simmons at the helm, and the misleadingly named "Pure Hatred" was only salvaged by a stellar guitar solo from Pete Brabbs doing his best Ritchie Blackmore imitation. And it's not even that the members of Tank were suddenly rediscovering their late-'70s punk roots because, if tedious dross like "Biting and Scratching," "Some Came Running," or the seemingly chart-minded (but still dumb-as-nails) "Used Leather" were any indication, they actually seemed to have regressed even further back to some sort of mid-'70s pub rock! In any event, and in the end, Power of the Hunter's uneven sum total didn't quite qualify as an all out disaster -- there have been far more egregious sell-out operations in the long history of heavy metal -- but the band's sonic emasculation process was nevertheless drastic enough that Power of the Hunter sold half as many copies as their furious debut. Tank would manage to recover from their unfortunate sophomore slump with an unqualified return to heavy metal on 1983's This Means War, but not before being jolted to attention by Power of the Hunter's commercial failure, their record company's bankruptcy, and the loss of the both Pete and Mark Brabbs brothers in the painful process. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide
'Filth Hounds of Hades'
Release Date 1/1/1982
Tracks 10
Label Action Music
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The very notion seems preposterous today (too good to be true, more like), but in 1981, underground legends Motörhead -- the band who once correctly boasted that if they moved in next door, your lawn would die -- saw their landmark No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith live album enter the U.K. Charts at number one! The New Wave of British Heavy Metal was also in full swing that year, with early champions like Saxon, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard already building from strength to strength, and a hungry throng of supplementary upstarts waiting in the wings to take their best shot at denim-and-leather glory. One of these was South London's Tank, and the reason we bring up Motörhead, first and foremost here, is because this power trio composed of the brothers Mark and Pete Brabbs and gravel-throated, former Damned bassist Algy Ward, had Lemmy and co. to thank for the lion's share of their musical inspiration -- not to mention many of their earliest concert bookings leading up to first album Filth Hounds of Hades. Released in early 1982 and produced by none other than Motörhead guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke, Filth Hounds naturally contained its fair share of scorching, paint-peeling heavy rockers (see the title cut, "Run Like Hell" and opener "Shellshock," whose silly caveman chants suggest just how much fun was had at these sessions), fueled by a similarly volatile cocktail of intensity and velocity as that made famous by the band's creative gurus. But the record also made room for more accessible offerings like amusing singles "Blood, Guts & Beer" and "He Fell in Love with a Stormtrooper," the sardonic "Who Needs Love Songs," and the surprisingly long-winded bluesy jam "That's What Dreams Are Made Of" (which some listeners may liken to Motörhead's "The Chase Is Better Than the Catch") -- all of which helped to showcase Tank's enviable instrumental chops at less frantic speeds. Even so, it's arguably another pair of teetotal punk metal masterpieces -- the self-explanatory "Struck by Lightning" and the arguably career best anthem, "Turn Your Head Around" -- that ensure Filth Hounds of Hades' standing as Tank's best album ever, and qualifying it as an essential item in the record collection of any serious '80s metal fan. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide
