Tankard - Vol(l)ume 14
AFM Records
Alcoholic Thrash Metal
10 songs (50:22)
Release year: 2010
Tankard, AFM Records
Reviewed by Thomas
Major event

Hail Tankard, hands down the most consistent thrash metal band that has been around for more than a decade. Part of their success-formula has been to never change. You always know what to expect as they never progress yet always deliver in brilliant fashion with their one-two punch of stupid lyrics and awesome music. Given the fact that they never alter their style, makes it hard to write anything that has yet to be said about this band. Anyway, their latest outing Thirst gained mainly good press as expected, and was maybe their best since 04's Beast of Bourbon. While this isn't quite on Thirst's level, it still accomplishes what it's supposed to. Entertain, thrash and as any other Tankard-album, kick ass.

The fun kicks off with party-starter Time Warp which, despite a calm introduction, picks up where Thirst left off and delivers ramming riffs as well as Geremia's trademark shouts and yells. It's both heavy and catchy as flaming hell and you've definitely heard it before. Rules For Fools is a little speedier but pretty much continues on the same path. It does in other words take few spins to digest everything, as you know what to expect with every single tune on here. Like all their previous efforts this is instantly lovable because of the stupid yet warm sense of humour that doesn't really confront anything at all except present day's focus on diets, treadmills and twitter. Coupled with rocking, tight music it just isn't much to dislike about this. There's nothing about the songs that will let you down, as the quality actually rises as the album goes on, with songs such as the more “serious”, monstrous thrasher The Agency, intense stomper Brain Piercing öf Death, society-bashing Condemnation and the insanely wonderfully melodic yet violent finishing blow Weekend Warriors being the highlights of the oddly titled Vol(l)ume 14. This is Tankard through and through just the way we expect and love them to sound and perform, and to be strictly honest, I'm a bit surprised that alcoholic Germans brew metal better than most nowadays.

So are there any weaknesses here? Well, the man who adjusted the guitar-sound on this album probably had one to many before he got off to work, as the guitars sound surprisingly weak. One of the highpoints of this band has always been that the guitar-tone always has been skull-crushing and a distinct part of their heaviness. Here it's just too compressed and sometimes even soft-sounding which isn't exactly what you'd expect from a band like Tankard. Luckily, it just takes a spin or two to get past, and seeing as how they will bash your head with broken beer-bottles until you bleed, it doesn't really matter that much. Another slight weak spot is Gerre, that is starting to sound a bit old and worn out. His English is worse than before, and his shouts are a bit messy in places. This is however also a piece that isn't too difficult to look past when you take the whole album into consideration. The music is by far the most important, and the song-writing which is still chock full of quality, will only cause you to cast a slight glance upon the seemingly annoying faults before you turn your head to the good shit that's constantly delivered by ever ageing, fat and ugly men. In other words, even if this isn't as good as Thirst or Beast of Bourbon you should definitely get it, party to it, empty the tankard to it, have sex to it or just plainly headbang and air-guitar to it. It's awesome. CHEERS.

Killing Songs :
All!
Thomas quoted 84 / 100
Other albums by Tankard that we have reviewed:
Tankard - R.I.B reviewed by Thomas and quoted 79 / 100
Tankard - A Girl Called Cerveza reviewed by Milan and quoted 79 / 100
Tankard - Chemical Invasion reviewed by Thomas and quoted CLASSIC
Tankard - Zombie Attack reviewed by Charles and quoted 86 / 100
Tankard - B-Day reviewed by Thomas and quoted 87 / 100
To see all 10 reviews click here
0 readers voted
Average:
 0
You did not vote yet.
Vote now

There are 13 replies to this review. Last one on Sun Dec 26, 2010 9:04 pm
View and Post comments