I will start with saying that Tangent is a pretty strange moniker for a metal band. Unless you are a weird, out there, progressive technical band, the name probably doesn’t quite belong. Yet the trio of Australians bearing it play none of those things and will make you remember them after you spin through their self-titled mini-album several times.

What jumps at you from the first notes of Spellbreaker is Saxon-style NWOBHM, definitely non-pretentious, maybe a touch simple, but absolutely genuine and hazardously infectious. Rocking, with audible pulsating bass lines, crashing cymbals and vocals sung as if slightly drunk, Spellbreaker cooks right off the bat. Come Back from the Light and Like Dreams in the Day shift the emphasis to psychedelia slightly, and could maybe pass off for very early Judas Priest, but Tangent vocalist is no Rob Halford, and doesn’t pretend to be. As much as it sounds not macho, and not metal, you will get caught up singing and dancing to Come Back from the Light, caught in its feeling of immediacy, following the commands both in vocal tone and the song’s lyrics. Like Dreams in the Day is most balladic, twangy and dreamiest, albeit with the same audible bass line. Come Back from the Light and Like Dreams in the Day is where Tangent uncorks its slight touch of weirdness and non-conformity by extending guitar solos into noodling heroic epics (Come Back from the Light) or guitar hero moments (Like Dreams in the Day) supported by statement background chords.

Sabotage returns Tangent to a decidedly rocking and buoyant plane. Somewhat uncouth and loose, sung with the same drunken style as Spellbreaker, Sabotage is a perfect soundtrack to a band’s picture, taken somewhere in Melbourne bowels, abandoned zoo or a jail yard. That picture is an epitome of Tangent, independent, natural, slouchy, cool, slightly greasy and again … rocking. I can’t think of a better epithet, so apologies if I repeated it several times throughout this review. If you like American acts High Spirits, Dawnbringer or Zuul, Tangent is a must.