Friday 14 September 2012

Tygers of Pan Tang - Ambush (2012)

Genre - Hard Rock / Classic Rock / Melodic Rock / NWoBHM Label -
Label - Rocksector Records
Track listing:

01 - Keeping Me Alive
02 - These Eyes
03 - One Of A Kind
04 - Rock & Roll Dream
05 - She
06 - Man on Fire
07 - Play to Win
08 - Burning Desire
09 - Hey Suzie!
10 - Mr. Indespensable
11 - Speed

Its been a long time since these guys released their debut album "Wild Cat" back in 1980, a period of thirty two years that has seen them disband and reform twice and release countless classic NWoBHM master peices. Its a sad fact that Tygers of Pan Tang are criminaly overlooked by the majority of fans of the NWoBHM era, with the likes of Iron Maiden, Saxon, Diamond Head, Praying Mantis and Def Leppard taking the spot light, leaving some truly great songs undiscovered.

Ambush is the second full length release from Tygers... since they reformed for the second time back in 2001 and is a solid album to be fair. Founding member, Robb Weir (Guitars) is joined by Jacopo Meille (Vocals), Dean Robertson (Guitars), Gavin Gray (Bass) and Craig Ellis (Drums & Percussion) for this outting, and together witha strong clear production and some great songs they turn in a brilliant performance, with Ambush reinforcing the point that Tygers.... really do deserve your attention, and are still relevent and capable of putting out some great music after all these years.

The album seems to be the perfect ballance of Classic Melodic Rock and NWoBHM, with Jacopo's vocals dancing tantalisingly over the top of some great rock riffs. As I have already said the songs are strong, full of life and energy with great riffs and some awesome hooks taboot.
The first five songs have a more melodic leaning where as the rest are definetly more in NWoBHM vein, creating a solid and diverse album!

Stand out tracks for me have to include the opening track, Keeping Me Alive, Play To Win (which is a pure NWoBHM classic!), Burning Desire and Hey Suzie, a song that not only ressurects the character ftom the bands debut single but also has a feel very reminiscent of their debut album Wild Cat.

A Great album for a veteren band that is well worth checking out!

Rating - 9/10

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