Chemical Invasion

It only makes sense that after many years reading the archives on almost a daily basis (and learning A LOT) I finally make up my mind about starting writing my own reviews and choose to start with one of my favourite albums by one of my most beloved bands, Tankard, who happens to be one of the most consistent and hardest working bands in all thrash, most likely my favourite extreme metal subgenre. It all does come full circle this way, doesn't it?

Tankard are a german band, from Frankfurt Am Main, who seem to be known by everyone, while consistently overlooked by most, including myself. I knew who they were, and listened to some of their songs every once in a while, only to forget about them (for no reason, because I liked them, but I guess some other bands fared better at grabbing my attention back in the day), until I eventually started to pay full attention to their craft. It took me very long and I can't turn back the clock. That I regret, but better late than never. Same happened to me with Voivod and some others (there are so much worthy of listening to and so little time). I know, it's disgusting, but trust me, I've done some serious catching up during the last few years.

They have tons of albums and save for a few dips in quality (mostly during the second half of the nineties), most of them rank from consistent to top notch, always leaving a trace of spilled beer, puke and laughter, and never deviating from their chosen genre. Out of all their albums, the first three seem to be the most revered, and for a reason, although as I said before, their body of work is overall awesome.

Chemical Invasion, which was recorded during the Berlin summer of 1987 and released soon after in October, is the second record of those three, and the one which saw them transitioning from the thrash-punk blitz of their debut, Zombie Attack, released the previous year, to a more musically improved and thrashier approach. Not a big transition, I know, for the punk attitude and the ferocity of the previous album are all over the place, but you could tell they had gotten better music wise.

It was produced by the great Harris Johns, who was a man on a mission back then, bent on becoming the greatest extreme metal producer ever, with some very important notches on his belt, such as albums by Sodom, Helloween, Coroner, Kreator, Voivod, Pestilence and more. And while is true that I'm not one to give a lot of thinking about the production values of an album, always basing my opinion on whether I like what I'm listening to or not, because I'm no expert, I can tell that the production fits the music here. It is raw and in your face, with no room for embellishments, because Tankard's music is not about that, but the complete opposite.

Tankard waste no time in showing the world that sobriety will be fought wherever it might be found, with tales about stolen beer, purity law, vomit and maybe a rant or two about more social issues. In fact, the opening intro only consists in Gerre, the band's singer, opening a beer bottle, drinking it in just one go and belching from the botton of his guts, while in the closing outro is he again who demands being given a beer. They haven't only sung about alcohol, but back then the beer thing borderlined on obsession.

As for the proper songs, most of them are short, extremely fast and full of manic riffing, with Tankard taking no prisoners both musically and lyrically. This can be exemplified by ragers such as Tantrum, Farewell To A Slut (a song unconsciously aimed to trigger the anger of the enormous wave of stupid goodism which plagues these times, but many years prior), or the environmentally aware Don't Panic, which features a raging blues rock intro which quickly becomes another musical storm, and also brilliant double kicks by Oliver, the band's first drummer. Honourable mention to Puke, a lightning fast number which does not last a minute and in which Gerre even tries to outdo himself when it comes to insane singing. This is NOT about love and beautiful feelings as you may guess.

Even when they attack the longer ones, for example something as unexpected as For A Thousand Beers (not because of its name, mind you), given it is a long instrumental number which opens with some acoustic strumming, you can tell what there is in store, which is more of the same played at breackneck speed. Placed right in the middle of the album it works well as a division line, though. Traitor, one of my favourites, not only is even longer, but maybe the longest Tankard song ever recorded. But it never gets boring and it serves just fine as the ultimate anti-poseur anthem. You have a problem, thrash is here to stay and your time is over. No room for pussies anymore. I love that section when the song slows down a gear or two and Gerre proceeds with the accusations: Traitor! Liar! LOSER!

And no Chemical Invasion review should be finished without talking about the titular song, with its funny and lively bluesy intro, which Gerre uses during the shows to take a girl out of the crowd and dance with her, and the initial interplay between both axemen, Axel and Andy, and Frank's bass guitar playing. For a while the whole thing threatens to get out of control, until it eventually does and this is mayhem once again. One of their most famous and enduring songs, and a live staple ever since.

They still have time for a cover of the fittingly named song Alcohol, originally by the american punk band Gang Green, and this is the second song they have with that name in as many albums.

This is all that there is. One monster of an album which, strangely enough (because I was too young to notice when it first came out and it took me many years afterwards to begin listening to it), always brings lots of nostalgia for those golden, carefree eighties days. This album, coupled with 1988's The Morning After, makes the perfect Tankard experience if furious and funny thrash is what you are into.

I could perfectly give it a perfect score but I won't, because perfection is too serious a word to be used lightly and I think there's always room for improvement. Let's pretend 98 out of 100 is as perfect as it gets.


Citizen Of Glass
https://citizenofglass1976.blogspot.com/

Tankard is one of my favourite bands in general. I think that they have a great level as performers, composers, and in my humble opinion, they are way better than Sodom and Destruction; however, several factors impeded that they could reach the fame and appreciation that they deserved to have.

After their debut with Zombie Attack (an album that I did not want to review due to its more punk-oriented sound, as I am not a punk fan and it would have been unfair to judge it as a thrash metal release), the band started to work in a more aggressive sound, and the result was glorious; in fact, this was their first album with a genuine thrash metal sound.

First of all, I have to eulogize the composition of the songs; Tankard abandoned their tendency of writing simple songs with repetitive structures, riffs, and the same drum rhythm throughout the whole song. Here, the songs are more varied in this aspect, as they are more dynamic. We can find changing drums rhythms that make that the songs do not become something monotonous, bridges and interludes that make that every song have something different to offer and a vast variety of riffs, which has a remarkable influence of blues sound; thrash metal is that kind of gender that should overcome because of the originality of their riffs.

The music is savage, raw, it's pure anger, an ode to insanity; Gerre's voice is rougher than in its previous album, marking a clear evolution in his vocal style towards something more aggressive; Frank Thorwarth stands out improvising some bass lines in the album, giving more riches to the music; Oliver Werner is pretty standard playing the drums, but he's consistent and a good support for the band; Andy and Axel are good guitar players and they show off their (kind of limited) skills, offering short, but solid solos (although some licks are very memorable, like the first solos of "For A Thousand Beers").

As I said before, every song has something different to offer, as the progressive parts of "Don't Panic", the magic and epicity of "For A Thousand Beers" (one of the best instrumental metal pieces of all), the aggressiveness of "Total Addiction" or "Traitor" and the funny and danceable introduction of the album's title track, you choose your favourite moment of the album.

I have not too much to say about the lyrics, as most of them are hilarious, obscene and beer-related, excepting "Don't Panic", which is a little more serious, satirizing the war and other evils of the world.

Nonetheless, unfortunately, the album is not perfect, as it sins in something very important: the production. It is true that the music is powerful and full of adrenalin, but sometimes the sound is kind of dirty, and that makes that you don't know what notes the guitar players are playing, and thus, some riffs are unintelligible, as in "Total Addiction" and "For A Thousand Beers", but if you just want to listen to some raw music, this won't be a great problem for you.

This is the second strike of a band that is full of personality and style, and I totally recommend it if you want to listen to Tankard in some of the best moments of their career. It is a real shame that the band do not perform more songs from this album live apart from "Chemical Invasion", but this album will stay in the history as one of the best (and most underrated) german thrash metal albums.

Among all the famous or not so famous thrash bands from Germany, Tankard were always one of them that I did not quite enjoy as much as the others. Of course, cited as one of the "big four" of the German thrash scene, they are mostly known for their lyrical themes, which is mainly centered on alcohol and beer. I am quite surprised that these guys managed to sing about basically the same thing for 35 years. Well, lyrics apart, the music itself was pretty good, especially in the 80s. However, the issue I always had is that it didn't manage to keep me focused on their records. The amount of good and superior stuff in the genre is the primary reason though. At least, Tankard's first few records are worthy of being looked at for any thrashers out there. One thing we can give this band credit for is appearing differently from everyone else in the scene and not following the "Who makes the most evil music?" race.

Tankard being an old school thrash band among the almighty Sodom, Kreator and Destruction, they first released two demos in '84 and '85 and came out with their first full-length "Zombie Attack" the year after. The most notable thing to see on their music is the much more polished sound than the aforementioned bands at the same time for instance. Yet, the music is aggressive and technically great actually. The follow-up, "Chemical Invasion" was released one year later in 1987 and this is where we get to know what the band is all about. What we have on this album is ten tracks, on which the first one is a useless 17 seconds introduction that show a bit what's the band's mood. It really kicks-off with "Total Addiction", which I found funny since it's about drug addiction, but tells to drink beer instead. However, the intensity displayed on such track is always welcomed with how fast they actually play. I didn't really like the riffing on that song, but the thrashy vocals of Gerre and the drums of Oliver Werner are awesome. As much as I like to praise the music from this scene, I totally enjoyed half of the album content. The second track "Tantrum" has cool riffs, but in overall, it sounded quite similar to the album track "Chemical Invasion", especially on the chorus.

Apart from the similarity, the self-titled track is overall much better and has more variety. Some other highlights we can find on "Chemical Invasion" is the funny "Farewell to a Slut". This song has been one of my favorite of the band mainly because of its catchiness and classic intense thrash approach. Other than that, the near eight minutes of length "Traitor" is also quite entertaining if you don't mind its repetitiveness. It's straightforward most of the time, but has that heavy part in the middle that create some variations at least. The guys of Tankard still had musical skills to make such music, in fact, I was really surprised by that instrumental track named "Four a Thousand Beers". It show case a bunch of great riffs and it's a very well structured song that is beginning with a melodic approach and ends up heavy as hell. I found this quite unusual in such album, but definitely not out of place to me, unlike "Puke" for instance, which is just a minute of mess basically.

Although I genuinely only liked a handful of Tankard songs overall, we cannot deny the good production on their records, such as the one reviewed here. The sound will be flawless to those who don't like their thrash too primitive, but will still sound great to those old school thrashers that prefer the dark stuff. To sums it up, this album is not bad at all, but obviously not a masterpiece. Like mentioned above, there are amazing songs, but also useless and some not so memorable ones. Anyway, even if it's far from my top records in the thrash metal department, I still recommend this album since it's a fun and good piece of the German scene, the energy is there, and the riffs are brutal at times. You may as well dig this even more than I did, but in my book, this album and Zombie Attack are my recommendations of the Tankard records.

Highlights:

Chemical Invasion
Farewell to a Slut
For a Thousand Beers
Total Addiction
Traitor

Twelve months after their minimally punk affected debut, Tankard returned with "Chemical Invasion", a detonation of pure thrash metal. The compositions showed a higher degree of variety and complexity. In terms of musicianship, the dudes had reached the next tier. The fact that four of the musicians contributed at least one own composition underlined this development.

The excellent artwork presented a vile chemist who manipulated his beer in order to create a strange brew unscrupulously. This utterly unacceptable form of poisoning was too much for the defenders of the German purity law. Tankard raged against this kind of beer pollution and their title track was able to blow up the entire laboratory of the criminal scientist. The beginning of the song picked up the mood of "(Empty) Tankard", but this piece was evolving into a very intense and furious thrash metal grenade. Of course, a pinch of humour was not missing. Nevertheless, the song connected melody, density and speed in a very imposing way. Brutality and refinement were also expertly balanced. In my humble opinion, this ingenious number still belongs to their absolute classics.

Generally speaking, sheer fury characterized the majority of the songs. Straightforward outbursts like "Farewell to a Slut" or "Total Addiction" proved that Tankard had nothing lost of the juvenile spontaneity of their debut. Gerre´s charismatic shouting as well as the powerful guitars and the thunderous rhythm section displayed an enormous joy of making music. As if that wasn´t enough, Tankard also impressed with an almost progressive tendency. The monumental instrumental at the end of the A side surprised with a very unusual approach without appearing lightweight or inappropriate. "Traitor", a further overlong song, proved their ability to write a thrilling piece of eight minutes length one more time. The song killed any kind of weariness in a matter of seconds because of its intensive and unstoppable riffing. Well accentuated background shouts increased the dynamism and the pressure of the song, while the high speed guitars performed rabid yet slightly technical solos one by one. The exact opposite of these bombastic songs was called "Puke", an unswervingly hammering miniature track. As short as its title, it passed by in less than a minute while destroying everything that stood in its way. Fortunately, the mind-blowing mix of the album set all songs in the right light, irrespective of their individual configurations.

The lyrics expressed Tankard´s weakness for beer and alcohol in general in several ways. But apart from that nonsensical poetry, the band also showed its political awareness ("Don´t Panic"). Despite first appearances, this text did not come as a surprise, because "Maniac Forces", already released on their debut, had also been slightly political. Well, we all know the omniscient eloquence of drunken people... Anyway, the lunatic chemist, probably a distant relative of Destruction´s mad butcher, was grinning insidiously and I remember that I had pinned a poster with this artwork to the wall during the time of my military service. I cannot say that the motif pleased my first sergeant. But I guess my inoffensive action was better than starting another world war.

In metal, as in all crafts, even the most campy of projects goes through some form of evolution, and sometimes it's not a gradual one. The massive strides being taken in thrash metal between 1984 and 1987 were particularly massive, and Germany's fun-loving, beer guzzling with an occasional side show of politics or horror Tankard found themselves in a strong, yet slightly behind the curve situation when they unleashed "Zombie Attack". For an album released at the height of the darker side of thrash metal and a progressive offshoot also in the works, their style had a bit more of an early/mid 80s speed metal tilt to it that made it sound like it should have hit the waves back in 1985 when they were still in the demo stage of things. Enter an opportunity for a jarring mutation, though thankfully not an awry one in "Chemical Invasion", an album that is musically quite serious in comparison to its predecessor, even if the album art is only slightly less comical.

While Tankard's sophomore effort is definitely a full out thrash assault to the max, it's also still tempered by a helping of musically comical elements at times, much like their socially conscious New York counterparts Nuclear Assault. Most of this album is locked in high-octane territory, smashing neck-bones with an impressive array of crunchy riffs and blinding beats, but a sideshow of eclecticism rears it's head, culminating in a number of quirky and occasionally brilliant moments. While mostly a crazed festival of intensity and speed the Destruction model, "Farewell To A Slut" has this almost "Friday The 13th" inspired interlude section with this creepy interlude that comes seemingly out of nowhere. Likewise, the intro to the title song "Chemical Assault" starts off on a cliche blues riff like something off of Nuclear Assault's "The Plague" or Megadeth's venture into similar territory on their cover of "I Ain't Superstitious", but then quickly launches into breakneck territory something fierce.

Most auspicious of this album's differing traits with relation to its predecessor is the pair of long-winded thrashers lodged dead in the middle. It's not hard to see where a multifaceted mixture of classical music balladry and technical guitar work like "For A Thousand Beers" came into play with this band given the leaps in evolution inspired by "Master Of Puppets", and though this album didn't receive the same posh production that Metallica's much lauded 3rd album did, this song comes off as far more engaging and dynamic than any of the repetitive ballad work of said opus. "Traitor" works a bit differently, coming off more like a conventional thrasher with frequent slower sections and a heavy amount of lead guitar work, largely comparable to the same Kirk Hammett line of methodical shredding heard on "Zombie Attack", but slightly more flashy. Come to think of it, the only area where Metallica's direct influence isn't really coming through anymore is Gerre's vocals, which have a bit more of a high-end snarl to them and listen much closer to Schmier.

Though this album gets a bit faster than its predecessor and has a few more tricks up its sleeve, the debut has a slight edge in terms of memorability. At times, this album almost seems like it tries a bit too hard to ratchet up the technical side and ends up overdoing it. Nevertheless, there are plenty of measured and power fits of hard-partying with a heavy end to be enjoyed here, particularly the first 3 actual songs where the band opts to keep things simple and by the numbers, forsaking the gimmickry and comedy for a straight up dose of mad moshing mayhem. If you can picture Exodus's "Pleasures Of The Flesh" combined with Destruction's "Eternal Devastation", this doesn't fall too far from it when considering the likes of "Total Addiction" and "Don't Panic". Whatever experimental substance the mad scientist used to spike Tankard's drinks with, it definitely caused them to have much nimbler fingers and a bit more edge to their overall sound.

The second album from German thrashers Tankard, "Chemical Invasion," not only stands the test of time as one of the band’s most enduring classics but also becomes one of Germany’s finest records ever made and shows the band is more than just a cheap gimmick band but something much more impressive overall.

With a cheap intro of a fizzling beer being opened and gulped down, proper first song ‘Total Addiction’ begins with the manic intensity and thrashing verve of their first album, even reaching more-intense levels with a hellish fury of drumming, frenzied shouting and controlled-chaos riffing that is one of the more pit-worthy thrash metal breakdowns ever and some memorable moments of calmness to break the chaos slightly. Follow-up effort ‘Tantrum’ is a slightly refined variation of the opener with a little more restrained riffing and a slightly less frenetic riffing style, but is still held in the mold of a thrashing Tankard song due to the backing gang-shouts and rocking pace. Even bigger rocker ‘Don't Panic’ follows suit with a melodic intro and some impressive riff-work that keeps the energy flowing despite the simplistic drumming on display, yet the guitar-work keeps it afloat long enough to make the thrashing intense enough for the track to work, eventually becoming one of its highlights. Again, though, the album’s first half ends with a weak note as the ultra-simplistic and really unworthy ‘Puke,’ as the main chaotic riff that opens this is suited more to a longer, more involved song as the barely-under-a-minute length doesn’t allow it time to do anything.

Luckily, again the second half comes into play with the instrumental epic ‘For a Thousand Beers,’ which becomes a crowning achievement for the band to hold against the naysayers who say they’re a one-note band. Filled with acoustic guitars, introspective riffing amongst the electrical bombast and even progressive elements as the sprawling length gives it all the time to sink in and breathe with time as a full-on thrasher, multi-tempo extravaganza, moody reflection piece and guitar-duel soloing during its phase. The title track puts things back into familiar territory with a swanky western-intro piece that segues into a thrash-based riff-fest as the guitars fizzle along at great speed and the drumming keeps in perfect step to create another classic song. The violent ‘Farewell to a Slut’ is one of the more brutal thrash songs in their history, with riffing as vicious as the vitriol spilled in the lyrics, and the band only slows down the attack to deliver a melodically-leaning solo that soon gives way right back to the kinetic, violent riff-work. This is also repeated in the album’s second epic ‘Traitor’ which follows the predictable Tankard style of intense thrashing riffs, crushing drums and a manic vocal delivery that leaves little room for melody as it’s far too interested in keeping things destructive as it winds its’ way through a serpentine series of riffs, solos and drumming that are in high-standard. All this is rounded off by a spirited cover of Gang Green’s ‘Alcohol,’ an entirely different track than what was on the debut but feels more in tone due to the punk-like riffs and simplistic approach, but is still one of the better choices for a cover song in the bands’ catalog.

Overall, this is a much more improved Tankard than what was shown on the debut, as they stretch themselves out a lot more and offers some lengthier, more technically-involved songs that are still in perfect keeping with the energy and feel of the debut. Gone is the punk influence and replaced with more thrash, and the progressive feel of some of their riffing is far more accomplished than most would ever dare to write in conjunction with the band, yet the same party vibe and cheesy lyrics remain in the sound, effectively giving the band a true classic in their discography and overall one of the finer thrash records to come from the prolific German scene of the 80s.

Chemical Invasion is Tankard's second album and the tasty vanilla stuffing at the center of their career Oreo cookie. Granted, I may be one to appreciate the crisp, outer chocolate shell more than the filling, but to be fair, one slice of the tongue alongside the softer contents within only helps one better savor the cookie's exterior, and I feel like this album would make the perfect primer for the following epic The Morning After. The same frenetic pacing applies here, with fast and explosive, riotous riffing that elaborates on Zombie Attack's punk fervor with an upgrade to the band's technical whims. For half the record, you feel as if Venom has been put on fast forward, bluesy NWOBHM-like riffs being threaded through the thrusting, sped mute warpath the band traverse with little effort.

If you've already heard Zombie Attack, then you'll recognize this album's similar 'looking for trouble' attitude. Each of its compositions gives the impulse to pound some street turf, looking for a rowdy bar or a post-soccer party with all intentions to wreak havoc and hopefully go home with somebody else's girlfriend. You could use this as great workout music while you try and comb out that mullet. It could also score a rugby match or demolition derby. It's the brand of fashion free, testosterone induced mayhem that feels right at home in its decade of release. There's no latest edition of ProTools, Facebook or MySpace to protect your image. Go in the studio, be yourselves, knock out some songs and kill it.

With Chemical Invasion, not only do Tankard kill it, but they bag it, tag it and delicately place a cask of its favorite, potent brew in the casket to help it death with its new life in the underworld. Before you can even raise your prohibition picket sign in protest, the band has already fucking clobbered you with "Total Addiction" and "Tantrum", head-spinning anthems to moshing and beer that feel as if the band were flying high off some jet fuel enema. "Don't Panic" teases you with a slower, classy NWOBHM-on-crack rhythm before once again thrusting against the sound barrier with a killer riffing segment that culminates in a fairly complex mosh breakdown (at least for its day). "Puke" is under a minute long, but nonetheless packs in some hyper-punk rhythms and a great, acrobatic guitar rhythm early on.

Next the band takes a turn for the unexpected, with a 7+ minute instrumental "For a Thousand Beers" that travels from brooding acoustic tones and slight, swelling string ambiance to a cautious, doom-like crawl and then finally the riffing intensity you knew was just hovering on the horizon. I do feel like there are enough quality guitar parts in here to write at least two separate Tankard tracks and apply vocals, and I do feel like this album might have benefited overall from its absence, as it throws a wrench in the works of the band's hyperactive pacing. But this works both ways, and in truth, at least for a moment, it gives you a delicious pause while you savor whatever concoction you're clutching.

The band returns to its blinding, raunchy speed through the title track "Chemical Invasion" and the blistering frenzy of "Farewell to a Slut", a rather scathing indictment of one of the 'finer sex', or in Gerre's position not the finer sex. "Traitor" once again stretches the patience, nearing 8 minutes in length, but this time it's got vocal presence and tribute to drinking and thrash metal aplomb, so the time moves pretty quickly even if it's not the best song on here. The album is closed off with a cover of the great Boston hardcore band Gang Green's "Alcohol", and it's good to hear the Germans cover such a kindred spirit (I highly recommend you track down the original band for some quality hardcore punk) and put their filthy spin on the proceedings.

Not a lot of complaints here. This is a dirtier sounding record than many Harris Johns would produce, but as usual, I find it infinitely compelling and natural despite the clinical straightness. The lyrics are brute and silly but perhaps to be expected, as the band were likely still developing their English skills. The two longer compositions ("For a Thousand Beers" and "Traitor") do have some slight flaws that put them at odds with the surrounding mayhem, but they're still chalk full of swell Tankard swill and I have never felt the urge to skip them when listening through. Perhaps one could argue that the album has too much of a 'blitz' feeling, which can grow repetitious if you're not expecting it. The same was said often of Zombie Attack, but I don't have any problem with this notion whatsoever, because I have never gone into any of these old Tankard records with the intention of finding anything other than 30-40 minutes of onslaught and innocent hilarity. To that degree, Chemical Invasion is well worth a listen, and one of the better gems of the German thrash/speed explosion in the 80s, even though its closest siblings are superior.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Tankard's sophomore effort from 1987 is usually considered their masterpiece and one of the defining German Thrash albums from the 80s. It also established them as one of the "Big 4" of the German Thrash wave, yet they have always remained some kind of the "little brothers" of the other three: Kreator, Sodom and Destruction.

Of all the German Thrash bands Tankard were probably closest to the Hardcore/Thrash Crossover scene and (hence) the most fun. First of all they had a certain Punk influence ("Puke", "Alcohol") and a generally broader stylistic openness (see the title track or the instrumental "For A Thousand Beers", which is quite reminiscent of 1984-1991 era Metallica). On the other hand their lyrics were mostly about drinking, beer and alcohol while all the other bands tried to come across as serious as they could.

Apart from "Tantrum" (funny lyrics) "Chemical Invasion" only includes great songs ("Farewell To A Slut", the 8 minute long "Traitor") or even (extremely catchy) all-time classics like the fantastic thrashers "Total Addiction" and "Don't Panic", the 55-second-Thrashcore masterpiece "Puke" or the diverse title track (a worthy successor to THE Tankard anthem "(Empty) Tankard").

Last but not least I have to mention the brilliant Gang Green cover "Alcohol", because this song started Tankard's history of producing a few of the best cover versions ever. (I really have to thank these guys, because as a result of this cover I became aware of Gang Green and soon thereafter a huge fan and the same would happen one year later because of Tankard's cover of the Spermbirds classic "Try Again".)

On "Chemical Invasion" Tankard found their perfect balance of heaviness, catchiness and a stylistic diversity that made them one of the most unique Thrash bands in the world.

One year has passed from the debut album and Tankard returns with its classic thrash metal and a new album, Chemical Invasion. The debut was not that strong in terms of variety and songwriting but here we can notice a quite evident improvement, even if this is not a masterpiece. The first thing we can notice is that the production hasn’t changed a lot and it sounds always quite dirty and alcoholic, like it’s meant to be. The hardcore influences are always present on the savage riffage, especially on the up tempo parts. By the way, the riffs now tend to be a bit more in the pure thrash metal direction, at least in some parts.

The vocals by Gerre are always nasty and quite screamed. They are childish and raspy, like after a bottle of whisky. After a short intro, “Total Addiction” destroys our ears through immediate up tempo parts are neverending riffs. The structures don’t change that often and maybe this is the weakest point for Tankard. They point on the sheer fury of the instruments without caring a lot about the variety and the differentiation. As always, the choruses are the most recognizable parts of the songs here and they are always screamed and nasty. It’s also the case of “Tantrum” that has very few mid-paced overtures and after awhile it can result quite monotonous.

The guitars solos are simple exhibitions of rage and impulsivity and they are always fast, on tremolo picking and never too personal. They don’t sustain the main melody or the catchy riff on a song but they are simply attached to the structures without a logical sense and this happens quite often. The drums are a bit submerged by the violence of the guitars, especially on the up tempo parts but they emerge during the mid-paced section. When Tankard point on more controlled mid-tempo parts they are lethal, like on the galloping mid-tempo parts by the middle of “Don’t Panic”, among a jungle of quite derivative, fast riffs.

To play always fast you must have always quite catchy parts or riffs and not just simple, impulsive palm mute riffs. It’s not enough and the demonstrations of it are the mid-paced section that gives oxygen to the songs and a bit of variety. “Puke” is basically punk/hardcore but has the privilege to emerge thanks to the catchy chorus and the direct, short structure. The most personal episode comes with the long and more melodic instrumental “For A Thousand Beers” and the arpeggios. The voluntary epic atmosphere clashes perfectly with the meaning of this song to be ironic. Soon it increases in speed but now the riffs are catchier and more personal. We can always find dynamic structures that don’t always point on the up tempo and that’s good.

The title tracks features, by the beginning, more of those funny, rock style riffs and the happy atmosphere of a pub. Many parts of this song settle on a quite dynamic mid-paced tempo with various riffs. The fast paced parts are by the chorus and they don’t least long. I liked these sudden changes of tempo very much but with “A Farewell to a Slut” we return to faster parts. “Trailor” is too long to be an almost always fast track and after awhile this is risky. “Alcohol” is a cover and shows again more punk melodies to be direct and catchy.

Overall, this new album by Tankard showed signs of improvement in songwriting and less “in one way” tracks. There are always quite monotonous, too fast and with few ideas tracks, but on the other hand, we can hear to new styles and influences. As I said, when they point on the more mid-paced sections, they are very good at them. See you soon Tankard!

With their 1987 second full length album ‘Chemical Invasion’ German thrashers simply overclassed their already good debut. Even more speed, more intensity, a more notible hardcore punk attitude and a much improved production. Guitarists Katzmann and Bulgaropulos were close to reaching their hyperactivity peak without losing themselves in enthusiasm. Seriously, there are some impressive riffs on this album many other (lesser funny) eighties thrash metal bands would have died for to have written themselves.

Thrashers like ‘Total Addiction’, ‘Tantrum’ and ‘Don’t Panic’ were brutal and catchy at the same time. One could say this was what pure eighties thrash sounded like. ‘Puke’ was a short funny song with a more than obvious hardcorepunk vibe and played extremely tight. After this overwhelming thrash metal start the album took a different turn with the long instrumental song ‘For a Thousand Beers’ which felt a bit inconsistent at times. Fortunately this was followed by the almighty title track which started off at first with a superbly funny and heavy blues intro before exploding into yet another piece of quality sing-a-long thrash metal. The build up of this song is simply outstanding and well thought through.

‘Farewell To A Slut’ was a decent thrasher but lacked some catchiness. Compared to the rest of the songs on the album, the epic ‘Traitor’ (7:56) had less hardcore punk influences and sounded as if it were a track that was left over from their earlier ‘Zombie Attack’ album. The band themselves must have thought so too because the punk shortage of the previous 8 minutes was followed by a cover version of the mighty GangGreen classic ‘Alcohol’ which really sounded just as good played by a bunch of German thrashers called Tankard. My compliments!

On top of this musical madness Gerre’s vocals (yelling really) were more than thrash-proof. He had no trouble keeping up with the pace, the racket and gave it that typical energetic Tankard sound. Lyrical highlight of the album has got to be ‘Don’t Panic’ with its politically correct yet painfully on the spot eighties message about arms trade and pollution (etc). The rest of the songs ? well pretty much all about alcohol of course! To this day ‘Chemical Invasion’ remains one of the best Tankard albums.