Disco Destroyer

"Disco Destroyer" and "Kings of Beer" are not among the absolute highlights of Tankard's band history. This sentence was said by Andreas Geremia and one can read it in "Life in Beermuda", the biography of the band. I agree with Gerre's point of view, but I must add that he describes the quality of these albums in a very polite way. Honestly speaking, "Disco Destroyer", the last album with guitarist Andy Bulgaropoulus, reflects a comparatively unsettled band. "The Tankard" had been a fairly experimental work, but it did not result in a commercial success. Afterwards Tankard seemed to be unsure whether they should go one step back or not.

At the end of the day, this might be the reason why the first three songs sound thrashy, but this is very mediocre thrash, performed by men without conviction. Riffs that leave no trace frame choruses which lack of melody, accentuation and tactility. The following songs suffer from similar symptoms. "Queen of Hearts" puts the focus on wild love and scores with a high velocity fragment, but the first track that really makes fun is "Tankard Roach Motel". After more than 20 minutes of pretty incoherent noise, it almost comes as a surprise that Tankard present a chorus which is based upon an intelligent guitar line. Melodic sounds and sharp riffs shake hands and make us think back nostalgically to the band's neckbreakers from former days, not in terms of style, but in terms of quality. Do you remember "Poison"? Wonderful. Or "Traitor"? Great. Yet I must stop dreaming. Reality shocks with ill-defined numbers such as "Another Perfect Day". Tankard sound like weekend punks who want to show their metal-affinity. Bad idea, in particular the chorus is incredibly weak. Indeed, the choruses constitute the main problem of the album. They pass by like shadows in the dawn without revealing any kind of identity or individuality. Unfortunately, overly simple lines ("Away" or "Splendid Boyz") hurt the joy of listening as well.

The up-tempo number "Face of the Enemy", compact, robust and effective, surprises with a very smooth, well flowing chorus which contrasts with the scratchy verses. An outstanding piece, but these three minutes and "Tankard Roach Motel" are not enough to save the album from drowning in the sea of pointlessness. Usually, Tankard stand for sharp riffs, energizing leads and passionate aggressiveness. In contrast, "Disco Destroyer" reflects deadpan paleness. The production is aligned with the fairly feeble material and fails to offer special features. Indeed, the full-length has nothing that distinguishes itself from the faceless mass of average products.

I am honest, I thought that Tankard's time is over. The formation seemed to run out of ideas. Worse still, it appeared as an old man who is stumbling forward, always in fear to fall down. Today we know that this seemingly senile geezer still had got a lot to say, just ask the beauty with the beer from 2006. Nevertheless, we feared for his life at the end of the last century. Without question, "Disco Destroyer" was self-destructive.

Got this bad boy used at my local fye, after a complete shock that someone else in my area had any Tankard. Good thing too, since this album has some absolutely awesome, fun thrashing songs, that I otherwise never would have heard. Had it not have been right there at the store, cheap and readily available, I never would have bothered tracking this album down online. The reviews for it are mediocre at best, and the album is called FUCKING DISCO DESTROYER! Tankard's known for silliness, but come the fuck on!

But as the band has proven time and time again, they are not to be underestimated. This album is about as good a thrash album as you could find in the mid-late nineties. Complete with a great, crunchy production, rapid muted rhythms, solid bass foundations, a varied drum performance, the always charismatic vocal performance courtesy of Gerre, and some of the best choruses in the bands history. (A history complete with tons of fantastic choruses!)

The one track I find a true failure here is Disco Destroyer itself, being basically an outro, and a really fucking stupid one at that. The riff is so plain and listless. The lyrics are completely moronic, and it is very sad that this was Andy's farewell track. Though the short runtime makes this song not even that big of an issue, and the other tracks more than make up for it.

U-R-B is one of my favorites here, with such a bouncy and happy riff set in the verses and chorus, and Gerre just slays this song. Hard Rock Dinosaur always puts a smile on my face, both for its great lyrics/vocal lines and a sweet bass bridge. In a similar vein, we have the funny yet headbangable Tankard Roach Motel, along with other amusing and thrashy numbers like Away, Face the Enemy, Planetwide Suicide, and Splendid Boyz. These are all the tracks I revisit most as I feel they have the most infectious vocal lines.

The rest of the tracks are in a similar vein, just not as memorable for one reason or another. Of note are the more experimental Queen of Hearts, and the round style chorus of Mr. Superlover. Definitely a well rounded old school oriented thrash album minus the title track. But, if you get the reissue, you don't even have the problem of the album ending on such a shitbomb, because you get a great cover of Manowar's Fast Taker, which sounds completely natural on this album.

Despite all the fun though, the album does have some issues, and would not be my first choice to introduce someone to Tankard. Though the riffing is overall great, and very thrashy, the band puts fewer riffs per song then they did on past (and future) albums. On a related note, though the choruses are all fun and catchy, they are nearly all repeated a few too many times. So the whole album has a bit of a repetition problem, though not to the point of being unbearable, but it is still an issue. Plus the song Disco Destroyer cannot be ignored. Holy shit, that song is awful.

Overall however, this album is just too loveable for me to deduct too much. Yeah it has some issues, but every song is memorable in its own way, and that is much more then I can say for so many other albums. If you already love Tankard and don't have this, you won't be disappointed. If you are a first timer, the first four albums are the best starting point, but nobody should pass this up given the opportunity.
Tankard's Disco Destroyer gets an 76 out of 100 or a 4 out of 5. Why? Because it makes me smile, every damn time I listen to it!
Highlights: (No song is perfect, but besides the title track, you got yourself a great twelve pack of thrashing brew!)
U-R-B
Tankard Roach Motel
Hard Rock Dinosaur
Away!
Planetwide Suicide
Face the Enemy
Another Perfect Day

The eighth offering from German warriors Tankard, “Disco Destroyer,” is the one really disappointing offering from these dependable thrash maniacs and really doesn’t offer much of a clue as to what went wrong to cause such a massive flop.

The first half of the album, usually a Tankard tradition of quality, is here the film’s weak link with several songs that are rather short of the traditional Tankard stamp of quality. Mostly this is due to the rather stark dip in riff-work that is just simple and not as technically involved as the group proved they were capable of earlier in the decade. The majority of these songs are loaded with simplistic riffs and pounding drums that do manage to infuse the songs with loads of energy but fail to remain memorable due to the rather quick nature of the songs not allowing for any kind of real showmanship to shine through in the instrumentation, leaving these to get by their aggressiveness.

The second half of the album is almost like the first half was, not really utilizing any sort of technicality in their riff-work, focusing far more on the influences found in their earlier days of raw, up-tempo punk-laced thrash without any sort of technicality that made their later stuff more memorable. The songs are mostly filled with bland riffs or flat-out uninspired ideas that at least project an air of intensity throughout that should appeal to their long-time fans but don’t have a whole lot else worthwhile about them.

Opener ‘Serial Killer’ is a pretty lousy introduction track that seems completely out-of-place as a Tankard song much less an album-leading track, with loads of shouting over aggressive riffs but ends abruptly and maintains a feel utterly foreign to the group at any stage of their career. The expansive ‘http://www.Planet-Suicide.com’ is no better, filled with chugging riffs from a little longer running time and great drumming to keep a quick pace throughout but has none of the infectious atmosphere that was a part of their style and just tends to meander around quite lamely. Thankfully, we get things back on track with ‘Hard Rock Dinosaur,’ a traditional Tankard thrasher with some of the album’s best riffing, a rousing chorus and even features a cool bass solo to spice things up nicely. If ever there’s a song to be given the experimental tag on this album, it’s ‘Queen of Hearts,’ where a moody, atmospheric intro gives way to wild, energetic guitar riffing and differing tempos that throw in the few doses of technical riffing to be found and is a rousing, up-tempo punk-like thrasher. The last two efforts on the first half are more punk-influenced and aren’t really all that inspired by thrash at all but each have their own positives, as ‘U-R-B’ contains loads of great energy and infectious choruses while ‘Mr. Superlover’ mixes the up-tempo punk-inspired riffs with loads of technically-proficient leads to offer a fine two-punch of energetic songs to close out the first half.

The second half does get a more traditional song with ‘Tankard Roach Motel’ that contains an impressive main riff and loads of charging energy, but it too is flawed with too much screaming and no change-ups as it charges along, leaving it feeling like the type of song Tankard can do in their sleep and it shows. ‘Another Perfect Day’ has some intense riffing and a groovy bass-line, but again it feels too uninspired with a hokey pace that just leaves the entire song in question as to why it was placed on the album. The absolute worst song on this, or any Tankard album, follows in the utterly bland ‘Death by Whips,’ with its low-fi intro giving way to a fast but bland punk riff that really seems to be undone by the lack of enthusiasm of the band performing the utterly insipid riffing and rather uninspired drum pattern undergoing the entire procedure and allowing the whole song to come off like some lame cover attempt they had no business covering. At least ‘Away!’ offers a better return to pace with far better riffing and tempo changes along the thrash-laden main sections and punk choruses thrown in for good measure. ‘Face of the Enemy’ is another attempt at creating that vibe with some decent riffing amidst the punk storm that has some fun moments but is overall forgettable, which the band never had much failure in delivering elsewhere. Total punk-rocker ‘Splendid Boyz’ is perhaps the band’s best attempt on the whole album at delivering that vibe and influence with some rousing choruses, nice riff-work and a bit more energy in the attack that makes it at the very least listenable. It slips back into mediocrity again with the lame title track, a blast of mid-tempo energy that doesn’t really stand-out for doing anything other than letting a perfectly workable groove go to waste on such a short piece of work and really ends this one on a down-note.

Again, it’s really hard to tell what happened with this one and why it’s so mediocre, coming after such a rousing effort as their preceding work and coming to this one with too much punk, go-nowhere songs or its just flat-out bland riffing creeping into their songs. All three of those efforts are guilty to some degree of damaging this one with perhaps the biggest fault blamed on the bland riffing which was such a strong element on their previous works, but here not even delivering solidly on that front with too many potentially-infectious, high-energy songs downplayed by its frankly boring assault of simplistic riffs. While it does have a few songs that are worthwhile, making this one really only worthwhile for the hardcore fans rather than general thrash fans that they’re last few efforts were, the vast majority of this one being a disappointment lowers this to the bottom rung of their output.

After a long and 'fruitful' contract with the legendary Noise Records drew to a close, Tankard were snapped up fairly adroitly by the new hotness in metal labels for the 90s, Century Media. This was long before the label sold its soul down river with many garbage signings to turn a profit in the 21st century; about the most offensive band they had was Stuck Mojo. So Tankard, a band with enormous experience behind their bursting beer-gut belts was a pretty safe bet, at least to push a few thousand sales to their already installed, inebriated fandom.

Unfortunately, despite the clever title and some well meaning on the part of the band, this was not really the new Tankard album most of us were probably hoping for. When approached from certain vectors, there are spots on this huge Pilsner glass of inconsistency which shine with the fresh drops of brew, and to be fair most of the material is faster paced and silly, signatures of their immortality, but even the better songs found here are fairly week when compared to a large host of better efforts in this band's catalog.

Humor is ever appropriate with Tankard, and they are one of the few such bands I support with any regularity, so the potential fun of songs titled "Hard Rock Dinosaur" or "http://www.planetwide-suicide.com" is not lost upon me, but the songs themselves do not exactly live up to the same level of memory as their monikers. Basically these are your basic happy punk anthems played at faster speeds with a little bluesy hard rock groove shuffled in to get the floor moving. Neither of these things is 'alien' to Tankard, but here they fizzle out into forgettable tripe. Other songs like "Another Perfect Day" and "Death By Whips" have even poorer turnouts, and it isn't until later on the album that we get some half decent tracks like "Away!" or "Tankard Roach Motel" that feel like banging and drinking our faces to. "Disco Destroyer" itself is really fucking week, gone in a flash with nothing to offer but a violent threat upon the lives of a genre of music that had LONG since disappeared...at least the 'real' disco.

Should this album not have been titled Pop Punk Destroyer? Dock Martin Destroyer? Grunge Destroyer? Surely disco was no longer a threat by 1998. However, metal bands continued to rally against it as an in-joke, one that someone, somewhere must have been laughing to. Myself, I like the title of the album, but without much in the way of great music to force my kidneys into groaning and libido into awareness, I'm afraid this would not drive me to drink.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

German thrash legends Tankard have released 12 full lengths so far in their career, that’s quite a lot of a band period, and while for the most part have been quite consistent throughout their career I’d have to say I’ve always enjoyed their most recent albums the most. Disco Destroyer is one of those, being somewhere between some of their more disappointing and quality lacking mid-era albums and the more newer aged thrash numbers of the new millennium. I’ve always thought Tankard as being one of those bands no one can hate, but at the same time never being one of those bands that will be one of the best ever. Tankard’s punk influenced thrash metal is always enjoyable and fun, but at the same time a lot of it can be mediocre or sometimes simple.

On their first release of the new millennium, Disco Destroyer is another solid outing of thrash metal mixed with speedy riffs, punk-influenced vocals and overall worthy bass and drum sections. Serial Killer starts off the album great with an anthem like chorus yelling along “Serial Killer!!” is infectious as it gets for thrash. Throughout the album a consistent pace is kept with up beat thrash tempos as expected with a thrash band, but unfortunately the songs range from either highly memorable to just enjoyable when you listen to it but isn’t heavy on the memorable factor. It’s one of those albums that has several songs that are absolutely fun when you’re listening to it, but you can’t pick or choose very many highlights or remember too many song names. Death by Whips is another song similar to the approach of Serial Killer with a fun sing along chorus and a fast riff that continues and is fun to headbang to. Most songs are just simple fast songs that don’t vary in song structure, other than Queen of Hearts that starts off very slow and dark sounding almost, then eventually leads up into a fast thrash number. Other than that it’s a very simple thrash album.

The musicianship is top notch, Tankard have always been good about this, the bass lines are memorable and having some fun and awesome bass fills like in Hard Rock Dinosaur, and continuing with a fun and memorable bass line, definitely one of the more memorable songs. The drumming is another of the kind that is completely competent but nothing outstanding or special. Guitars and vocals being the highlights with fast and speedy thrash riffs, hyper fast and fun solos found in most songs. Tankard have an approach to song structures or songs that remind me of Municipal Waste; short, fast, fun, but at the same time don’t differentiate much between each other as well as not having much other than just the fun factor. The vocalist is decent, being very generic thrash vocalist mixed with some punk influences. It’s a bit hilarious he goes to very high shrieks and yells to some punkish attitude filled snarls.

I’d say for a die hard Tankard fan this is worthy of picking up, but for a die hard thrasher it’s not exactly something I would say everyone should have or be essential, there are better Tankard albums as well as better bands out there. This is short, fun, fast, energetic with some definite fun highlights but at the same time doesn’t have too much going for it other than the fun factor. It’s one of those albums you’d listen to and enjoy but in the end not think too much about it.