B-Day

Tankard is a special band. Loved for many, not very loved for some others, but (almost) always consistent and full of quality

After a fistful of not-so-memorable albums, Tankard was back in the new millennium with B-Day, the album that marked the birth of the new era of the band.

To start with, we have to notice two things: Gerre's voice matured a bit. It is not as sharpen as the past, but more aged. Even so, it keeps on being savage, insane and full of attitude. Equally, the guitars tune was reduced to D# in 444Hz (although it actually happened since the previous album). Both of these aspects added a new personality to Tankard's music, which was a great success for the band. Tankard overflows personality in this album, and nowadays this keeps being one of the best things of the band, their unique personality and style.

To follow up, B-Day is the best Tankard album in many time, maybe since Two-Faced. The music is pretty modest as to the music and the resources of their musicians, but it is also direct, intense and full of adrenaline.

To me, the first half of the album is the best one and the most memorable. The first three tracks are a direct punch in the face of the listener. A total madness. "Ugly, Fat and Still Alive" is a more light song, but it is still memorable because of the simplicity of the riff that it's still enjoyable (and hypnotic in a certain way) and the lyrics, that is an auto homage to the band's trajectory. "Underground" is maybe the most boring track in the album, but it recovers the rhythm again with "Voodoo Box" and "Suscars" (the latter sounding a little similar to the previous one, but it does not make it a bad song at all). "Zero Dude" is not so great, too, but the rest of the songs work very well to farewell the album. In general, the music is so frenetic that you will want to make a mosh while you are listening to it.

Andreas Gutjhar is not a very virtuous guitar player (he's actually very limited as the guitar techniques that he employs), but his contribution to the bands is in the guitar tune, the riffs and in his minimalist style in his solos, and just because of that, his work deserves to be highlighted.

If I had to mention a negative aspect of the album is that Frank Thorwarth could have had a more prominent volume in the mix. It is kind of inaudible in some parts of the album, as in the second riff of "Need Money For Beer".

To summarize, B-Day is outstanding. It is one of the best releases of the band and it represents the birth of the new style of Tankard. It can sound monotonous for some people, but what? Sodom's classic albums are monotonous too, and people consider them as classics of the genre. The quality and the good moments are presents in B-Day, and I totally recommend it to any Thrash Metal fan.

From this album, Tankard improved gradually, but we will discuss it in further reviews.

I am always dissatisfied. If the opener is the best song of an album, I am angry about the quickly diminishing quality. Vice versa, if the first track does not mark the climax, I ask myself why the band chose exactly this number to kick off their work. Catch 22! Anyway, the opener of "B-Day" belongs to the second category. "Notorious Scum" does not suffer from unforgivable deficiencies, but it tastes pretty vapid. The cooks from Frankfurt have forgotten the spices. In view of some preceding albums, rather average works such as "Disco Destroyers", it seems as if the crisis of Tankard goes on. Fortunately, "Rectifier" manages the turnaround in view of its piercing riffs and the less rapid yet very catchy chorus. "B-Day" sets the sails and picks up speed.

The tenth studio work of the jesters of thrash holds a couple of excellent tracks. Tankard behave like juvenile hooligans. (Too bad that they support the wrong football team.) "Need Money for Beer" does not only score in view of its pungent guitars. In addition, the song is brimming with energy. The voluminous sound, powerful and well balanced at the same time, crashes straight in the face of the listener. Both the dominance of the guitars and the clarity of Gerre's vocals characterise the technical implementation of the material. Nevertheless, the album distinguishes itself in particular with regard to the band's joy of playing. By contrast, the lyrics do not deliver the highest form of poetry. Some might say that songs like "New Liver Please!" or "Alcoholic Nightmares" do not lack of humour, others might think that the texts just deal with worn out topics. I tend to the latter. Yet "B-Day" surprises with a few really original lyrics as well.

The psyched "Zero Dude" marks the prime example in this respect. The description of a very busy charlatan who cannot wait to sell his trash as soon as possible belongs to the best lyrics of Tankard, not only in terms of the here presented album. Better still, this track is also equipped with the same irresistible approach that pushes "Need Money for Beer" as well. Rebellious and energetic, the song has everything that it needs to become a classic. (Mysteriously, it did not reach this status so far.) The coquettish "Ugly, Fat and Still Alive" with its smooth yet vigorous chorus points in the same direction. The quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love and Tankard and thrash metal have always been a nice couple. Nice to experience that these furious outbursts do not have any elements of traditional metal, power metal or punk.

"Voodoo Box" and "Sunscars" demonstrate that edgy riffs and a good flow are not mutually exclusive. These songs do not fall by the wayside in comparison with the absolute highlights ("Need Money...", "Zero Dude" and "Ugly...") and the same applies for "Rectifier". Moreover, this half a dozen numbers have withstood any form of age-related loss of quality. They still spread a fresh and lively aura, while the remaining songs are, well, they are more or less okay without having any mind-blowing elements. At the end of the day, it is, as always, a matter of personal taste. Seen from an objective point of view, a track like "New Liver Please!" is based on the same elements as my favourites. So it is up to you to identify your highlights, but one thing is for sure. "B-Day", honest and well balanced between brutality and melody, deserves a place in the upper half of the hierarchy of Tankard albums. Go and ask the zero dude, if you do not believe me. He will convince you that there are a lot of good reasons to buy this record.

The celebratory tenth album from German thrashers Tankard, “B-Day,” might be one of the greatest birthday presents ever given to oneself, for the amount of blazing old-school thrash on offer here is among the finest of their career and starts off the latest chapter of the band in grand style.

In keeping with their latest effort, ‘Kings’ of Beer,’ the album as a whole leans towards a more chaotic variation on their past works which is continued on this album as well, the songs awash in spectacular and charging riffs that are far more chaotic and off-the-rails feeling than ever before, laced with more technicality than they’ve ever displayed previously to make the riffing that much more dynamic. As nearly all the songs are pretty much full-throttle all the way through with a few melodic interludes placed within select songs, this blending of technicality and speed makes for a rousing return to their 80s heyday and is one of the thrashier selections the band has produced. The first half in particular is filled with such songs, keeping the chaotic vibe present but infused with more traditional riffing that is simply headbang-worthy on all accounts.

The second half of the album is slightly different as it decidedly and noticeably drops the sheer chaos and mixes the two styles, making for a nice meshing between the old-school thrash and new-school chaos. Most of these tracks are a lot more traditional thrash-based in style and overall writing layout, but the riff-work takes on a frantic bent that’s a lot more prevalent in their newer works, lead by the charging guitars but also getting a lot of action with some furious drumming to propel them forward that’s missing from the panic from the upper half. These are a bit tamer variations on the same note as was found on those before them, leading to a clean split as to which fans may prefer with the more traditionalists finding these more familiar tracks to their liking.

Opener ‘Notorious Scum’ starts the album off in fine form as a great example of this chaotic style of their traditional thrash attack with blaring drums, a furious vocal delivery and memorable riffing, making this a rip-roaring thrasher right out of the gate. ‘Rectifier’ is yet another up-tempo and chaotic thrasher, and is infused with melodic choruses to nicely off-set the chaos around it to make for an all-around winner had they chosen to continue on this path for the rest of the album. The real winner here is the stand-out old-school standard ‘Need Money for Beer,’ a riotous thrasher with driving rhythms and stand-out solos blending perfectly with the chaotic nature of the album around it that would’ve fit appropriately amongst their 80s classics. The slightly more melodic ‘Ugly, Fat and Still Alive’ brings the pace down somewhat but has a very apparent party atmosphere throughout which is inherently infectious and makes the listener get a little more animated than expected. The first half ends with the rather melodic and mid-tempo ‘Underground (Atmosphere: Hostile)’ which features a groovy main riff but can’t really generate the excitement or intensity of their previous tracks and is overall lackluster.

Both ‘Voodoo Box’ and ‘Sunscars” are fine examples here of the chugging and intense songs from their current state with fine riffs blending together with even more traditional thrash riffing and layouts that allows them to be generally enjoyable. The album’s second-best song, ‘Zero Dude,’ is one of their more intense songs ever with groovy bass-work throughout and fantastic up-tempo thrashing with blazing solos and charging drumming to make another classic old-school thrash effort. The somewhat lackluster and forgettable ‘New Liver Please!’ might be charging and aggressive but really lacks the memorable riffing the band has been known for as the chaotic riffing present here doesn’t in the least bit excite and feels more generic than anything else. ‘Rundown Quarter’ brings back the fun as a mid-tempo and memorable thrasher with some nice melodically-leaning yet still chaotic riff-work along the solos that could’ve appeared anywhere in their 80s catalog to create a lasting impression. The album ends on a blast with ‘Alcoholic Nightmares,’ a blazing and chaotic old-school thrash effort filled with ripping solos, charging riffs and a full-throttle pace that’s just relentless and grooving with some of the finest technically-laced rhythms on the album, leaving this as a high an ending note as possible.

There’s a lot to like with this release, as the band manages to combine two distinct styles into a coherent whole by their stellar blending of chaotic riff-work with tireless old-school thrash metal that is simply infectious. Markedly distinct with the first half being ripping chaos-laced thrash with pounding rhythms and charging guitar riffs while the second half is a bit tamer and more thrash with chaotic riff-work, this is a seamless shift that is pulled off only through the band’s stellar writing which not only keeps the album moving along nicely at a quick pace but also generating a couple of all-time classic tracks to go in their catalog which is quite an accomplishment. The production job on this is also flawless which helps the material as well, given a crisp, clean mix that allows for everything to come through forceful, intense and noticeable and never dominates any other instrument. Despite one or two missteps here, this anniversary album from themselves might be one of the greatest presents given out and remains one of the more important records in their vast discography.

We did it again! Their words, I swear. Now, Tankard are notorious scum who make thrash metal for the fuck of making metal, while enjoy a lifestyle that would kill most people before they reach the age of 19, but then again Gerre being bigger and bigger each year and still managing to bang and destroy longer than his audience, one must give them credit.

Credit in the form of limb breaking, face smashing, poser stomping, dinosaur chewing awesomeness. What this album does for me is what Darkness Descends does for me - it makes me want to simply unleash the fury and rape all in sight, it's thrash to the bone, it's aggressive, awesomely produced, funny; It simply is one of those albums that sing about nothing and yet give you enough reason to continue living in this shite of a world only to stick it up to those who try so hard to make as excremental as possible.

This was the first album I heard from Tankard really, it's their „big push“, their commercial breakthrough, the album they became „famous“ with. Honestly, Tankard didn't seem to care, they just went from excellent to amazing while increasing the humor and beer factor and actually still sounding fresh and full of ideas.

It's like something clicked in their heads and they decided to go fuck out, not caring about anything else except skullfucking you with riffs. And that's what they do, they assault your brain, your nerves, they assault your liver and you die; Yes you die over and over again only to rise as a fucken' zombie only to bang once more riff after riff after riff.

Even the more serious songs are completely silly and thrashtacular – the riffwork on this album is one of the best works in thrash metal in general. They maybe use 3 riffs in a song, but the riffs are so good they've got no need to alternate, they could play them for eternity and you'd wonder if that awesome riff is the same one or a completely different one.

That's what Tankard does best, simplicity with an amazing guitar edge, making those riffs destroy everything around them, while always sounding fresh and brutal.

They're ugly, fat and still alive; Their loudness is incredible and apparently cures liver cirrhosis.

2002 was a big year for Tankard, and the title of their 10th album is not some coincidence, for it represented 20 years of alcoholic thrash and speed metal, rooted in hedonistic abandon and forceful punk. Just how many of this band's German peers can lay claim to such a consistent career? Destruction lost Schmier for years and produced some utter tripe in his absence. Kreator fell off course, as Mille absorbed himself in a number of attempts to re-invent the band (some of these fared better than others). Sodom might be the one steady counterbalance of the Bigger Three, but they took their punk influence to a higher level than Tankard and produced some fun but ultimately forgettable diversions.

But no, not Gerre and his crew of drunks, they were performing blazing thrash and speed throughout all these years of society turning its back on the genre, and though many of these offerings were of mixed quality (some of the records post-Meaning of Life were average at best), there is no questioning of loyalty for their chosen genre. That these guys had not drowned in their own puke by 2002 was nothing short of a miracle, and B-Day celebrates this legacy with a dozen new excursions into their ridiculous aesthetic blend of politics, social observations and...storming beer anthems.

The album starts out with a nice combination of forceful, raging thrash metal. "Notorious Scum" and "Rectifier" both utilize some semi-technical riffs similar to the band's work on the amazing third album The Morning After, though the production here is far clearer and they may have lost some of that nuance. "Need Money for Beer" is a little more punkish, like something you might hear on the band's debut Zombie Attack, and from there, it's anyone's game, since the songs rise and dip in quality. "Ugly, Fat and Still Alive" sums up the band's career quite soundly, with a ripping mid-paced Exodus-style riff in the intro and then an escalation to the same general rhythm of the earlier tracks. A few of the tunes like "Voodoo Box" aren't so consistent, and the guitars lack much interesting going on if not for Gerre's presence and the unending impact their style savors. I'd be a fool to not mention "New Liver Please!" or "Rundown Quarter" which I do enjoy.

But the new album is not all on offer here, for Tankard has also included a bonus disc with their two original demos Heavy Metal Vanguard (1984) and Alcoholic Metal (1985), which are a treat for any long term fan that does not already have them...even more of a treat, perhaps, as you now own them on an official CD. The former is rather crappy, really more of a dirty, unkempt punk sound with more solos than usual for such a band, showing only a cursory tendency towards thrash, though the original versions of some familiar tunes show up there like 'Mercenary'. The second demo is far closer to the Tankard you know, and the versions of "Zombie Attack" and "Alien" are at least pretty adorable, even if not the measure of their later studio album revisions. Regardless, this is an excellent bonus which more bands should think about adding to their newer studio albums when possible. 17 fucking tracks, and two complete demos!

B-Day is not one of the greatest albums of the German puke parade, but it's good enough that the added incentives will make any longtime fan splurge on it. Half the songs here are representative of the bands' better 21st century writing, but there are some slackers, so enjoy it for "Rectifier", "Notorious Scum" and a few more, plus a chance to crack in the band's demos and read the bio included with the booklet, if the often horrifically stupid lyrics like 'now you deal with my smelly butt' have not turned you off.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Tankard are a german thrash band that are, in my opinion, right below the trinity of german thrash (Kreator, Destruction, Sodom). Their album "B-Day" was released twenty years after their formation, but still retains solid riffs and plenty of moshability.

B-Day is musically similar to a lighter-hearted Slayer, or perhaps a less melodic Destruction. The opening track, Notorious Scum, is very reminiscent of that great punk vibe that a lot of early 80s thrash had. In fact, the entire record holds a nostalgic feel to it, lacking all of the polish and modern influence that most thrash has these days. You won't find any -core or melo- influence here.

Lyrically, Tankard sing about beer, partying, and other such non-serious topics. If you are looking for a revolution, you got the wrong band. These guys are out to party, not voice their political opinion.

This album is a stronghold in the realm of thrash metal. It stays true to the original sound of thrash, yet kicks copious amounts of ass.