Description

Tyrant, one of the most used band name in the history of heavy metal. But this band has been around for quite some time as they were founded in Gloucester, England back in 1980. Two demos and a single was released during the first five years and then the band fell apart. This New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band were able to stand out on behalf of their consistency with catchy riffs, galloping hooks, and their ability to provide NWOBHM fans with a solid band that reflects both the genre and its playing style at its finest. This album is a collection and features the bands debut single as well as material pulled from the two demos as well as two more demo tracks that never was released back then. Their sound quality is neither underproduced nor overly clean which does the band justice as it allows the listener to experience their music at face value without too much interruption by static or phony sound enhancers. Also, the musicianship adds to the overall experience as it displays the strong vocal style of Mark Kelser, whose raspy and energetic voice is more reminiscent of Lothar Antoni of the German band, Trance, or Peter De Wint of the Belgian band Crossfire, compared to the cleaner vocals of Biff Byford or Sean Harris. If the vocals weren’t enough to make this band stand out, the guitar work, which is the brainchild of Jim Merrit, Gary Adkins, and Bassist Pete Antonius, displays catchy riffs, seen in songs like We’ve Surrendered, and heavy gallops, in songs such as Hold Back The Lightning and Lonely Eyes, which are strongly reminiscent of early Iron Maiden. In addition to this, songs such as Take It To The Dragon and Lost And Lonely present laid-back, acoustic driven melodies reminiscent of Jaguar’s Master Game or Iron Maiden’s Strange World. Also, Mark Walker’s drumming is not only able to keep up with the flashy guitar riffs, but he manages to go beyond the call of duty by adding in fills that could normally have been substituted for simpler rhythms. An example of this is seen in the pre-solo of the song Clash Of The Titans. All in all, Tyrant does not disappoint. The music stays consistent throughout and is able to stand out amongst their simpler and better produced NWOBHM counterparts. There is nothing negative to say about this collection and as a result one feels that it is a shame that such a band did not receive more attention, especially being one of the first bands to name themselves Tyrant. Despite this, Britain’s Tyrant is an exceptional band worthy of being ranked alongside Jaguar, Quartz, and Tygers Of Pan Tang and provides the listener with quality heavy metal.

Track list:
1. Hold Back The Lightning-single 1983
2. Eyes of A Stranger-single 1983
3. Take It To The Dragon-demo 1981
4. Captured-demo 1981
5. Clash Of The Titans-demo 1981
6. We’ve Surrendered-demo 1981
7. For You-demo 1981
8. Lonely Eyes-unreleased demo session
9. Lost And Lonely-unreleased demo session
10. Mirror-demo 1984