Saturday, September 8, 2012

Tankard - A Girl Called Cerveza



Just 26 years after the band’s first album, Tankard is back with their 15th thrash record. Say what you will about their music and lyrics, but they deserve a ton of respect. In fact, the only other band that can compete in terms of consistency is Motorhead, but Tankard’s performance is even more impressive when you consider that they’ve had quite a bit less commercial success. Even though the band has pumped out an album every 2 years since 1998’s “Disco Destroyer”, it seemed like they really hit their stride with “Beast of Bourbon” from 2004. Since then, Tankard has released a string of albums that perfectly infuse a more traditional, somewhat melodic sound, with the old school thrashing that was very prevalent earlier in their career. 2010’s “Vol(l)ume 14” was a platter of instantly catchy tunes and is sure to go down as one of Tankard’s best albums. With all that said, “A Girl Called Cerveza” is a bit of a different beast. Sure, it’s a Tankard album, but the band put in a great effort to make sure it is not simply a rehashing of the previous album.

On first listen, there is one standout track: “The Metal Lady Boy”. This track is a duet between Gerre and the German metal Queen, Doro. Though it’s a bit slower in the verses, the unique combination of two different vocal styles makes for a memorable, albeit different sounding Tankard song. Aside from that song, the rest of the album took quite a few listens to truly get into. Plenty of the common Tankard features are still there though. The always-entertaining wordplay in the chorus of songs like “Rapid Fire” and “Fandom At Random” combined with the brutally blunt lyrics of “Son Of A Fridge” make for a great performance from Gerre. Guitarist Andy Gutjahr still loves putting his own spin on the classic thrash style. He uses plenty of palm muting, but he often deviates from simple chugging and throws more notes into the riffs under the verses. The drumming is fairly standard, but it gets the job done, and the basswork is quite similar.

There really isn’t too much that needs to be said about “A Girl Called Cerveza”. It’s nothing new, and it may take a bit more time to click with you than the previous record, but it’s still another testament to the fact that Tankard is going strong without repeating themselves.

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Highlights
"A Girl Called Cerveza"
"Son Of A Fridge"
"Fandom At Random"

Final Rating
4.0/5 or 80%. 

Written by Scott