So many Tygers Of Pan Tang album reviews I’ve read in the past 20 years start by referencing the band’s NWOBHM past, many choosing to try and draw comparisons with their early 80’s sound and not really focusing massively on the present. Original guitarist Robb Weir might have resurrected the band’s name back around the turn of the Millennium, but for me, once vocal powerhouse Jacopo Mielle joined the band, debuting on 2008’s “Animal Instinct”, the band really started to find its own current identity, so by the time Tygers Of Pan Tang released their self-titled 2016 album, they were pretty much as good as any other European Melodic Metal band around.
But the reason so many reviews reference that early 80’s past is because it’s their heritage that actually sets Tygers Of Pan Tang apart from other European Melodic Heavy Metal bands. There’s no denying that Mielle’s classy vocals could easily crown any top-notch Melodic Heavy/Power Metal album, but Robb Weir’s guitar-work always gives that slight nod to the riff-driven style of that early 80’s golden era. If you didn’t know it was Tygers Of Pan Tang you were hearing, you might just suspect there was something different about this excellent Melodic Metal band, but once you know who the guitarist is it all makes sense.
It’s a balancing act that works perfectly for the band. co-guitarists and bass players have come and gone over the last 20 years (new recruits Francesco Marras and Huw Holding fitting into the current line-up perfectly), but forward-thinking powerful drummer Craig Ellis has been there alongside Weir for that same 20 years and his dynamic rhythms give the band the perfect launch pad to be as current and relevant as they should be, whilst maintaining integrity and the merest retrospective glance past-wards. There’s a meaty, chunky riff behind every track, the building blocks of the song, but the tempos vary, the arrangements switch and the vocal melodies give every track further memorability.
Tygers Of Pan Tang 2023 can easily present you with a catchy Melodic Hard Rock anthem like ‘A New Heartbeat’ or ‘Back For Good’ with their layered choruses, dripping in silky melody, but equally the band can ramp up the speed and dip into Melodic Power Metal territory, like with the excellent ‘Fire On The Horizon’, galloping forward with double-kick drums and urgent guitar-work. With “Bloodline” Tygers Of Pan Tang have released not only a great addition to their already impressive back-catalogue, but rather than clinging to past glories it pushes their own sound ever onward, dragging with it what is relevant and important, but emphatically stamping their current Melodic Heavy Metal identity all over it – it’s the best of both worlds.
(8/10 Andy Barker)
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