Review of the Album Beast of Bourbon by German Thrash Metal Band Tankard

Tankard is a long time German thrash metal band that is VERY heavy and one of the hardest hitting bands in the music business. Their 2004 album Beast of Bourbon is the first album of theirs that I ever listened to and I was very impressed with the speed, technicality, and harsh shouting. This writer is resuming listening to this album after many years of not doing so. I am in awe of the speed and the aggression that this album has! I almost want to forget about bands such as Pantera or Exodus after listening to this. There is thrash metal and then there are THESE guys.

The sheer heaviness of this band’s music is sure to leave some music fans bewildered or impressed.

1. Under Friendly Fire
2. Slipping from Reality
3. Genetic Overkill
4. Die With a Beer in Your Hand
5. The Horde
6. Endless Pleasure
7. Dead Men Drinking
8. Alien Revenge
9. Fistful of Love
10. Beyond the Pubyard

The first song called Under Friendly Fire is about a man that went off to war on a certain mission, yet he does not remember much of what happened. Slipping from Reality is a song about someone who has been trying so hard to succeed in his life yet he has the fear of failure on his mind. It is said that if we want to succeed and get to our stated goals, fear of failure must not be present. Genetic Overkill is a great song that criticizes companies such as Monsanto that make and manufacture “false” foods loaded with GMO’s that make people very sick. These sick people will eventually have to pay a very high price for medical care just to try and get themselves better. There are many foods that have high fructose corn syrup in them because high fructose corn syrup is cheap to make and distribute. That’s why companies use it. They use it to try and save money. The song is also criticizing former President George W. Bush for considering sanctions on Europe.

The song Endless Pleasure is about what the song title implies. When the pressure is lifted off of you and your mind is free of useless, unwanted thoughts, then you are liberated and now you can enjoy your life. This would be the ideal emotional state for humans to try and attain. The next song makes reference to the fact that the band has been providing head banging heavy metal since 1982. These guys just know how to have fun and having fun in life is one of the best things that we can all do. I have lots of fun writing album reviews and hope you have enjoyed this one so far.

"Slipping from Reality" is a song about someone that has a fear of failure and he knows that he has to succeed before he dies. The pressure is clearly on him. There is so much pressure on people to succeed and attain these big goals that it is no wonder that there is so much stress in the West.

However, Tankard is also not totally lacking in melody. There is a melodic part in the song "Die With a Beer In Your Hand." The harsh shouting by vocalist Andreas Geremia gets really loud in this one! He sure has an impressive vocal range in spite of the accent. Tankard really does not get as much coverage among the heavy metal community as Holy Moses, Kreator, and Sodom do and it is a shame because these guys really do have talent and they are more than a band that just plays fast for the sake of playing fast. Beast of Bourbon probably gets at least 90 out of 100 points.