On this album,
Tank strains to match
This Means War's critically lauded raunch, right down to aping its predecessor's blueprint: three songs on side one, four songs on side two. That's not to say the group's single-minded chugalug has gotten tamer:
"The War Drags Ever On" shudders with a ferocity that would make
Motoerhead proud, but is also a ringer for the last album's
"Just Like Something from Hell." The first side remains a seamless display of what made
Tank comers in the
New Wave of British Heavy Metal sweepstakes: blunderbuss guitars, cymbal-soaked drums, and vocals that sound like they're being phoned in from the bottom of a gravel pit.
Tank shone brightest on these lengthy ruminations about the horrors of war; it's hard to imagine how
Metallica could have stepped down a similar path without hearing these guys first. Side two is a more inconsistent exercise plagued by an insistence on riffing for its own sake. The gleeful dismantling of
Aretha Franklin's standard
"Chain of Fools" is the standout -- if only because it's so unusual in this context -- while
"Too Tired to Wait for Love" and
"Kill" pull off the old riotous majesty, but could stand some more well-rounded melodies.
Honour & Blood is a solid outing that only suffers when stacked against its predecessor.
Tank and riff-mad peers like
Raven and
Warfare would succumb to an '80s-era Darwinian logic that stranded them at the altar -- while
Bon Jovi and
Def Leppard sailed into poppier pastures and hit the jackpot. It's just like high school: The prevaricating prom kings got the cars and girls, while everyone else got to watch. ~ Ralph Heibutzki