Tyrant "Mean Machine" CD (Bonustracks)

Germans has always been my favorite people for thrash and speed metal due to their outstanding heaviness, brutality and playing speed. During the 80s, Germany was one of the central figure of extreme metal, However, bands like Accept, Running Wild or Grave Digger were playing a more classic oriented heavy metal with a more aggressive vibe than many of the bands from the NWOBHM for example. There were lots of great underground bands that never got the attention they deserved, but still managed to release great material, despite the lack of good promotion. Here, we have Tyrant, which is also an existing heavy/power metal American band, but the German band of that same name presented here is the best one, if you ask me. The first time I listened to them, I was really pleased by what I had heard because of their high level of intensity, even if the music itself does not sound that original. Anyway, it was not uncommon to hear similar sounding bands and they still brought something of their own to enhance the music they were originally inspired from. Tyrant was one of the first bands of that scene to come up with a furious sound that we can see in bands cited above for instance.
The album reviewed here is the first full-length from the guys of Tyrant and it's called "Mean Machine", released in October 1984. There is a cool amount of material featured on it, but most of the 10 tracks average the 3 minutes of length. As I noticed through my listen of this album, I made a similarity to Running Wild's Gates to Purgatory because on both records, half of the songs are speed metal and the other half is more classic heavy metal oriented. Even if I prefer the faster tracks, it's still pretty nice to have such variety on a record in order to not get tired of it. The main reason I prefer the masterpiece that is the first album of Running Wild compared to this one is the fact that the slower and more mid-paced songs are weaker and less memorable. They are still mostly good, but not quite enough to be praised at the same level as the latter record.
Good news is that the album begins with the ruthless "Free for All", which is one of the best track on this record. The structure reminds a bit of "Fast as a Shark" by Accept and this is a great thing if you ask me. As you can probably notice, the vocals of "Kerrmit" are kind of similar to "Chris Boltendahl" of Grave Digger. They both have this sort of raspy voice and fits pretty well in the metal genre played. The following track "We Stay Free" is one of those mid-paced one that I spoke about earlier, it's quite entertaining with its cool main guitar riff and solo, but not that much to be excited about though. While "I'm Ready" and "Wanna Make Love" are the weakest songs on the album, the uninspired lyrics-wise "Making Noise and Drinking Beer" is catchy and the riffs are fast and heavy. One thing to also note on this record is the awesome production work done for it. The sound is amazingly good for an 84' German heavy/speed metal record, every instruments are mixed at a near perfect level, to me at least. The guitars sounds awesome as well as the drums, which really helped me digging the whole thing.
When it comes to the highlights on "Mean Machine", except for the already mentioned first track, we can note the both under three minutes speed metal attacks "Invaders" and "Killer Cat", as they are fast-paced, catchy and sick as hell. The masterpiece on the album though is definitely the epic "Blood Suckin' Woman". While the main part of the song is fast and heavy, there is a really cool melodic passage in the middle section that adds a fresh feeling to the actual track before returning back to the aggressive end section. In fact, it quickly became my favorite Tyrant song and proved to me that these guys had the musicianship to write some really interesting stuff.
If you like the other bands mentioned in this review, you might want to check Tyrant out. They are very typical to the 80s German metal scene and is worthy of being listened to. Their material might not be the best from that scene, but there are some great moments here and there. While this album is my favorite of their catalogue, you may also check out their other albums such has "Fight for Your Life" or "Running Hot" as they are also pretty good too. Definitely a recommended band and album for old school metal fans.

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