You can surely say that bringing
in singer Jack Meille in 2004
saved the somewhat rudderless
Tygers Of Pan Tang group,
because after his arrival the
quality of the released records
has only increased. 'Ritual',
released in 2019, was by far the
strongest album that the Tygers
have released since their
reunion in 2000. Of course, the
level of the classics 'Wild Cat'
(from 1980) and (especially)
'Spellbound' (from 1981) will
never be equalled again, but
with Meille behind the
microphone they are in any case
a band that is still duly taken
into account.
During the forced corona break,
two new band members have been
recruited in guitarist Francesco
Marras and bassist Huw Holding
to replace Michael McCrystal and
Gav Gray respectively.
The band has also been actively
writing the follow-up to
'Ritual' which will be released
later this year and as a
foretaste they have released
this four-track EP 'A New
Heartbeat'. With the title track
and "Red Mist", this contains
two new songs that will also
appear on the new album and two
re-recorded classics from the
"Wild Cat" album, being "Fireclown"
and "Killers".
To start with the new material:
both 'A New Heartbeat' and 'Red
Mist' are easy to listen to
heavy metal songs with nice
riffs and once again excellent
vocals by Meille, which
certainly make me look forward
to the new full-length album to
be be released later with great
anticipation. Anyway, my
interest has been piqued and
that's what a preview is for,
isn't it?
However, it is the reworkings of
'Fireclown' and 'Killers' that
stand out the most, because the
greatly improved sound quality
makes the song sound much fatter
than the originals on 'Wild
Cat', while Jack Meille's vocals
are of course many times over.
Better than the bullshit that
Jess Cox let out in 1980. These
new versions can therefore be
called very successful, although
I could and still appreciate the
charm of the originals.
After the compilation 'Majors
And Minors' could already be
labelled as a delicious snack,
the same can be said of this EP
'A New Heartbeat'. Over the last
few years, the Tygers have been
transformed from a bunch of
docile kittens back into
dangerous predators, and I can't
help but admire them for that.
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