What the hell do
Tygers Of Pan Tang still have to
tell us, after a 45-year career
suspended between British power
and rock radio? In 2023, many –
myself included, I won't hide it
– would answer “nothing” and
move on. Well, let me tell you
they would be wrong. I too had
to change my mind.
Four years after the previous
Ritual, the English Tygers Of
Pan Tang send to press the new
album entitled Bloodlines, a
flawless record comeback,
characterized by a spectacular
cover (which depicts an
ordinance tiger emerging from a
swamp of blood ) and from
Francesco Marras' studio debut
on six strings. By now we are
talking about an Anglo-Italian
band and, being a cult name of
the old school scene, a pinch of
pride is everything.
Very different from the rocky
and decidedly "heavy" Ritual,
Bloodlines is even preferred, in
the long run, because it is more
varied and full of ideas,
ranging with ease between speed
metal and AOR. Crystalline
production but, allow me to add,
more radio-oriented than in the
recent past, nostalgic as
necessary, but open to the most
modern effects: the sound that
emerges from the speakers amazes
for its freshness and dynamism.
A couple of listens are more
than enough to plunge us into
timeless, vaguely oriental
atmospheres, cradled by vocal
melodies and choirs skilfully
blended with sustained rhythms
and enthralling solos, which
cross musical eras like a karst
river, with the discreet
confidence of champions and in
the whose harmonic bed one
abandons oneself to the current
without ever getting tired.
The journey starts from the
power with radio refrain of the
powerful opening Edge Of The
World, to continue with the
muscular rock and calibrated on
the bass of In My Blood, and
then immediately and without
breath with the speed-proto
thrash, seasoned with metallic
riff -style, in the roaring Fire
On The Horizon. Nostalgia peeps
between hints of Dokken and Van
Halen in Light Of Hope, but we
haven't seen anything yet,
because the tape of time rewinds
again in the Bonjovian Back For
Good, pump enough, with that
bass line and that mid-tempo
that are so much 80s
stadium-rock.
Veteran Tygers Of Pan Tang
really seem to know the secret
ingredients of the most "catchy"
hard rock and, like seasoned
chefs, they pour them all into
this record. And it's already
time for a ballad: piano in the
spotlight and guitar with a
Survivor flavour in the
background, Taste Of Love is
paradigmatic of its kind, truly
successful. And even when ours
decide to go more traditional,
as in Kiss The Sky, the riffing
is captivating and dragging.
There are no real fillers or
tone drops in Bloodlines: proof
of this is an episode like
Believe, which devises the
phrasing between vocal melody
and guitar; simple, but heavy to
hold attention. Marras seems to
be perfectly at ease with the
band and his axe enhances every
frame, without delusions of
protagonism.
But, if the central passages do
not disappoint, the ending is
downright screaming. A New
Heartbeat features the most
successful riff of the album and
gives emotions, while the closer
Making All The Rules is, in my
opinion, a top ten hit of the
year, finding the perfect seam
between a country rock arpeggio
and an ending in where electric
guitars explode: as if, tonight,
the star of Ghoultown and that
of Whitesnake were kissing on
the notes of Maiden's guitars.
Bloodlines is a work that is
best enjoyed when you are old
enough to remember the glories
of the genre, because it has
nothing to envy of the "golden
age", but it is of such refined
workmanship that it deserves a
chance from all lovers some
music done right: soon classical
melodies will make a comeback
and then the Anglo-Italian
tigers will be ready to bite
again, rest assured.
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