Metalized Magazine, Denmark - 'Ambush (2020 Reissue)' Review by Torben

Online Translation:

English Tygers Of Pan Tang has been responsible for the melodic and slightly softer NWOBHM for over 40 years. And albums like Wildcat (1980) and Spellbound (1981) are heavy rock classics. But it is certainly not throughout their careers that they have delivered the same quality as they started with on their first albums. And after the awful 1987 Burning in the Shade, the band split up sensibly enough. The band reunited in 1999, releasing some boring but not entirely miserable albums in the years that followed on various dubious and obscure one-man record companies that did nothing good for the band's career. On the contrary. It was not until Danish Mighty Music signed the band and released the almost comeback-like self-titled album in 2016 that the band got air under their wings again, and really became a band that again played at the right festivals and got the respect they deserved. Ambush from 2012 was probably the first album after the restoration which was actually really good. Unfortunately, it came out on a very minimal record company that was almost not a record company at all, but only got reviews in the local press and few indifferent magazines. Therefore, nothing really happened to Ambush in his time and it was a great shame. Fortunately, Mighty Music has done something about it and is now re-releasing the album properly. And the album deserves it, because it is the album that clearly "warmed up" to the excellent comeback-like album Tygers Of Pan Tang from 2016, which was also their first on Danish Mighty Music. Songs like "Burning Desire", "Keeping Me Alive" and "One of A Kind" all prove why Tygers Of Pan Tang was a strong name with strong songs on their way back to the international heavy metal scene. The album works perfectly as a solid piece of work - with all the tracks acting as pearls on a string which, however, as a whole make up the artwork itself. Tygers Of Pan Tang got even better on the next two albums, but this album was the first after the restoration that really proved that they were not a burnt-out old band, but that they could still deliver the goods! 8/10.


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