Tygers of Pan Tang - Crazy Nights
#596
By Andrew Cremeans
November 1981
Tygers of Pan Tang
Crazy Nights
Genre: Metal
Allen’s Rating: 1.5 out of 5
Andy's Rating : 2 out of 5
Hello everyone! It's my first review, be gentle. 🙂
Having been a huge metalhead my entire life I have heard the name Tygers of Pan Tang pop up constantly, especially in regards to their influence on bands like Metallica and Megadeth as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
Sitting down to listen to this record was the first time I'd heard a single note from the band, untethered by the enchantment of nostalgia.
Overall, I was a little underwhelmed. I HATE starting my first review negatively because I'm such a huge diehard fan of all music. There are some decent tracks on here, I know why they would have possibly had an influence on the future of metal (maybe with other albums,) particularly in the song structure, distortion and guitar solos. With that said... a gigantic portion of this record sounds like the makers of a modern movie that is set in the 1980s had to write generic metal songs for the character that never makes it big. Some of the songs, like the opening track, sound like songs that Dirk Diggler from Boogie Nights would have sung when he tried to have a music career.
The singer can sing but the words and hooks aren't engaging. I feel like he's in the way of some decent music a lot of the time, not from lack of pipes but because he's just singing all over the place and not complementary to the songs.
I was struck by how almost every track sounds like a different famous band but without any of the parts that would have made them famous. It's like when Mom used to bring home Dr. Perky instead of Dr. Pepper for your lunchbox.
Highlights: Running Out of Time, Lonely Man, Make a Stand
Some Random Thoughts:
Track 1: Do It Good
This... really isn't how you should start an album. This song is so uninspired. The lyrics are kind of ridiculous. It feels like it's the first time the singer has heard this song and is just riffing over the music trying to find something that sounds cool, when he runs out of words he just keeps saying "DO IT GOOD"
Thankfully the album gets better! They should have just buried this one a little deeper in the album.
Track 4: Running Out of Time
This feels like the first song that sounds like their own. I can see riffs like this influencing future metal bands. The Motorhead influence is there, but its digested and made new. The distorted bass is loud and this guitar solo OBVIOUSLY influenced Kirk Hammett from Metallica in the years to come.
Track 5: Crazy Nights
This song feels like Phil Lyott from Thin Lizzy never got good at writing songs.
Track 6: Down and Out
There are some SOLID modern sounding metal guitar solos on this track. Again, if the singer and words were not so vanilla, this might have been pretty great.
Overall, it's fine. I keep using the word, but it's just... generic. There isn't a single hook on the album that you would be humming afterward. The talent is there but it's not cohesive. Most of the songs just sound like diffuse metal songs that would be playing while the wacky teenager in the 80s movie is surfing on top of a van down the highway to show how reckless and carefree he is.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0oNaOICnPDkU5NjXBIeDzX?si=Xszv5ANYTXmltjePhWi3Gg
