Tank – Valley of Tears

Since the separation of Tank into two different bands back in 2007, this particular version has released three full-length albums. The newest one is entitled Valley of Tears, which also marks the addition of ZP Theart of Dragonforce fame, Bobby Schottkowski from Sodom and Barend Courbois, who is a live performer for Blind Guardian. And, being a huge Tank fan, you can probably imagine how psyked I was when Bato kindly shoved this into my greddy, waiting hands.

Now, obviously my immediate reaction was very simple: I missed Doogie White’s vocals. That, however, quickly dissipated when I first heard ZP performing the title track, ”Valley of Tears”. Clearly all five musicians are exceptionally brilliant and from what I can tell, have a great synergy with one another. Sure, I got the feeling that the new lead singer in particular seem to be very casual about the whole ordeal, and not giving his all. However, that is only when compared to his Deagonforce days. After having listened through Valley of Tears a couple of times I came to the conclusion that his more low-pitched and slower singing style fits the overall theme and feel of Tank far better than his usual style.

All in all, Valley of Tears is, in its very core, a Tank album. They might have changed most of their line-up, but the three new members more than make up for their new roles through sheer experience and talent, as well as an apparent desire to honour the name and sound of the British Heavy Metal band Tank.

www.tankofficial.com