Los Angeles, California: Through the early 1980s, as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal exploded across the globe, there was one band guaranteed to blow you out of your boots. Well, actually there were several who could make the same claim, but none of them were Tank.
They were described by the UK press as Motörhead’s baby brothers, and with good reason. Part punk, part metal, and wholly unique, Tank was formed by Algy Ward, formerly of The Saints and The Damned, a three piece completed by brothers Mark and Peter Brabbs, and they truly were the most thunderous thing this side of a night spent inside Lemmy’s bass cabinet.
They even recruited “Fast” Eddie Clarke as producer - Motörhead’s guitarist through their own first years of tumultuous success, Clarke was the perfect match for Tank’s high energy assault, and when the majestically titled Filth Hounds of Hades hit the stores in early 1982, UK music mag Sounds was not lying when it described the band as harbingers of “a new, frighteningly brutal breed of breakneck rock. Here is metal that takes everything to the limit… Metal for maniacs.
“All ten numbers are played tight and dirty and given a tough sympathetic production from Fast Eddie. Left-hook follows right-hook with scarcely time to draw breath in between. But Tank's brand of rabid Lemmy-rock is loaded with enough lunacy and individual touches to allow it to stand up on its own merits.”
“Eddie did a good job,” says Mark Brabbs. “We’d toured Europe, we’d really worked those songs, so when we got into the studio to record Filth Hounds of Hades, we knew what we were doing.
“It had the rawness and attitude that we actually had as youngsters, so it’s thanks to Eddie for… just letting it happen.”
Instantly proclaimed one of the finest debuts of the entire NWOBHM movement, Filth Hounds of Hades was an immediate hit across Europe - Brabbs remembers the band being mobbed when they played a festival in Finland.
Trailed today by a thrilling video, “Turn Your Head Around,” this edition of Filth Hounds of Hades, is the ultimate document of Tank’s first year or so, appending the original album with the band’s very first demo (also overseen by Clarke); the clutch of alternate versions and non-album gems that made it onto the band’s first two singles; and a John Peel radio session recorded shortly after the album’s release, in March 1982.
It is then topped off by what remains one of the most thrilling live recordings of the entire NWOBHM era, eight tumultuous tracks taped in Dortmund, Germany, during Tank’s maiden European tour.
The first release in a heart-stopping series of Tank reissues on their way from Cleopatra Records, Filth Hounds of Hades remains a shockingly visceral listen, unaffected by either time or technology. It is raw, it is dynamic, and it is topped by one of the indisputable anthems of that entire era, the mighty “Blood, Guts and Beer.”
In fact, if you were there at the time, and are coming back for more, you might still be able to hear yourself singing along with it.
Filth Hounds From Hades Deluxe Edition is released on CD and vinyl on August 14. “Turn Your Head Around” is here now, to let you know what the album will do when it is finally released.
Any Exorcist fans out there will know precisely what that means….
CD: https://cleorecs.com/products/tank-filth-hounds-of-hades-deluxe-edition-2-cd
VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/products/tank-filth-hounds-of-hades-deluxe-edition-red-black-splatter-double-vinyl-lp
Track List:
DISC 1
1. Shellshock
2. Struck By Lightning
3. Run Like Hell
4. Blood, Guts and Beer
5. T.W.D.A.M.O.
6. Turn Your Head Around
7. Heavy Artillery
8. Who Needs Love Songs
9. Filth Hounds Of Hades
10. (He Fell In Love With A) Stormtrooper
11. Don't Walk Away (Live - Bonus Single)
12. The Snake (Bonus Single)
13. Steppin' On A Landmine (Single B-side)
14. Don't Walk Away (Single A-side)
15. Shellshock (Single B-side)
17. (He Fell In Love With A) Stormtrooper (Single Version)
DISC 2
1. Shellshock (Live 1981) [CD ONLY]
2. Steppin' On A Landmine (Live 1981) [CD ONLY]
3. Blood, Guts and Beer (Live 1981)
4. Run Like Hell (Live 1981) [CD ONLY]
5. Don't Walk Away (Live 1981) [CD ONLY]
6. Filth Hounds Of Hades (Live 1981) [CD ONLY]
7. (He Fell In Love With A) Stormtrooper (Live 1981) [CD ONLY]
8. The Snake (Live 1981) [CD ONLY]
9. Hammer On (Radio Session) [CD ONLY]
10. Don't Walk Away (Radio Session) [CD ONLY]
11. Heavy Artillery (Radio Session) [CD ONLY]
12. (He Fell In Love With A) Stormtrooper (Radio Session) [CD ONLY]
13. Shellshock (Demo)
14. Run Like Hell (Demo)
15. Blood, Guts, And Beer (Demo)
