Review by Felix on January 6, 2024.

The Baltic area is more or less a blank spot on my metal map. An album of Luctus from Lithuania stands on my shelf and I am a proud owner of the works of Skyforger, the metallic emissaries of their Latvian fatherland. But that's it and I did not know any band from Estonia, until Tankist contacted me. It was a matter of honour for me to give these thrashers a chance. First things first, they have already created an almost unique style. Their kind of thrash metal does not lack of surprising, sometimes weird breaks. Any form of commercialism does not play a role. Tankist walk their own way and this approach deserves praise, although the results are very different, at least from my point of view.

Don't let the puerile artwork put you off. Tankist's music does not show signs of childishness. The guys do not put the focus on record-breaking speed or brutality as a value in itself. They rather keep an eye on the creation of guitar performances that have an effect. For example, the beginning of "Mortuary" is stuffed with oppressive leads and aggressive riffs which do not lack of pressure. The restlessness of the boys leads to very individual song patterns. Sometimes the old maxim "less (variety) would have been more" comes to my mind, because some good ideas are silting up. "Deadeye", for instance, appears almost as a cacophony of strange guitar lines. Nevertheless, I respect the fact that the newcomers are not afraid of these comparatively sophisticated structures. Too bad that there exists another problem. The creator of the dissonant guitar solos does obviously not know the meaning of the term "coherence". Most of the solo excursions hurt the overall impression of the songs, sometimes more, sometimes less. This is a pity, because strong and attacking riffs like that at the beginning of "At the Gate" actually build a good fundament for the tracks.

In alignment with the song structures, the lead vocals do not fail to offer a good degree of variety. Aggressive shouting and relatively clean vocals show up during the opener and set the frame for the following tunes. It is obvious that the band does not lack of ambitions and enthusiasm, but the compositional skills leave room for optimization. Anyway, the foundation has been laid. Each and every song offers at least a few original riffs and therefore it will be interesting to see what happens next. If the band puts the focus on conclusive songs with some more or less catchy parts - on "Be Offended", especially the chorus of "At the Gate" shows that they are fortunately not immune against catchiness - without neglecting its slightly progressive approach, the next release will possibly be very amazing. This applies particularly when the prospective output is also equipped with a more than solid and well balanced production. Hopefully this is the case, because the stormy Baltics needs more aspiring metal formations.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10