Review by Felix on June 4, 2024.

Blessed with a stable line-up, Tyrant released their second full-length precisely one year after their debut. The band had not changed its song-writing formula. Just as on the debut, the dudes were not interested in very opulent tracks, but still put the focus on compact and (hopefully) crispy songs with conservative patterns. Lead vocalist Kerrmit, seemingly an import from the Muppet Show, still lent the material his somewhat rebellious and snotty voice and the manual skills of the instrumentalists gave no reason to complain. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, the song material does not make my day. The problems begin early. Do you feel the “Dark Eyes of London” that stare at you? Not me, I just endure the meaningless intro of the same name. “Up the Hammer” also sucks. It seems to be a more or less spontaneous opener with an aggressive chorus, but after three and a half minutes a sugary plastic part shows up that Stormwitch could not have performed worse. This sequence seems to be taken from the book “How I desecrate my own opener very efficiently”, chapter one. Reading is sometimes damaging to the mind, as this shows once again.

But good news, after this idiotic kind of experiment, Tyrant concentrate on their core competence and present eight generic, relatively predictable tracks of heavy metal. Surprising ideas were not taken along to the recording studio. The song titles reflect the absence of flashes of inspiration: “Metal Rules” and “We Will Rock” are the most impressive examples. Yet it goes without saying that one can record a great album without being innovative. Everything is fine as long as the song material can rely on crunchy riffs, catchy choruses and a level of substance which avoids one-dimensional, overly simple song configurations. But honestly speaking, Tyrant have to struggle in order to fulfil these conditions. Sometimes they are successful – “Streetfighter” is not as transparent as many other songs. It shines with a slightly ominous atmosphere, a compositional depth and well elaborated guitar work. In addition, the drum performance is more interesting than that of the other tracks, while both the chorus and the verses hit the mark. But there are also a lot of songs in which the band walks on the edge, always in danger to fall into the abyss of faceless interchangeability. Big parts of the material commute between pretty kind and fairly insignificant. At least the songs don't sound lifeless or sterile and we can assume that the band did not lack integrity. Nevertheless, the album demonstrates why Tyrant never stood in the centre of the German metal press, to express it politely.

Production-wise, the band avoids serious mistakes. The guitars sound too happy and lack volume from time to time (“Goddess”), but that’s no big deal. So it’s up to you whether or not you want to check little highlights like “Danger” or their Accept inspired closer “We Will Rock”. I cannot say that it was a rewarding experience to dive deeply into the full album, but it is also true that the worldwide metal scene has already been tortured with much worse releases. Even the golden eighties did not only produce eternal classics, if my “Metal Heart” doesn’t tell me lies.

Rating: 5.8 out of 10