Tiger Army

Music From Regions Beyond

Written by: PP on 12/07/2007 12:26:35

One of the bands that has been keeping the California punk scene ripe is Tiger Army, who has been releasing psychobilly/punk fusion albums at regular intervals since their inception in 1995. Although their lineup too has resembled revolving doors all too much, leaving frontman Nick 13 as the only original member in the band, their sound has stayed intact through difficulties and it has become clear that Tiger Army is very much vocalist Nick's vision.

Thus, "Prelude: Signal Return" couldn't be a better opening track for the album. Its upbeat bass and polished guitars provide a fitting instrumental introduction before the abrupt gang shout "TIGER ARMY NEVER DIES!!" comes as a surprise to anyone without much knowledge to the band. The gang shouts return on later tracks in the form of "whoa"'s and "hey"'s, while the band is borrowing heavily off the polished skate punk of Pennywise's later albums and, more distinctly, from AFI's horror-punk post 2003's "The Art Of Sorrow". I'm even tempted to go as far as saying that on songs like "Forever Fades Away" or "Pain" it is difficult to recognize whether it is actually Nick 13 or AFI's Davey Havok on vocals. This isn't necessarily bad though, because where AFI went more screamo and slowed down their tracks on "Decemberunderground", Tiger Army goes the opposite way and focuses on high-pitch cleanly sung verses supported by upbeat instrumentals. This approach works much better in my opinion, and despite the obvious similarity between these two bands, Tiger Army succeeds at where AFI failed.

Contrary to what the prior paragraph suggests, not all of "Music From The Regions Beyond" is lifted from AFI's back catalogue. The whole traditional Eastern-European feel that tracks like "Ghosts Of Memory" or "Pain" have will have you thinking Gypsy-punk straight away. There's even an entirely acoustic track sung all in Spanish with Latino impressions on it. "As The Cold Rain Falls" sounds like something that Angels & Airwaves tried to do but failed miserably, and as the trend shows Tiger Army usually succeeds in the offshoot genres where some of the bigger bands fail.

I hesitate calling "Music From Regions Beyond" a punk album, because although especially the first half of the album is full of polished upbeat punk songs, the pace drops a bit towards the end of the album and demonstrates a more theatric side. It's nevertheless an interesting release and a must have if you liked "Sing The Sorrow".

7

Download: Hotprowl, Forever Fades Away, Lunatone
For the fans of: AFI, Pennywise
Listen: Myspace

Release date 05.06.2007
Hellcat Records

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