The name Tygers of Pan Tang derives from a fictional archipelago in a Michael Moorcock novel. Despite their longevity, many younger rock and metal fans probably don’t even know who the Tygers of Pan Tang are, raised as they have been on newer bands like Trivium and Airbourne, but in one form or another, the Tygers have been around since 1978 and were right there at the start of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, when a whole slew of new bands came along to reinvigorate the metal scene, and while some went on to mega-fame .. Maiden, Leppard and Saxon .. Tygers never came close to such levels, despite being feted as a band deserving of such achievement.
They have had quite the chequered career, with more splits, changes of personnel and reformations than the Catholic Church, with their best-known member, guitarist John Sykes, leaving in 1982 to replace Gary Moore in Thin Lizzy .. two days before Tygers were due to go on tour. But despite it all, and with Robb Weir now being the only surviving original Tyger, the band has continued to play their brand of rock at well received gigs to the faithful, and release moderately successful albums, though without ever suggesting they’re capable of recapturing the momentum they had in the early eighties – Bloodlines continues in this vein.
It’s all well played, there’re some powerful rock riffs and a number of fine rock moments, just not enough of them to sustain the promise several songs suggest, as a few pieces are decidedly below the mark. Opener ‘Edge Of The World’ is close to being prog metal and sets the bar for the rest of the album where some tracks don’t come close to matching. ‘Fire On The Horizon’ and ‘In My Blood’ both have suggestions of Judas Priest about them, ‘Light Of Hope’ is a powerful piece of rock and you can imagine ‘Kiss The Sky’ becoming a stage favourite. ‘Taste Of Love’ is a slower tune with a constrained guitar break, rather than a ‘how many notes can I play in one minute?’ solo, of which there are several on the album, and the slow acoustic intro to ‘Making All The Rules’ intro gradually become bursts of intermittent guitar rock with the band showing controlled power on what is a really good track.
This is all good mid-table championship stuff, but it doesn’t contain anything to suggest the Tygers will be pursuing promotion to the Premier League anytime soon. Several songs here will enhance their rep as a solid ‘live’ attraction, but this album won’t set the charts ablaze.
