Customer Reviews

Spellbound

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my favourite album by the tyger's, For myself the change in the band line up, From the change of the gruff voice of Jess Cox to the harmonic voice of John Deverill from Persian Risk and also added a secound guitarist to the band as in John Sykes who was making his debut album, Who went onto join, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake and Blue murder.

This British band was in a bunch of band's, Which included the likes of Iron maiden, Saxon, Judas priest, Anglewhich, Samson and a host of other's who were givin' the title "The new wave off British heavy metal".

The album is truely from the hard 'n' heavy era off Heavy Metal.
The hard hittin' riff's of Gangland, Hellbound & Tyger bay to the mellow of Mirror,Mirror. one of the leading band's in their day, A must for all metal head's, If this album does not get you headbanging then your listening to the wrong music.

Tygers Of Pan Tang's second album "Spellbound" (1981) sure is a more consistent effort than their debut "Wild cat". With a change in line up (adding a second guitar player by the name of John Sykes and a new singer in Jon Deverill), the Tygers were on their way towards the top in the heavy metal league back in the early 1980's. The material on "Spellbound" is mostly very good, and not as raw as it was on the previous album. There are indeed some classic metal tunes in this collection. Just listen to songs such as "Gangland", "Take it", and "Hellbound" and you'll hear the essence of the genre New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Tygers shows us a more laid back side and includes a ballad in "Mirror". And when it comes to "The story so far" & "Don't stop by" you can hear the growing seed to songs included on following albums like "The cage" and "The wreck-age". A lot of people claim that "Spellbound" is the band's finest album up to date but I strongly believe that "Crazy nights" from the same year is just as good, if not even better!

Tygers Of Pan Tang never made it big like some of their peers (for example Iron Maiden and Def Leppard). Maybe it had something to do with bad managing because the Tygers surely were on their way to stardom in the early 1980's. Anyway, over the years Tygers changed personnel and finally broke up. Singer Jon Deverill took a shot at an acting career, guitar player Rob Weir took a job for the local government, bass player Rocky became a music lawyer, and drummer Brian continued playing the drums in smaller scale. The only one of the line up who really made it big is guitarist John Sykes, who first joined Thin Lizzy ("Thunder and lightning") and then teamed up with Whitesnake's David Covedale to record their world wide success album "1987". After that Sykes formed Blue Murder (together with Carmine Appice and Tony Franklin), released a couple of solo albums, and then reformed Thin Lizzy.

Their sophomore effort is their best album for sure, and it is a benchmark NWOBHM album. Unfortunately, the band fell into the usual trap: to change their sound due to record company pressure, releasing obnoxious albuns like "The Cage" and the album recorded in the speed of light, "Crazy Nights".

Tygers of Pan Tang was one of the more noteworthy (and yet highly underappreciated) acts from the legendary New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) scene. With their hard charging, melodic style, Tygers of Pan Tang leaned more towards the Diamond Head end of the NWOBHM spectrum. In today's music scene, they probably wouldn't qualify as a "metal" band, but at the time they were a vital part of a scene that helped define the heavy metal sound.

1981's Spellbound was the band's second album, and it marked both big changes and big improvements. Original vocalist Jess Cox was replaced by ex-Persian Risk Frontman Brian Deverill, and the band added a second lead guitarist, an unknown kid named John Sykes. To say that Sykes, who would go on to greater fame with Thin Lizzy, Blue Murder and Whitesnake, made an impact is a major understatement. Deverill's more refined and melodic vocals also helped the band move beyond their rough n' ready hard rock sound in a more polished, more metal direction. The aggression and energy is still there, but the songwriting and performances are just that much better than they were on Wild Cat. This album has a lot of the band's best songs, including "Gangland," "Hellbound," "Silver and Gold" and "Tyger Bay."

All of the first four Tygers of Pan Tang discs are great, but Spellbound remains the best of the bunch. If you're putting together a list of the ten essential NWOBHM albums, Spellbound really deserves a spot. Not only is it a must-have for any serious NWOBHM collector, it's also well worth checking out for anyone who is into the `80s hard rock and heavy metal sound.

Edition Notes: The Metal Nation reissue of Spellbound features digitally remastered sound and five bonus tracks, including various b-sides from the album's singles. The Tygers back catalog seems to go in and out of print with some regularity. If you can't find this album for a reasonable price at the moment, you may want to give it some time and see if it comes around again.

I've read the reviews of this incredible cd listed below, and I don't think they do this monumental masterpiece justice...forget about the ridiculous NWOBHM tags, and other 'time related' monikers attached to it - this is just, plain and simple, one of the best early 80's British 'metal' albums ever recorded. The only problem the band had at this time was that they were signed to MCA (known affectionately by bands from that time as the 'Musical Cemetary of America'); other than that, this album, straight out, just KICKS. Fans of Whitesnake's guitar work on 'Still Of The Night' era releases should know that John Sykes played on this magnificent opus, and it is all the better for his input...Deverill had the perfect voice for these ferocious batch of songs; it all clicked at the right time for this band on this release; want a catchy, but fist pounding anthem? Try 'Take It.' Want a preview of what speed-metal bands looked to for an influence? Plug 'Tyger Bay' and 'Hellbound' into your ears and experience the exhilaration...House Of Hair fans should pull their hair out that 'The Story So Far' isn't a staple of that show...look, get this cd. At all costs...the band just re-recorded it for the anniversary of its release, so they know its significance...simply put, if you collect METAL, this cd is mandatory for your collection...end of discussion. No further posts for this are required...

There are stacks of people who will tell you how there were only a few NWOBHM acts who really made it and they'd be right. They'll also tell you how a heap of others deserved better returns. That's only partly right - I mean if you take off the rose coloured glasses and actually listen to some of the albums they are kind of lame. But the Tygers, along with Diamond Head, are perhaps one of those bands who could legitimately lay claim to having deserved a larger slice of the profit pie graph.

Having replaced Jess Cox as frontman with Jon Deverill the Tygers here produced a very worthy follow up to their debut, expanding on the working mans pub metal with lotsa hooks and harmonies and lyrically just about a bunch of stuff. Truly, if you put this next to the Leps High `n' Dry they would duke it out for the full 12 rounds and I'm not sure which would win on points. The sound is traditional, warm and with space (remember the days before compression to the nth degree?). The riffs are sturdy and the vocal melodies catchy enough to make this great for serious drinking or cruising down the highway with the boys.

The Tygers sound is very much of it's time, a bit of early Leps and most of the other NWOBHM acts like Saxon etc etc etc. But if that is the sort of thing you're looking for they'll provide it in spades on either this album or the debut with original singer Jess Cox which is a touch more raw.

this my favorite release by thr tygers of pan tang.lead of track gangland starts this off with a bang and silver and gold another cool song.is this worth picking up as a import hell yeah vintage nwobhm at its best.

I bit and bought spellbound based upon the reviews here and what I had heard otherwise. Ill have to say that overall I was kinda letdown. I dont know how anyone could say that this is the best metal album ever, come on man. For the year in which it was released it is only a fair metal album. Maybe it does rate high in the so called new wave of british heavy metal but then again who else much where there? Hey wait does Judas Priest count, I would think so.

The bottom line here is that the Tygers of Pan Tang were a good band with alot of young talent and their albums are something to be had by someone who collects all the rare and other stuff they can lay their hands on to expand their collections. Someone very much like me I suppose. I can proudly say that I have the Tygers supposeably best 2 albums in my collection. But then again hey my bud tells me that he perfers the album The Cage, where the Tygers dropped the metal and attempted more so into the glam / big hair genre. Oh well it looks like the next rock night that we have that The Cage will have to be played.