Chemical invasion
| Chemical invasion | ||||
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| Tankard studio album | ||||
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Publication |
October 1987 |
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admission |
June to August 1987 |
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| Label (s) | Noise Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
39:28 minutes |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Musiclab Studio |
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Chemical Invasion ( English for chemical invasion ) is the second studio album by the German thrash metal band Tankard from 1987. The music magazine Rock Hard counted the album in June 2009 among the 250 thrash metal albums that should be known.
Recording and publication
The album Chemical Invasion is the second official studio album of the band. Like its predecessor, this album was recorded in the Musiclab Studio in Berlin, the recordings date from June to August 1987. It was produced and mixed by Harris Johns , who at that time was already working for numerous national and international metal bands. It was first published in October 1987.
The cover design came from Sebastian Krüger . It shows a comic-like representation of a scientist (called Dr. Achmatov) in a chemistry laboratory, who mixes a glass of beer (space brew) with a neon green liquid. The booklet contains photographs by Uwe "Buffo" Schnädelbach .
Track list
The album consists of 10 tracks with a total length of 39:28 minutes. The individual titles are:
- Intro - 00:17
- Total Addiction - 03:26
- Tantrum - 03:15
- Don't Panic - 04:25
- Puke - 00:58
- For a Thousand Beers - 07:23
- Chemical Invasion - 05:27
- Farewell to a Slut - 04:10
- Traidora - 07:56
- Alcohol (cover version of a song by Gang Green ) - 02:11
Music and lyrics
As with the previous album Zombie Attack and the two demo recordings Heavy Metal Vanguard and Alcoholic Metal , the lyrics of the band on Chemical Invasion focus very much on alcohol consumption . This is already apparent in the intro, which consists of a recording in which a beer bottle is opened and drunk - concluded with a short burp . In the following Total Addiction , the band deals with drug addiction and calls on the listener to renounce drugs and surrender to total addiction to music and beer (“Listen to Tankard / You need a doze of thrash / A total addiction to those music and beer / It's reason enough to quit your drugs ").
Almost all of the other songs also focus on beer and alcohol, including the 7-minute long instrumental piece For a Thousand Beers and the title song Chemical Invasion, which has the refrain "Chemical Invasion - Fight for your right to drink pure beer" as a "protest song" against the erosion of the German Purity Law through the approval of chemical additives ”and is therefore to be understood as a position to comply with the German Purity Law (“ Make a stand and try to fight it / They'll poison us with import beer / 'Cause German beer - it is the purest / There's no room for chemicals here "). Tantrum deals with a party story in which a beer was stolen from the protagonist ("Tantrum - Who stole my beer? / Tantrum - you must die !!!") and Puke (Eng. " Kotze ") is about one Fully drunk who has to vomit ("Puke! Puke! I drank too much / Vomit on the chair / Puke! Puke! I drank too much / Even in my hair"). Farewell To A Slut describes the protagonist's problems with a woman who criticizes and insults him as “a longhaired drunkard” because of his lifestyle. When it gets too much for him, he kills her and goes to prison for it (“I'll cut her to pieces / I'll beat her with chains / I'll dip her in acid till nothing remains / Now I'm free here in jail getting drunk on my beers / Fuckin 'wardens all day for the next 20 years "). The song Alcohol, a cover version of a song by the band Gang Green , begins with the words Gimme a beer and describes the addiction to alcohol (“No doubt about it - I can't live without it / Alcohol” and “We'll drink until we drop / I'd rather drink than fuck ").
Exceptions are the songs Don't Panic and Traitor . The former deals with various abuses of the world that are being prosecuted (“Yet they say: Nothing's wrong at Chernobyl / And they've found another cure for AIDS / Send their guns to Nicaragua / And shake their fingers at Afghanistan / Don't panic - it's just our world "). Traitor (German: "traitor") depicts the situation of exploited metal bands in the music industry.
Reviews and reception
The album Chemical Invasion received praise shortly after its release. In the evaluation of Rock Hard magazine (Issue # 23, 1987) Frank Trojan got 9 out of 10 possible points. Trojan rated the previous album Zombie Attack when discussing the follow-up album as only a "rather mediocre debut" (in contrast to his colleague Holger Stratmann, who already described the debut as "one of the funniest and best Thrash albums by far" on the market ” . ) and was clearly surprised by Chemical Invasion . He wrote in 1987: “Both in terms of songwriting and playing technique, 'Chemical Invasion' is a 100 percent increase! From the opener 'Total Addiction' to the last track 'Alcohol' (what else ?!) the brutal riffs, the powerful rhythm work and Gerre's merciless growling characterize the nine songs. ” When the next album, The Morning After, was released in 1988, it was Trojan again , who wrote: "'Chemical Invasion' was probably one of the big surprises from Germany last year, and for our five combat drinkers it meant the breakthrough in the German Thrash scene."
Oliver Klemm from Metal Hammer was also convinced and awarded 6 out of 7 possible points for the album. He certified the band “This is how Thrash must be” and praised both the band as one of the “most original Thrash bands ever” and the singer Gerre for not copying Tom Araya , the singer of the band Slayer . He also pointed out: "Humor shouldn't be missing, especially in times when all Thrashers take themselves so seriously."
Together with the band's first album, Zombie Attack from 1986, Chemical Invasion was reissued in 2005. Another new edition followed in 2011, 25 years after the first release of the debut, along with all studio albums that were recorded up to 1995.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Götz Kühnemund : 250 Thrash albums that you should know . In: Rock Hard . No. 265 , June 2009, p. 75 .
- ↑ Lyrics of the song Total Addiction. ( Memento of the original from August 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: tankard.info.
- ↑ a b lyrics of the song Chemical Invasion. ( Memento of the original from December 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: tankard.info.
- ↑ Roland Ludwig: TANKARD: Best Case Scenario: 25 Years In Beers. On: crossover-agm.de.
- ↑ Lyrics of the song Tantrum. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: tankard.info.
- ↑ Lyrics of the song Puke. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: tankard.info.
- ↑ Lyrics of the song Farewell To A Slut. ( Memento of the original from May 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: tankard.info.
- ↑ Lyrics of the song Alcohol. ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: tankard.info.
- ↑ Lyrics of the song Don't Panic. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: tankard.info.
- ↑ Lyrics of the song Traitor. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: tankard.info.
- ^ A b Frank Trojan: Album review for Chemical Invasion. In: Rock Hard . # 23, 1987.
- ↑ Holger Stratmann: Album review for Zombie Attack. In: Rock Hard . # 18, 1986.
- ^ Frank Trojan: Album review for The Morning After. In: Rock Hard . # 29, 1988.
- ↑ Oliver Klemm: Review of Tankard - Chemical Invasion. In: Metal Hammer. Issue 11/1987.
