Filth Hounds of Hades

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filth Hounds of Hades
Tank studio album

Publication
(s)

1982

admission

December 1981 – January 1982

Label (s) Kamaflage Records, DJM Records, Imavox, Attic Records

Format (s)

LP

Genre (s)

New Wave of British Heavy Metal

Title (number)

10

running time

38:25

occupation
  • Bass, vocals: Algy Ward
  • Drums: Mark Brabbs
  • Guitar: Peter Brabbs

production

Almost Eddie Clarke

Studio (s)

Ramport Studios, London

chronology
Don't Walk Away
(7 ”/ 12”, 1981) 		Filth Hounds of Hades Power of the Hunter
(1982)
Single releases
1982 Turn Your Head Around
1982 (He Fell in Love with a) Stormtrooper

Filth Hounds of Hades is the debut album of the new wave of British heavy metal band Tank . It was released in 1982. Musically it is influenced by Motörhead , lyrically it is mainly inspired by war themes.

According to Manfred Kerschke, the album hit "like a bomb", whereas all later albums were overshadowed by the debut, and contains some of their later live classics.

Emergence

After the band toured with Motörhead , guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke produced their first single Don't Walk Away . The bands then went on tour together again, with Lemmy Kilmister hardly missing any of their appearances. Filth Hounds of Hades was produced as well as the single by Fast Eddie. Will Reid Dick was involved as the sound engineer and Neil Hornby as the technician.

Track list

All songs were written by Mark Brabbs, Peter Brabbs and Algy Ward.

A side
  1. Shellshock - 3:10
  2. Struck by Lightning - 3:10
  3. Run Like Hell - 3:40
  4. Blood, Guts & Beer - 3:42
  5. TWDAMO - 5:32
B side
  2. Turn Your Head Around - 3:25
  3. Heavy Artillery - 3:28
  4. Who Needs Love Songs - 3:06
  5. Filth Hounds of Hades - 3:56
  6. (He Fell in Love with a) Stormtrooper - 5:17

The first pressings also contained a single with the Pink Fairies cover The Snake and a live version of Don't Walk Away .

Music style and lyrics

Tank's musical style is similar to Motörhead's, but more raw than this. Malc Macmillan described the album as "a typically gruff affair". According to Eduardo Rivadavia from Allmusic, Shellshock has a similar mix of intensity and speed as Motörhead, whereas Blood, Guts & Beer and (He Fell in Love with a) Stormtrooper are more catchy and TWDAMO is blues- heavy. The lyrics are mostly about war.

layout

The LP cover painted by Jo Mirowski shows the neck and the three heads of Kerberos , who guards the entrance to Hades , in front of the moon. The heads are reminiscent of those of wolves . The middle head looks forward, the others can be seen in half profile. Depending on the pressing, the dog's heads are colored, the sky behind them is dark blue, the moon and celestial bodies falling on top of it are red, or black and white with yellow eyes and yellow saliva, and without details beyond the outlines of the heads and the moon. The band lettering and title are yellow on all versions.

Brett Ewins was responsible for the rest of the design. On the back you can see the track list and additional information, three wolves in front of a night sky and the musicians in the lower right corner. Depending on the pressing, the track list, the moon and parts of the rocky landscape are colored red and the musicians and the additional information are colored orange, or the moon, the wolves and the landscape are black, the track list and music are yellow and the sky and the additional information are white.

Reviews

Although, according to Macmillan, the album was “a typically harsh affair”, according to him the individual pieces were weighty and individual enough. He described the band as maybe "a little bit obsessed with old war nonsense".

Rivadavia described Filth Hounds of Hades as a "destructive" and "wild debut", Tanks' best album and a record collection of every serious 1980s metal fanatic. His colleague Ralph Heibutzki described it as a "rather rudimentary debut".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Manfred Kerschke: Tank . In: Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Manfred Kerschke: NWOBHM: New Wave of British Heavy Metal . The Glory Days . Berlin: Iron Pages 1995, p. 143.
  2. ↑ a b c d e tank . In: Malc Macmillan: The NWOBHM Encyclopedia . Berlin: IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR 2012, p. 609.
  3. ↑ Manfred Kerschke: Tank . In: Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Manfred Kerschke: NWOBHM: New Wave of British Heavy Metal . The Glory Days . Berlin: Iron Pages 1995, p. 144.
  4. ^ A b c Eduardo Rivadavia: Filth Hounds of Hades - Tank , accessed April 16, 2013.
  5. ^ Eduardo Rivadavia: Power of the Hunter - Tank , accessed April 16, 2013.
  6. ↑ Ralph Heibutzki: This Means War - Tank , accessed April 16, 2013.