Lost/Forgotten Album #124

Since Rjhog loves NWOBHM music, I'm sticking with it! And since everyone loves Pan Tang, this week's album choice is the 1981 release from Tygers Of Pan Tang, "Spellbound".

Released 6 months (!) after their debut, this is the first album with John Deverill on vocals and some dude names John Sykes on geetar. What's even crazier is that the followup album, "Crazy Nights" was released 8 months after this album.

You might have heard THIS before: they "sold out" after the third album, releasing pop metal albums, a far cry from their first three releases, but I still have a place in my heart for '82's "The Cage" for some reason.

If you like early Def Leppard, early Maiden, etc., you'll like this. You'll love the geetar work, there's no doubt about that either.

After "Crazy Nights", Sykes left for Thin Lizzy and the Tygers went on for a few more albums but nobody really cared because they had "sold out" as I mentioned above. However, they did come ROARING (tee hee) back in the '00's, releasing two fantastic albums and one that's actually pretty decent.

Really not much more to say. Just listen. Enjoy. It's good.

Spellbound

1. Gangland
2. Take It
3. Minotaur
4. Hellbound
5. Mirror
6. Silver And Gold
7. Tyger Bay
8. The Story So Far
9. Blackjack
10. Don't Stop By

Availability: OOP, but you can hunt this down for around a starting price of $15 with bonus tracks. and it includes bonus tracks.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Mills on January 11, 2013 at 12:20pm

After reviewing the Best Of, I kept seeing one group continually pop up on everybody's list, so I had to backtrack & see what I missed. No doubt, the guitar is Amazing! Musically, this is very sound, but I don't know if I'm sold on the vocals. He has his moments & there are times when I say "Hey, this could really work". I think a little polish, would go a long way to improve the overall sound here. Everytime, I want to say, they just need another vocalist, I hear something I really like. He definitely has the voice to deliver the goods, just needs better arrangement & production. I see why everyone like this. I'm glad I came back for a listen.