JAG PANZER: Ample Destruction

Released: 1984

In the mid-1980s metal simply exploded worldwide and many bands and albums were thrown up that got lost in the crowd, only to be rediscovered and more appreciated later on. While Jag Panzer's debut album was rightly revered by a cult following when it was released, it really wasn't until much later that it gained its reputation as a true classic of the period.

While Ample Destruction boasts the thin production of virtually every other first-time release from the metal world of the 80s and is indelibly stamped with the band's influences, Jag Panzer made a simply killer album for its time. Yes, there's shades of Priest, NWOBHM and, on the vocal side at least, Manowar, but on Ample Destruction Jag Panzer don't really sound like anyone else. A big part of that uniqueness comes from the truly remarkable voice of Harry "The Tyrant" Conklin. To this day it's hard to find another singer who sounds even remotely like him. Conklin is backed up superbly by a band that at this time included the enormous shredding skills of one Joey Taffola, a man whose talents easily compare to the likes of Paul Gilbert and Tony Macalpine. Here though, Jag Panzer doesn't just shred endlessly like they sometimes do these days. On Ample Destruction, they write songs with killer riffs, giant choruses and wicked melodies, making this album one of the best of its time, a true forgotten gem.

True to its title, every single song on here (except perhaps "Harder Than Steel") is about death and destruction! Every one, a virtual celebration of power-crazed violence. On the awesome "Warfare" with its infectiously catchy riff that almost-but-not-quite sounds like "2 Minutes to Midnight", Conklin bellows "Warfare is our battlecry, shout it out aloud!" before Taffola cuts loose, and even the cheesiness of lyrics like "I love to fight, I love to screw/Feel my heat begin to rise" from "Licensed to Kill" sound suitably nasty when The Tyrant is singing them. When they speed up, like they do with "Generally Hostile" and "Harder Than Steel" - a definite highlight on an album full of them - Jag Panzer comes close to thrash and when they get slow and heavy like in "Symphony of Terror" they almost beat Judas Priest at their own game before rounding out the album with "The Crucifix" an epic of masterful menace that could put Mercyful Fate to shame. Shameful too is that fact that Ample Destruction is so hard to find now in its original form. Most of the songs from this were recently re-recorded for the Decade of the Nail-spiked Bat set (the title of which was inspired by a line from "Licensed to Kill"), but these songs really need to be heard in the order and the format in which they were originally conceived. Track it down if you can, and if you find a spare copy, let me know about it!

1. Licensed to Kill


2. Warfare


3. Symphony of Terror


4. Harder Than Steel


5. Generally Hostile


6. The Watching


7. Reign of the Tyrants


8. Cardiac Arrest


9. The Crucifix

Rating: 88%