During the early days of the 80s, NWOBHM caused a set of ‘answers’ throughout the world, or better saying, it ignited flames that set the planet ablaze with Metal! And besides Metal was already done at Germany, NWOBHM helped the growth of the genre and opened ways for ACCEPT gain international success with “Breaker” (1981), “Restless and Wild” (1982) and “Balls to the Wall” (1983), so a German raid of Metal acts started. Today, Germany is a Meccah for Metal fans, and it’s not a mere coincidence that many Metal bands from the country relies on older Metal formulas as happens with TYRAN, as heard on “Tyran’s Oath”, its first full-length.

To be exact, the band’s music relies on Old School German Heavy Metal formulas, those ones used before the canonization of Power Metal and Speed Metal, so it shares similar elements to acts as GRAVE DIGGER, WARLOCK, STEELER, STORMWITCH and others on their early days. It’s full of energy and very good ideas, indeed, witch charming melodies and excellent choruses, b-u-t there’s a huge problem here: the vocals. The tunes used aren’t really 100% on the band, so it’s better to use a normal aggressive set of tunes than these high-pitched ones (Nicolas, you’re good, but you don’t need to try to follow Halford’s steps).

The band worked at Walzwerk Studios, having Sergej Dukart making the recordings, mixing and mastering of the songs, and he find what the quintet needed: a organic-like sonority (or in other words, a simple one, without overloading it with digital editions) that’s heavy and defined, to sound as an Old School Heavy Metal act. And the work of Tom Kruijer (design, additional illustrations), Chris Kiesling (cover art) and Iris Hyttrek (additional design, print) is truly excellent.

“Protectors of Metal” (a fast song with catchy melodies and bone-crushing work on bass guitar and drums), “Bomber”, “Fists of Iron” (energy enough to blast off the VU meters, with very good melodies and arrangements), “Assault”, “Thrill of the Chase” (this one has that clear influence of ACCEPT, especially on the guitar riffs), “Highway Warriors” (again the mix between energy and melodies earns very good arrangements), “Strike of the Whip”, “Riot in the Streets” (here there’s a touch of accessibility, what’s not a sin at all), “Tyran’s Oath”, and “Lighting Strikes” shows very good ideas, but again: the vocals must fit on what the band plays in a better way. And as this is a reissue (the album was originally released on April 2024), here are as bonus songs live shots for “Heavy Metal Outlaws” (recorded at Trveheim Festival 2024) and “Strike of the Whip” (recorded at Keep it True Fest 2024).

Besides everything, the work of TYRAN is very good, and this reissue of “Tyran’s Oath” shows a band with potential.