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No Place For The Damned

    
       
       
       
     
             
Tantrum are a heavy metal band from the UK formed in 2014 releasing three albums to date - 'Melt It Down' (2018), 'Another Life' (2023), and 'No Place For The Damned'...    
             
...released in 2024 featuring eleven songs over an incredible one hour run time! The bands current line-up consists of vocalist Mark Reid, guitarists Baz Fitzsimmons and Micah Snow, bass player Chris Horne, and drummer Mark Riches. In every decade recently, there seems to be no place for something or other - in 1988 there was 'No Place For Disgrace' (Flotsam And Jetsam), in 1993 there was 'No Place For The Dead Among Alive' (Void), in 2002 there was 'No Place For The Living' (Zhiva), in 2013 there was 'No Place For The Old Men' (Hammerforce), and in 2024 there's 'No Place For The Damned' - the new album from British metallers Tantrum! 'No Place For The Damned' is a power driven, "foot on the monitor" gallop with a massive nod to the good old days of heavy metal during the eighties when legendary bands Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Saxon were re-shaping, re-writing, and re-defining the sound of heavy metal into the glorious beast it is today!    
             
And across one hour of galloping heavy metal, Tantrum reassert themselves as an emerging force in the worldwide heavy metal scene - 'Manifest Destiny' roaring into life at a hundred fucking miles an hour! But only after a tension fuelled, crescendo building first minute or so, Tantrum pounding the ground hard with immense energy, power and purpose! A sizzling start from the West Lothian five-piece, the band emanate a very strong old school flavour here to please every metal traditionalist on the planet - and that includes me! For the opening gambit from Tantrum has been sensational, and at nearly seven minutes in length, it's been a very bold move to open an album with such a long song! But it's worked, every listener everywhere turning their heads in the direction of the band - 'Minotaur' picking up the baton and racing away with it! And oozing a mighty 'Powerslave' era 'Maiden too - the bands iconic gallop shining brighter than a thousand suns as Tantrum keep the pedal firmly pressed to the metal!    
             
What a breath taking opening brace, 'No Place For The Damned' up and running at full steam ahead now, powering on with the fucking glorious 'W.A.I.L.' (when all is lost) - a touch of Grim Reaper coming to the fore! I tell ya readers, Tantrum maybe forty years after the NWOBHM evolution began, but boy do they have its classic sound honed to perfection - and I would know, for I was a teenager during the eighties burgeoning metal movement, and the goosebumps I've got right now are of the same size and shape as they were four decades ago! Fucking hell Tantrum, you certainly know how to please this old metalhead - young and new metalheads too! The unabashed and unadulterated show of heavy metal marches on with the much heavier, more mid tempo 'Deepest Line', the band planting a mighty foot stomp front and centre to flatten every listener, fan and follower around the world! And even at this early stage, 'No Place For The Damned' is surely gunning for the Album Of The Year title, every song heard so far coming at ya from the top shelf! And even higher if there was a top, top shelf, 'cause 'Hellbound Planet' is the definition of how fucking great British heavy metal sounds! The power, pace and guitar sound are all tremendously in tune with everything that heavy metal stands for, and should an alien land and pose the question "what is this heavy metal I hear so much about" - just play 'em 'Hellbound Planet'.    
             
Hell, just play 'em this entire album, for 'No Place For The Damned' is just getting better and better as each song strides on by - 'The Darkest Of Times' accelerating hard to become the fastest song heard so far! The head bang ability has just shot through the fucking roof, the immense infectious level reaching new and uncharted heights, Tantrum one of this years most delightfully exhilarating discoveries! The bands foot to the floor mentality is spot on, the album storming by at a heavenly head bang-able pace, 'Internal Bleeding' maintaining the phenomenal intensity of the album! Ever since 'No Place For Disgrace' began, the intensity has rocketed skywards and into outer fucking space, soaring so high and fast with so much power, that I reckon it's gonna catch up to the Voyager space probe launched by NASA to study the solar system and the interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere! And it's had a forty seven year head start with (as of October 2024) fifteen billion miles already under its belt! 'Internal Bleeding' also boasts a lot in common with the elegance and majesty of Black Sabbath's 'TV Crimes', from the bands 1992 'Dehumanizer' album featuring the late, great, and sorely missed Ronnie James Dio. And still the ground shuddering heavy metal onslaught continues, Tantrum bustling forth with added venom courtesy of 'Scarred', the iconic gallop very much in full swing. 'No Place For The Damned' has to be a top contender for Album Of The Year - the album two thirds of the way through now and not just the one when I first suggested the title may go the way of the British metallers.    
             
And the mighty foot stomping style of anthemic heavy metal breaks through to take over the airways, 'The Judge' a thunder stomp of the highest order to rank alongside bands such as Manowar, Sabaton and Saxon - the chorus a rabble rousing affair that everyone is gonna chant, scream and shout! So come on one and all, "I'm the judge, jury, executioner, Life is the crime and you will pay, I am judge, jury, I take no prisoners, Eternal justice will be served" - simply superb stuff! And as the album heads towards its final brace, the band don't let up the power and pace one little bit, 'Traveller' travelling forth with as much if not more intensity and purpose than everything heard so far! The head bang ability and infectious levels were turned up to maximum when the album began, and no-one's turned them down since! Breath taking stuff from Tantrum - the albums final hurrah an eight minute long epic! 'The Pit And The Pendulum' is by far and away the longest song on offer, the band throwing everything they have in their locker at a jaws wide open audience! Jaws that have been wide open since minute one, and aren't gonna close until the very last second has passed!    
             
Overall, a sensational album of head bang-able and highly infectious heavy metal, 'No Place For The Damned' is heavy metal heaven.    
             
             
Review by Iron Mathew Collins    
             
Reviewed for Rockfiend Management & PR    
             
             
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