The New Wave of British Heavy Metal just won’t lie down…….here we are with another NWOBHM band popping up again with a new album after the odd decade or three or four. The “culprits” on this occasion being Tysondog. They are due to release Cry Havoc in April.
I have pre-ordered the fancy “fan pack” version – post cards, a pic all in a nice tin case. And for a bargain price of just £11. If you’d like one, head on over to: http://rocksectorrecords.bigcartel.com/product/tysondog-cry-havoc-cd-fanpack
I’ll post up a review when my friendly local postie pushes it through the letter box. Until then, here’s a brief history of Tysondog as I’m quite sure I haven’t written about them before here on this humble blog…….
The band has its roots up in Newcastle. Back then Newcastle/Tyneside/North East in general was a bit of a NWOBHM “hot bed” with the likes of White Spirit, Tygers of Pan Tang and similar slugging it out and riding the NWOBHM wave.
But this post is about Tysondog – who apparently (and perhaps uniquely) were inspired to name the band from the dog owned by the bass player’s girlfriend. Has anyone done that before I wonder. Back then NWOBHM could be a little incestuous you know……Tysondog has a strong connection with Venom. Indeed, Venom’s Cronos would produce their debut album.
Coming to the attention of record labels, the band would sign with the local label, Neat with the first product of that relationship being the Eat the Rich single. Recording of a debut album followed with that seeing the light of day in 1983 featuring new vox man “Clutch” Carruthers. Oh – the title, almost forgot. It was Beware of the Dog.
The album went down quite well more so in Europe than on home soil. The Shoot to Kill EP came out in ’85 as did a second album entitled Crimes of Insanity which included a cover of the Alice Cooper hardy perennial School’s Out. Sadly however things started to go awry a little. A proposed US tour along with Venom didn’t happen and “Clutch” had a car accident on the way to a gig. Neat records pulled the plug and that brought about the end of Tysondog at the time.
But as we know, you can’t keep a good NWOBHM band down and the second coming, renaissance or whatever you want to call it keeps on a rollin’. Tysondog is an active band once more with that new album slotted for 20th April. I look forward to its arrival.
A reminder about the pre-order link for the fan pack:
http://rocksectorrecords.bigcartel.com/product/tysondog-cry-havoc-cd-fanpack
And if you’d like to check out their original NWOBHM-era output:
Beware of the Dog: http://amzn.to/1DQTBvz
Crimes of Insanity: http://amzn.to/1KWs6CR