Tiger Army Marches On.
by Ed Thompson
IGN.com
June 14, 2007 - Fans of Tiger Army are going to love Music From Regions Beyond. I love Music From Regions Beyond. If you listen, you too will love Music From Regions Beyond.
Nick 13 has again crafted a psychobilly masterpiece that will excite and please the hardcore fans of the band. Some of the songs are good enough that they might even bring new fans into the fold.
The album starts off with a bang as Tiger Army - guitarist, lead singer and principal songwriter Nick 13, new bassist Jeff Roffredo and new drummer James Meza - whips the listener into a frenzy. The first track, called "Prelude: Signal Return: builds for just over a minute and then gives way to the second track, "Hotprowl", which is the hardest hitting track on the album.
AFI lead singer and close friend of Nick 13, Davey Havoc, adds backing vocals on the next track, called "Afterworld". Oddly, it's the tune after that, "Forever Fades Away", that most sounds like a track to which Havoc should be adding backing vocals. It's also the best song on the album and the song that will most likely garner airtime on alt rock radio stations, if one track is to do so.
Throughout the album, the new musicians - Roffredo and Meza - are allowed to show off their chops with great success; the bass on Music From Regions Beyond is as good as Tiger Army has ever had. On the track "Ghosts of Memory" both Roffredo and Meza have a chance to solo, albeit briefly.
Nick 13 even goes out on a limb and sings a song entirely in Spanish. "Hechizo de Amor" (which translates to Spell of Love) is a solid addition to the Tiger Army catalog.
The one song that I just could not understand - the one that truly throws off the album's brilliance - is the track "As the Cold Rain Falls". I know that I will probably get negative responses from the hardcore fans about this, but I just don't get it. The track is a really catchy tune that could easily find radio airplay, but it is an electronic song that sounds like it is a tribute to New Order with almost zero Tiger Army influence or sound to it. If the song had tried to mix the psychobilly ethos of Tiger Army with the electronic beat of New Order, I might have enjoyed it more. But there was no psychobilly at all - it was straight New Order for the entire four minutes plus of the song.
All in all, Music From Regions Beyond is a very solid album, and one that probably will get better the more I listen to it. It will please most of the band's hardcore fans and it could very easily give Tiger Army a wider audience.
Definitely Download:
1. "Hotprowl"
2. "Forever Fades Away"
3. "Spring Forward"
4. "Ghosts of Memory"