Tiger army's
Power of Moonlite. Their second album and the peek of their creativity. It perfects the songwriting of their debut but keeps the sound.
Nick 13 is the only consistent element in Tiger Army's various line ups. He's also the creative leader and writes all the songs. This trio makes punk, mixed with psychobilly and rock 'n roll and their sound is extremely Romantic (Note the capital 'r').
The atmosphere on this album is very dark. Starting off with powerful, fast drumming and
Nick 13's eery guitar soon joining in. This is a perfect blueprint of what the album will be, melancholic parts, as a tribute to loss and pain, brought forth by Nick 13's spooky vocals and lyrics and howling guitar. This in contrast to the powerful parts, with strong drumming, decided yet despairing singing and yelling, all supported by
Geoff Kresge's stand up bass. The whole thing has a very nightlike atmosphere to it, the guitar echoes throughout the album and tremelo effects are not frowned upon. The music complements the the themes of night, darkness, love and horror perfectly.
Not only is the atmosphere highly enjoyable, the songwriting is of high quality as well. The songs consist of many parts and don't conform to pop structures as often as one would expect. Every song is enjoyable, such as the western sounding balled
'In the Orchard', showing a very soft and dramatic side of Tiger Army, and beautiful soft vocals by 13. The raging
'Towards Destiny' and even the seemingly out of place track
'F.T.W..
The album enjoys an excellent production and feature appearances from
Hellcat friends
Lars Frederiksen, Matt Freeman, Davey Havok and others. In short this a gem in punk music and that's something that seems less and less obvious in the last decade. A must have for the Romantic souls amongst us.
