Review by Morpheus Kitami for Tank - This Means War (1983)

I wonder if Tank knew something that the rest of us didn't in 1983. One doesn't expect the band who was introduced to the world playing nasty metal one step away from Venom to start with ambient electronic music. Imagine picking this up in '83, expecting something raw and getting something that sounds like Tangerine Dream. It of course goes into something metal, but it still seems at odds with their most popular image.
The strange synths starting the album also come with a production that's quite clean and modern for 1983. Take out the odd intro/outro synth and this album has a sound that comes off as if you're listening to how these instruments really sounded in the studio. If I had to change something, I would make the guitar more bombastic. They're already going for that sort of sound, but they're underselling it a bit for whatever reason. It's something that would fit a poppier group better than the dirtier sound of Tank.
Otherwise this album has a lot of "feels unique to me, probably isn't, still very nice." It's like the culmination of the NWOBHM sound, the rawness of it before the sound was tempered by commercialism, and when it still had something to prove over other, more aggressive and rawer scenes. The best example of this is in Algy Ward's vocals, more influenced by regular punk rock than anything else. Here he comes off like a regular guy doing his best, injecting what emotion he can. There are many better vocalists, but only Ward can make these songs work as well as they do.
This Means War strikes me as an album that spiritually ends an era, the NWOBHM. While Tank would never strike it as big as other bands, it is an album that represents the endgoal many had, taking the spirit of a band who grew up in an era where metal was a rare and unusual thing, and bringing it to the big labels with a mainstream sound.