White Tyger – Back of the Class Review

Out of Wolverhampton, UK comes WHITE TYGER, a hard hitting melodic hardrockband with a massive sound on their 2nd album Back Of The Class. The band was founded in 2015, and their line up consists of lead vocalist/guitarist Nip Turner, guitarist Chris Hingley and bassist Ste Timmins and drummer Jack Ryland Smith. The new album is actually a mini-CDR, but despite only 7 tracks are included, the music featured here is of a rather high level from start to finish.

 

Opener Almost Home shows right from the start we are dealing here with a sensational classic late 80s/early 90s sounding American Hair Metal/Melodic Hardrockband. Their sound is not far removed from bands like FIREHOUSE. STRUTT, TRIXTER, XYZ, LILLIAN AXDE, BABYLON A.D., ICON, SLYBOYZ, KNOW ILLUSION, DANGER DANGER, BANGALORE CHOIR, AUTOGRAPH, DOKKEN and so many more of that time period, yet WHITE TYGER does have a slightly heavier and modern touch, which gives them an own identity. Following song Brown continues in a similar direction, yet a bit heavier, kinda like SKID ROW, but still with a hooky melodic part and catchy chorus. Vanilla Circus is a rather kick-ass uptempo melodic hard/heavy rock tune that melts SKID ROW with FIREHOUSE, but also adds a CRUEish TOMMY LEE alike sounding drumsound, while the chorus is deadly catchy and quite melodic! Instafine is a change in style, because this is a rather great slowtempo heavy blues rocker with a certain XYZ/WHITESNAKE vibe, including some great vocalwork and also the guitar department absolutely delivers here. Nip is a really good singer, who has an own identity. Dog House Blues is another heavy groovy bluesy melodic hard rock piece in the late 80s/early 90s style of SKID ROW, EVERY MOTHER’S NIGHTMARE and WHITESNAKE.

 

Starlight is a superb pure 80s semi Power Ballad in the classic SKID ROW, TESLA, GREAT WHITE, WARRANT, LILLIAN AXE style, while closing track Fire is a rather fast uptempo melodic speed/power metal piece that is full speed ahead and not looking back. Basically this last song is SKID ROW on fire and doing a JUDAS PRIEST imitation, so a little bit different than the rest of the album. Concluded, this is definitely a band to watch out for in the future and a must-have to anyone who likes classic late 80s/early 90s American orientated Melodic Hardrock/Hair Metal a la LILLIAN AXE/FIREHOUSE/XYZ/SKID ROW and such.

 

 

Written by: Gabor Kleinbloesem

Ratings: Gabor   8/10