TYGERS OF PAN TANG / AVARICE (Live)

at The Cluny, Newcastle, U.K., August 26, 2022

It takes a bucket load of courage, self-belief and ability for such a young band to get up on stage and open for Geordie Metal legends Tygers of Pan Tang but Newcastle College students Avarice did just that at The Cluny at the weekend.

With a sense maturity beyond their years, they came and delivered a set of muscular riffs from dual guitarists Josh Barrass and Morgan Dunn and strong melodies built around the impressive vocals of Sam Clarke bringing something of an Alice In Chains twist to their take on modern Metal.

With songs of the calibre of “Poor Man’s Game” and set closer “Broken Seams” in their arsenal there’s a bright future on the horizon for Avarice.

As front runners of the Geordie branch of the burgeoning New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene at the turn of the ’80s along with Venom and Raven, the Tygers Of Pan Tang brought a reinvigorated freshness to the Metal scene which had been on the ropes following a rude awakening from the Punk explosion a couple of years earlier.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then with a lot of ups and downs including Top 20 albums, world tours and a host of lineup changes but this evening was all about celebration as they returned to their home turf in Newcastle.

With a set covering all of the bases from their classic debut release from 1980’s, Wild Cat to their very latest EP, the literally hot off the shelves A New Heartbeat, the Tygers were in commanding form. Original guitarist Robb Weir traded riffs with recent addition Francesco Marras as new boy bassist Huw Holding locked in tightly with drummer Craig Ellis.

Frontman Jacopo Meille had the crowd eating out of his hands and with a voice and the moves to bring a new energy to the classics “Love Don’t Say” and “Gangland”. The more recent “White Lines” bristled with melody and new song “A New Heartbeat” a welcome addition to the set.

A closing barrage of “Hellbound”, “Suzie Smiled” and the hook laden “Love Potion No.9” were the perfect end to a triumphant homecoming extravaganza.

Review and Photos By Mick Burgess

Author

Mick Burgess

Mick is a reviewer and photographer here at Metal Express Radio, based in the North-East of England. He first fell in love with music after hearing Jeff Wayne's spectacular The War of the Worlds in the cold winter of 1978. Then in the summer of '79 he discovered a copy of Kiss Alive II amongst his sister’s record collection, which literally blew him away! He then quickly found Van Halen I and Rainbow's Down To Earth, and he was well on the way to being rescued from Top 40 radio hell! Over the ensuing years, he's enjoyed the Classic Rock music of Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, and Deep Purple; the AOR of Journey and Foreigner; the Pomp of Styx and Kansas; the Progressive Metal of Dream Theater, Queensrÿche, and Symphony X; the Goth Metal of Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Epica, and a whole host of other great bands that are too numerous to mention. When he's not listening to music, he watches Sunderland lose more football (soccer) matches than they win, and occasionally, if he has to, he goes to work as a property lawyer.
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