Band:	Tygers Of Pan Tang
Album:	Spellbound
Style:	New wave of British heavy metal
Release date:	1981

01. Gangland
02. Take It
03. Minotaur
04. Hellbound
05. Mirror
06. Silver And Gold
07. Tyger Bay
08. The Story So Far
09. Blackjack
10. Don't Stop By
11. All Or Nothing ['97 re-release bonus]
12. Don't Give A Damn ['97 re-release bonus]
13. Bad Times ['97 re-release bonus]
14. It Ain't Easy ['97 re-release bonus]
15. Don't Take Nothing ['97 re-release bonus]

NWOBHM has to be one of the strangest musical movements to ever happen - it holds some of the world's most famous acts as well as some of the most overlooked bands in metal. Tygers Of Pan Tang would fall under the latter category, and with an album like this it almost seems like a crime against humanity that they seemed to fly under the radar of massive commercial appeal.

This is the Tygers follow-up to their decent (albeit fairly bland) debut "Wild Cat". Replacing original singer Jess Cox with Jon Deverille gave the band a great edge, with more intense, wider-ranged vocals. "Spellbound" kicks off with arguably the greatest Tygers song - 'Gangland', a speedy proto-thrash track with an immaculately placed solo which can only be described as a "face-melter". The album is absolutely crammed packed with songs of similar structure and of almost equal greatness. Save for 2 ballads, one pop-ish song, and the utterly pointless instrumental 'Minotaur', the album is damn near perfect - outrageous vocals, speedy riffs and "face-melters" galore. The ballads are not entirely bad in themselves, but after using all your energy to keep yourself from breaking out your air guitar to some pure metal tracks like 'Hellbound' and 'Tyger Bay', getting hit with a ballad is a big downer.

The production itself is nothing incredibly unique or groundbreaking, typical early 80's metal production, very comparable to Iron Maidens self-titled (though with less prominent bass). Despite the album not being anything too terribly trailblazing, almost everything seemed to be perfectly placed, well written, and executed quite nicely. If Tygers Of Pan Tang kept this level of quality up for a few more albums they probably could have paralleled with bands like Saxon or even Judas Priest fame wise, unfortunately the albums to follow are easily to blame for their fall into obscurity, but that's a story for another day.