Friday, December 29, 2006

TNT-Knights of the new thunder, 1984

Probably one of those many bands that only I seem to like, but I certainly enjoy them. In the summer of 1985 I was listening to a local radio show called Midnight Metal and they played an hour of all metal songs. One of the songs was Deadly Metal by the TNT. I liked it a lot and had to find the album it came from. This album like all of their early albums has a mix of styles on it. Although I would say that this may be the heaviest album they did. This was the band's second release and the first to feature American vocalist Tony Harnell (actually credited as Tony Hansen on this album). The rest of the band is from Norway. From the opener "Seven Seas" we can right away hear the vocal of Mr. Harnell. However I am even more impressed with the playing of guitarist Ronnie LeTekro. I feel that he is one of the most underrated players I know of. It's not just the solos either because he has his own style when he plays his rhythms too. His style is a little subtle, but very effective. As for the overall sound, I said it's mixed because we get some solid metal songs like "Deadly Metal" and "USA", we get more melodic songs like Ready to leave and Without your love and we get songs like "Last Summer's evil" and "Knights of the thunder" that may be somewhere between those two above categories. I had this on vinyl for years and just got it on cd like a year or so ago. Now I knew that the cd had a bonus track, but it always throws me off when they stick a bonus track in the middle rather than at the end. I was so used to the album going a certain way and now all of a sudden there is this different song in the middle. However, the bonus track "Tor with the hammer" is probably one of my favorites on the cd. Now I do have to add that the lyrcics are bad, okay they are very bad. Songs about of metal being a cause and sappy love songs. Still the music and vocals are good enough to make up for that. Still a CD I reach for fairly often.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm drawing a total blank on them...even after googling them! For some reason I have it stuck in my mind that TNT was the metal band from Japan...clearly, I'm not even close!

2:51 PM  
Blogger Metal Mark said...

They have some of their videos on YouTube off of the Sleaze Roxx site here. You will the list of videos on the right and just scroll down.
http://www.sleazeroxx.com/audio.shtml

The video for 1,000 lovers in one was on Headbanger's ball fairly often back in the summer of 1987. They were on a major label from like 84-92, but never got much of a push here. I guess staying in Norway may have effected their chances of success. They are still around although they recently changed singers.

3:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My goodness. I love TNT! Tony Harnell's voice is wonderful. Have you ever heard his solo album Transistor? Not TNT but I love it.

Their self titled album is one of my faves and Intuition still gets me going!!!!

6:50 PM  
Blogger Metal Mark said...

Janet-I am glad that I am not alone. Normally when I mention them people either wrinkle their noses or they say "who?". Intuition is a very good album too. Someone in the band was definitely into Queen by that time as you can hear the influence on afew songs. Sadly Tony Harnell is out of the band as of earlier this year. Former Shy vocalist Tony Mills has replaced him and I believe they are working on new material.

8:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I still like TNT but it's just not the same band without Tony Harnell. Check out the band Westworld if you like Harnell's work. It was a collaboration with Mark Reale (Riot) and Bruno Ravel (Danger Danger). Excellent stuff.

7:15 AM  
Blogger Ray Van Horn, Jr. said...

I think you sometimes forget we liked a lot of the same stuff...this was a great album that I wish I had back...they had a quick shot at fame with Tell No Tales, but got disregarded as another hair band with a blazing guitarist...weren't they from Sweden? If the Swedish metal fans only knew...

3:30 PM  
Blogger The Mule said...

I remember this band from the back page of Kerrang! way back when. They had a cool stage setup, laid out like a Viking longship across the stage.

10:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have two LP's with TNT, and I have the Knights Of The New Thunder album. There is a bonustrack on the cd, but it is not Tor With The Hammer. That song is the fist song on side 2 on the LP from 1984. The bonustrack is called Eddie.

Admiral Andersen
From Denmark
Home of the vikings
We still believe in Thor

8:17 AM  

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