Pact joined

-- Tyrant --

25/07/2022
Stijn Daneels

Album genres:
heavy metal
Album artists:
Philip Winters Vocals, guitar
Andrew Winters Drums
Salvador Mora Bass
Charles Barber Guitar

Review written by David Hardy.

Tyrant, as if it's a predestined name, was created by the brothers Philip and Andrew Winters, and has nothing to do with the French rock band Les Frères Tyran (a band I love and that I also invite you to discover). Here, Tyrant is a young group originating from Lansing, Michigan, USA. If you don’t know where that state is located, well, it's in the North-Eastern part of the United States! The Great lakes, the Detroit Pistons? Well, they also do metal and in the case of this Tyrant band they claim to be in the line of Megadeth, Iron Maiden and Sanctuary. Personally, I’d say they’ve got more in common with Testament. We stay in the register of Sanctuary but a little heavier especially on Tyrant’s previous album, the 2018 release “The Pact.” Here, we find with Tyrant’s newly released single "Poison the Well" a good metal tune inspired by the 1980s and brought up to date and indeed, Megadeth is not far removed either.

THE DISCOVERY

So I tell you a little bit about my problem with this band, and more precisely this single. I really enjoy the song in general, but as much as I like the clean-cut voice of singer Philip, I have the impression that he has some difficulty in following the fast tempo of the music and that his vocal deliveries are, therefore, a bit off the mark.

That being said, however, I do find this “Poison The Well” single really interesting in more than one way. First of all, it is lighter than the aforementioned “The Pact” album. Although that album was very nice, I found it a little bit too heavy, with some length and repetitive moments. This new track, on the other hand, shows that Tyrant has made a lot of progress on this point. It's more playful, faster, clearer, they’re clearly going in the right direction with this style. Secondly, on the level of Philip’s voice, same thing, even if for me it is not yet perfect, he has also made some beautiful progress in that regard. And finally, the evolution! What an evolution! If you’ve listened to Tyrant’s earlier singles like "Warriors of metal" and "Dancing the graves" and then this newly made "Poison the Well" single you'll see that they've come a long way which, in my opinion, in a few years will allow them to really impose their own style in a convincing way.

THE CONCLUSION

With this new single, I’m really looking forward to Tyrant’s upcoming EP. The band has worked hard to improve their craft and the first taste of the end result is found here in this new single. If you enjoy 1980s metal from the likes of Megadeth, Testament and Sanctuary then Tyrant offers you a pact worth joining.

THE SCORE

7/10