Tailgunner – Midnight Blitz album review

ARTIST – TAILGUNNER

ALBUM – MIDNIGHT BLITZ

REVIEWER – GRAEME WRIGHT

I reviewed the debut Tailgunner album ‘Guns For Hire’ back in 2023, and I was hugely positive about it. Old-school metal but with a modern “joie de vivre” and high-quality production, it ultimately ended up as one of my albums of the year. The band’s rise was meteoric, quickly gaining support slots with the likes of K.K.’s Priest, U.D.O. and Armoured Saint. You get the impression that the sky’s the limit for this band and that ‘Midnight Blitz’ is a very important record with regard to their progression. Well, worry no more, because this album is an absolute banger. It’s even better than their debut, and it features ten tracks of pure heavy metal with absolutely no drop in quality from the opening air raid siren to the closing notes of the album’s best song, ‘Eulogy’, which for me is the finest tune the band has ever recorded.

It goes without saying that Iron Maiden are the biggest influence on Tailgunner, and the title track, based on real events with the aforementioned air siren opening and screaming twin guitars, huge riffs and a massive chorus, simply backs up that statement to the hilt. It’s a great start, and the quality continues with the Roy Batty Blade Runner-inspired ‘Tears In Rain’, with its thunderous bass line and genuinely emotional lyrics, which are a perfect bookend to one of my favourite films. ‘Follow Me In Death’ hits you with its duelling guitars, both lead and bass, and fairly flies out of the traps, while ‘Dead Until Dark’ is a touch slower and doomier at the start before we are hit with those thunderous drums and another chorus to die for – genuinely great stuff.

‘Barren Lands And Seas Of Red’ sees us hitting the halfway mark with no drop in quality. Heavy and fast-paced with another huge guitar battle, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and this is another exceptional tune. Given the right breaks, this band could be huge, and they look ready to collect that baton from Iron Maiden, as everything about the band screams confidence, talent, self-belief and, above all, songs to die for. ‘War In Heaven’ hits us with epic lyrics, a touch of synth and a huge bass line, and this is quickly followed by ‘Blood Sacrifice’, which is a chugger of the highest order and a song I suspect will be a live staple going forward.

‘Night Raids’ sees vocalist Craig Cairns going through the gears and really showing off his phenomenal range, while ‘Eye Of The Storm’ is a bit of a curveball with the singer suddenly sounding like Geddy Lee if he’d decided to stay metal in the seventies. As mentioned before, the final track, ‘Eulogy’, is just phenomenal. It’s a modern-day classic and is over six minutes of absolute gold dust. You can tell that Tailgunner wants this so badly, and they’ve produced a record that will be one of my albums of the year, no question, and it’s a feat they should be proud of. Regardless of which side of the metal spectrum you dress towards, I am confident you will love this. Get on their live shows while you can, because it feels like they will be playing arenas rather than academies sooner rather than later. It doesn’t get any better than this.

SONGS

1. Midnight Blitz
2. Tears In Rain
3. Follow Me In Death
4. Dead Until Dark
5. Barren Lands And Seas Of Red
6. War In Heaven
7. Blood Sacrifice
8. Night Raids
9. Eye Of The Storm
10. Eulogy

BAND

Craig Cairns – Vocals

Tom Hewson – Bass

Zach Salvini – Guitar

Rhea Thompson – Guitar

Eddie Mariotti – Drums