|
|
TZAR - PLAYERS OF THE GAME
RACER RECORDS
METAL TO INFINITY
A male monarch or emperor, especially of Russia prior to 1917, is the description that fits best for the name Tzar. But back in the early 80's, there was a Canadian band with that name and these guys released an album with the title ''Players Of The Game''. Let's start with a little introduction to get a bit familiar with this hardrock band. They were found by Pete, John and Frankie Tahan, all brothers, and together with drummer Guy Morin, (as known as 'the Animal'), they started a stir in the Quebec area.
Most of the songs were written by Pete Tahan, who's taking care of lead vocals and bass as well. Tzar had the looks like early Van Halen, Scorpions and Ratt and their musical direction is mainly focused on good rock songs with head and tail, provided with typical metal topics. Tracks like ''Heavy Metal Queen'', ''Born To Rock'', ''One Ticket To Hell'' and ''Missing You'' indicate exactly what you can expect. The production is rather flat, scraggy and scrawny, but back in those days, it was rather standard.
What lifts this product to a higher standard is the screaming guitar solos that are played by John, the ever so versatile and hot guitar player, who wrote all the lead material on the album....You definitely have to check it out, because nowadays it's rather unusual to hear screaming and shriek out guitar solos. The way he treat his 6 strings in ''Born To Rock'' and the track ''Much Too Late'' is just awesome ! While we are kicking on loud guitars, it would be a pity not to mention ''Missing You'' that starts immediately with a fragile and passionate riff, that introduces us to a ballad song.
''Players Of The Game'' contains 9 tracks, each one has it's own property and total playing time is around 34 minutes. Although the band broke up in the late 80's to pursue other endeavors and single careers in the music business, there are nowadays plans to restart all over... The Tahan brothers maintained their musical activities so a reunion is in the make. It's doubtful if drummer Guy Morin will be part of this reunion as well, as he started as a truck driver...My rating: 83/100
Patrick de Sloover on behalf of Metal To Infinity Webzine