Various Artists - The Big Teutonic Four

Later this year Destruction, Kreator, Sodom and Tankard will be sharing a stage for the very first time at the Beastival Festival. To celebrate, each band has recorded a special cover version which has now been made available on a 10” mini-album which is available from the Nuclear Blast website. So, what have we got? I know that they are being touted as the Big Teutonic Four, but I know much more about Kreator and Sodom than the others and these are the guys that feature on the ‘A’ side. Kreator manage to take Maiden’s “Number of the Beast” to a rougher and more raw level, and is easily the pick of the four songs here. It is brutal, simple, staying close to the original but somehow providing a new interpretation. Sodom do a good version of “Ace of Spades”, but it is way too close to the original and the snare drum is way too high in the mix so to me that is a wasted opportunity. Destruction also play the ‘Head card, this time with “Hammered” and again they manage to put their own flavour to the song. We finish with Tankard, a band that somehow I have missed totally – probably due to the album titles and artwork. I always felt, probably wrongly, that the guys took it all as a pisstake so couldn’t be bothered. But, this NWOBHM/Thrash version of “The Prisoner” is one I enjoyed immensely so I am going to have to eat my words and find out some more. The only real issue with this mini-album is that it is way too short. More next time!