Tiger Army – The Early Years

Now this is not exactly a new album by Tiger Army, but a compilation of 6 of the very first songs the band ever recorded. The recordings were spread around 1996 and 1997, whenever the band had enough money to pay for recording time. Now if you own this, and the two full length by the band, you have the entire “Box Set” of Tiger Army.

The first three songs were originally on the bands debut release, the “Temptation EP”. They have put the songs on here because that EP is out of print, and only available for incredibly high prices on places like Ebay. The first song is Temptation, and it is a great way to open the EP. It is energetic and gets you hyped up right away. It has simple and catchy lyrics which you learn the first time you hear it. Jungle Cat is the second song, and also my second favorite on the EP. It is another fast paced song with catchy lyrics, all about being a tiger. Its just a great song. The last of the three re-released songs is Twenty Flight Rock. This songs reminds me of the movie Grease when I hear it. It is a poppy swing like song. I think it is a ok, song but they could have done better in my opinion.

The cover of The Misfits‘ song American Nightmare comes fourth. This one was being saved for a seven inch set to be released before the first album, but it never went through. Tiger Army definitely does great justice to the song. The fifth song is my favorite on the album, it is called F.T.W. (fuck the world). This version is the first of 3 recorded ones. The second version was released on the Punk Fictioncompilation. In the words of Nick 13 “it was done under pressure and never sounded as good”. The third  version was released on 2: Power Of Moonlight. I love this song, it sometimes reminds me of Bad Religion‘s song, Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell, not so much because of the beat, but mostly just the lyrics.

The final song is Nocturnal, which was also intended for the never released 7″. It is yet another fast paced song which I adore. And it is a perfect way to end the EP on. Overall, I can only see a couple things wrong with this EP. They are that it is really short. Only around 12 minutes! And then, they only have the lyrics for the first two songs.