Launching in January 2022, they played 2 UK headline tours in the first 6 months, with multiple sold out dates before signing to Fireflash Records in October, subsidiary of Atomic Fire (Helloween, Opeth, Meshuggah) working alongside label head Markus Wosgien, CEO of Atomic Fire & formerly of Nuclear Blast, handling PR as he did for bands such as Sabaton, Nightwish, Blind Guardian, HammerFall, Accept, Manowar & many more.

TAILGUNNER released their debut EP ‘Crashdive’ in December, being sold via mail orders, EMP, Nuclear Blast, Omerch, Vision Merch & the Atomic Fire webstore, with interviews secured in Fistful of Metal (UK) Deaf Forever (GER) as well as other key magazines. 

July 14th will see the worldwide release of their debut album ‘Guns For Hire’ distributed by Warner Music & ADA, and licensed to Japan (Ward Records) and South America (Shinigami) with press already secured in the following: Germany – Metal Hammer, Rock Hard, Deaf Forever, Rocks, Classic Rock, Breakout, Hardline, Piranha/Start & Legacy. UK – Metal Hammer, Fistful of Metal, Fireworks, Zero Tolerance & Powerplay. ROW – Rock Hard (F & IT) Sweden Rocks, Scream (NO) Inferno (FIN) Metalized (DK) La Heavy (ES) Metal Hammer (PL) Spark (CZ) & Decibel (USA) 

The band were personally selected by KK Downing to open the upcoming first KK’s Priest show on July 6th & are currently scheduled to appear at Keep it True Rising (GER) Call of the Wild Festival (UK) & headline Wildfire Festival (UK) in 2023 before embarking on a UK headline tour in October 2023. 

Fireflash Records/ Tailgunner

Review

Shadows Of War comes in with a warm and fuzzy melodic intro that sounds big and powerful. The song is a simple yet driving heavy metal banger that feels like a crushing force. A great start to the album!

You can see why the next track Guns For Hire was chosen as a single! Its fast and furious with pummelling drum patterns, tons of energy and choruses that are super catchy with rich and uplifting vocal ideas. You will be unable to help your self from joining in. The track is full of speeding guitar licks and little flaming solos that melt away the skin from fingers! What an epic track

White Death opens its ferocious jaws thirsty for blood! Its ripping intro comes at you like a huge uncontrollable missile about to explode. Like Guns For Hire this is a high speed, high adrenaline track that doesn’t slow down for any one. Considering that Tailgunner have been around for a short period of time, it is clear that they know how to write songs that have plenty to keep the listener interested and White Death is a great example of this. It sounds like they have been doing this for years. Another killer song!

Revolution Scream is that one song that you have got to have on a setlist. A mid-paced hard hitter that combines passion and heart felt emotion with plenty of opportunities to stomp your feet, join in what ever way you feel is right and let go. It is a song that feels lighter than the first three, but gives the album balance.

Sammy tumbles in on drums for Futures Lost before things kick off. Full on with attitude and a slightly darker, sinister vibe is present through out the song. Again like the other songs on the album the bands guitar an bass players are like a powerhouse. Futures Lost takes the music in a slight different direction, away from the uplifting feel of previous tracks and to put it simply is a beast of a song!

New Horizons charges forward leaving a path of destruction with everything behind it burning and bellowing smoke. Tailgunner continue to make you sweat bringing more speed, more intensity and plenty of classic of heavy metal moments that will make throw the horns and band your head violently. Get this on your speakers and go nuts!

Be careful as the Warhead might just go off! This song brings more melodic madness with its squealing guitar leads and grinding rhythm guitars. Craig continues to bring the heat and dynamics with his explosive vocals that really are a focus point at times. Another solid and powerful song for Tailgunner.

Crashdive has a similar vibe to Revolution Scream with the passionate and sailing vocal passages but feels different in other ways. It has riffs that feel borderline thrash at moments (like the opening riff sequence) and a solo that is singing out loud. This song has a lot of ideas going on and is constantly changing between sections. At moments I am not sure if that was a good or bad thing but the band returns to the main thrashy riff which helps to round out the song.

Blood For Blood is in my opinion one of the strong tracks on the album. It has a massive harmonised intro that I can imagine shaking the floor at a show. Its uptempo and brings back that feel good vibe that songs like Guns For Hire delivers. I love the chorus especially because its bold and supercharged and feels like something I would expect to hear on an Enforcer album! Good job lads.

Finishing off the album is the 8 minute plus adventure by the name of Rebirth. The intro itself builds and builds, introducing more and more ideas that only make you think that the song is going to explode into something fast and raging with fury. Unexpectedly I was welcomed by a mid tempo section that bounced around smothered in a big heavy metal gloss. It follows similar ideas that the band explored in previous songs and I really can not complain! Once again the mood changes and your dropped into a soft acoustic section, before you feel the crunch of heavy guitars slowly chomping away.

Then out of nowhere, the music takes of to the skies, with rhythm guitars that feel like they are tearing through the atmosphere at the speed of light. Combined with velvety vocal layers at moments this proves to be a great addition. The song continues with more heroic guitar leads, storming rhythm and bass and ripping vocals. A great song once again but maybe a unnecessarily little too long.

Conclusion

You may have read all the great things that have been said about Tailgunner on social media and I totally agree. They are one of the freshest nwothm bands to come out in quite a while. As soon they came on to the scene they quickly took the world by storm and presented themselves in such a professional way. I have seen snippets of their live shows and now listening to their first album in full I can see why they gained popularity so quickly.

For their debut album, it really is a solid effort and is full of killer tracks. Like any first outing it has a few slight wavering moments but these are outweighed by songs like Guns For Hire and White Death. These guys are a band you need to listen to if you have not already! If the first album is anything to go by then they have a really strong and bright future that is full of potential.

THENWOTHM SCORE. 8.5/10

Pre-sale: May 19th.2023

Release Date: July 17th.2023