Band:	Jag Panzer
Album:	Decade Of The Nail Spiked Bat
Style:	US power metal
Release date:	October 07, 2003
A review by:	Malcolm

Disc I
01. Reign Of The Tyrants
02. Eyes Of The Night
03. The Church
04. Metal Melts The Ice
05. Forsaken
06. Fallen Angel
07. Battle Zones
08. Warfare
09. Tower Of Darkness
10. Licensed To Kill

Disc II
01. Generally Hostile
02. The Watching
03. She Waits
04. Edge Of Blindness
05. Spirit Suicide
06. Iron Shadows
07. Black Sunday
08. Symphony Of Terror
09. Death Row
10. The Crucifix

I guess the most of you metal fans out there, in one way or another, have heard or heard of this American Heavy Metal band, so I shall not going to talk about them, actually, I shall not going to talk much at all, 'cause this isn't a new album from Jag Panzer, or well, it's new, but not a new studio album, it's a new recorded double album, with a lot of old songs, from the beginning of their career, a gift to the fans, in other words.

Personally I'm not a big fan of Jag Panzer, but I find the year 2000 release, "Thane to the Throne" quite good, but to be honest, I haven't heard so much more with them, so this release isn't made for me, if I can say so.
But I find it quite enjoyable anyway, after some spins, I wasn't so positive after the first spins but it have grown.
And as I said, it's new recordings and I don't have a clue how much it's sounds like the original versions, but I guess it's a quite big different, both in production and in the way they are handle their instruments, I mean, some is old bootlegs songs and so on.
Even the cover art have it's own history, but more of that later in the review.

As I said earlier, all songs are from the early years of Jag Panzer; almost the whole "Ample Destruction" from 1984 is included, and the whole "Tyrants" EP as well, together with some demo songs and some "remakes", like the song "Forsaken", it's a kind of remake of the old Panzer song, "Forsaken Child". That Panzer have changed and recorded again.
One of the "Tyrant's" songs, "Metal Melts the Ice" is a really great song, not the most advance song ever, but it's very easy to like, a song that is one of the favorites when all the other needs more time to grow.
"The Church" got a really a nice choir chorus, that almost reminds me of their compatriots Iced Earth (The early years).
The Epic Maiden side inspires "Iron Shadows", so I guess that you now know that the album varies a lot.
In the booklet you can read a little about every song on the album, Mark (Briody) gives his comments, and you'll get to know the background and stuff of the song, that is a plus.
But unfortunately there are no lyrics, quite sad, but you and I will have to live with that.
There can you read about "Metal Melts the Ice" that it wasn't a song from the start, just some riffs that Mark used to warm up, then one day Keith Austin (Artist of the first covers) said that he liked the new song they was working on, and on that way it became a song.
There is a lot of different ways to write songs, don't you agree?

Very well, let's get back to the cover part again, as I mention earlier, it had it's own history as well. It was painted back in 1985 by Kevin Austin, the man that did the first two covers ("Untitled EP" & "Ample Destruction") and was made to be the cover of the successor to "Ample Destruction, but was destroyed by mistake in an accident, but luckily Mark had a high quality photo of it, and here it is now, and cover this release instead.

Well, I think it's time to close the review now, but first I have to say that this is really an album for all Jag Panzer fans out there, I know that some of you have waited for some of the songs here, and now you got them.
I guess this isn't the best album to start with if you want to get into Jag Panzer, I would recommend some of their studio albums first, I know I will check them up a bit closer.
But it's a fine gift to the real Panzer fans.


Killing Songs: Well, this is quite hard for me, that haven't heard the originals or heard much of Panzer at all, but songs like "Metal Melts the Ice", "The Church", "The Watching", "She Waits" & "Iron Shadows" is great songs, as the rest of the album.