Jag Panzer - Ample Destruction

Jag Panzer - Ample Destruction

\r\nWhen we talk about American power metal, we usually think of the great “Ample Destruction” of the titans Jag Panzer and in my opinion – as well as other’s too – very rightfully.
\r\nJag Panzer were formed in 1981 in Colorado Springs and their original line up was: Harry Conklin, Mark Briody, John Tetley and Rick Hilyard. Their first name was “Tyrant” but as soon as they found out that there was a band in California called “Tyran”, they changed their name to Jag Panzer, which is a simplification of “Jagdpanzer”, the name of the German world war II tank.
\r\nUnder their first line up they released their first EP in 1983, which was called “Jag Panzer” and many times is mentioned as “Tyrants EP”, through Mausoleum Records (basically it was self released) and a year later along with the addition of the great Joey Tafolla in guitars, they released “Ample Destruction” with Iron Works Records, which is still a point of reference for American power/heavy metal.
\r\n“Ample destruction” has many characteristics such as it’s raw classic speed/heavy/power metal, it’s great compositions, it’s amazing guitars and of course it’s hair-raising vocals by Harry “The Tyrant” Conklin, whose performance makes us wonder sometimes if the man is real, or just a fiction of our imagination.
\r\nThe LP quickly raised conversations about Jag Panzer in America’s underground metal audience, and very rightfully, since it includes tracks like “License to Kill” (which opens the LP in such a wonderful way), the unique “Crucifix” (which many progressive bands tried to cover it and failed miserably – and will keep on doing so), “Symphony Of Terror” (with it’s fantastic solos) and generally of all of the nine songs can not find their match in all others made by any other group, and not even Jag Panzer anymore.
\r\nUnfortunately, the LP was practically impossible to find for many years since it didn’t exist in a CD version. For that it is rumored that we can blame Tafolla who wouldn’t sign any copyright agreements for the re-release of the album. Of course there were enough bootleg versions of the album that can be found at the bottom of this page.
\r\nUnfortunately Jag panzer didn’t release anything else with this amazing composition since “Ample Destruction”, aside from a few demos, one of which is the almost mythical “Shadow Thief” with its same-named song being almost born through the fires of “Ample Destruction”. The band split up in the mid-80s, with Conklin moving to Satan’s Host for the album “Metal from Hell” and later creating our familiar Titan Force, while playing with the legendary Riot for a while, and Joey Tafolla starting his solo career.
\r\nAll of this happened until the mid-90s when Mark Briody and John Tetley reactivated Jag Panzer by releasing the peace of trash called “Dissident Alliance”. In 1997 the Tyrant took over the vocals again and they finally used many ideas from their latest demos of 1980 and the song “Shadow Thief” and came back with the great “The Fourth Judgment”, releasing one good album after another one until today, giving us pure heavy/power metal with “balls”.
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\r\nRe-releases of the album in CD:
\r\nBootlegs:
\r\nBootlegged in 1985 by Banzai Records on vinyl and cassette.
\r\nBootlegged in 1989 by Barricade Records on CD containing the bonus track "Black Sunday" (3:50) as track # 6.
\r\nOfficial Re-releases:
\r\nRe-released in 1990 by Metalcore on CD and vinyl containing 3 bonus tracks.
\r\nRe-released in 1991 by Metal Blade on CD and cassette containing 3 bonus tracks.
\r\nRe-released in 2001 by No Posers on CD containing the original EP as bonus tracks (very common version).
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\r\nLambros “Witchfynder” Tennes
\r\nTranslation: Iro Kapeloni
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