“Ride out in midnight”
Tyrant were like lightning: they only struck once. Like so many other New Wave Of British Heavy Metal hopefuls, the Gloucestershire band only released a solitary 7″ single in 1983 before riding off into obscurity. It’s a shame the band never did more because the A-Side track Hold Back The Lightning is totally righteous: galloping power metal with anthemic, folky vocals that are a larynx-shredding mix of High ‘N’ Dry Joe Elliott and Trouble’s Eric Wagner. This was the first song I listened to in 2023 because I wanted to start my year off in suitably heroic and chest-beating fashion. Mission accomplished.
HEAVY METAL OVERLOAD 
I like your song choice, but I often wonder how songs like this didn’t get completely lost in history. They remind me of the Canadian band Sword.
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I guess just that people have a fascination for the era and want to hear everything. It is a brilliant song though.
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I just got the Micheal Hann book Denim and Leather which goes into great detail about the NWOBH from 1979-83. Looks like a great read which I will get to when I get through the Cheap Trick book and Ron Young bio….
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I got the Hann book last year, it’s a fun read. Lots of great anecdotes. I don’t think Tyrant are in it though so it’s not detailed enough!
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Amazon over here just got the book as I read a review on it last year and it finally appeared so I clicked. Lots of cool stuff packed inside it by the the look of it
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It’s got a different publisher in the UK so it came out a lot earlier here than US/Canada. I think I got it in summer?
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They don’t do song titles like that anymore.
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Not bad, but somehow pretty generic.
I’m almost through reading Bruce Dickinson’s autobiography: recommended. He notes that NWOBHM wasn’t really a thing, but mainly a music-press term thought up to sell more copy. Agree? (His point was that that style of music had been around long before the term was coined,.)
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Generic in style yes, but the talent and character is special here. This does stand out as a very excellent single amongst other NWOBHM unsigned acts.
As far as Dickinson… kind of agree and disagree. It was definitely driven (and named) by music press but it caught on as there was an exciting thing happening. Yes, the music (and a lot of the bands) had been around but that’s why it was a “new wave”. The DIY ethos and street level thing was certainly fresh and there was a lot of influential new ideas came out of the movement. Maybe the press made us notice bands that might have normally went ignored but the ability to press up indie singles etc… was new and probably contributed to that too. What do you think?
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Hi Philip, just rescued a batch of your comments from the spam dungeon. Sorry for not noticing sooner!
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Thanks. I don’t know why that happens. It happens from time to time on a few blogs, and always on others. Sometimes a second attempt goes through, but usually not. Can you somehow put me on a white list?
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I don’t see any options for that. I’ll look into it but in the meantime I’ll just keep checking and make sure your comments get approved. Hopefully the spam filter will learn and stop getting in the way.
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That song does feel like it is galloping. Just need a dark knight riding in on a horse with sword raised high and the image would be complete.
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The original single didn’t even have a picture sleeve! A missed opportunity surely.
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If they would’ve had that picture, they could’ve been huge!!
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They nailed that stately galloping rhythm thing! You can hear the damage the dude’s doing to his throat on it, poor sod probably still can’t even sing happy birthday to his grandkids now.
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I heard a rumour he uses backing tapes for that.
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