"Our goal is to be the biggest heavy metal band in the world. We want to be the new Iron Maiden, the new Judas Priest, the new Metallica… I mean, why not?" says Tailgunner’s bassist Tom Gewson (aka Bones).
Coming from a British band that are scarcely known outside of a small but rapidly growing group of fans, that’s some bold declaration. However, when that group has an album produced KK Downing, guitarist with Judas Priest from 1970 to 2011, then you do well to listen.
"A band like Tailgunner should have emerged from the UK years ago," Downing states. "Loud and proud, and totally descended from Maiden, Priest, Motörhead, Def Leppard – the list is endless – they personify everything that is heavy metal, only with a youthful freshness and uniqueness."
Article continues belowArriving for Classic Rock’s chat wearing a T-shirt declaring: ‘Nu-Metal Sucks’, Bones is a confident, thoughtful and supremely motivated band leader. Named after the anthem from Iron Maiden’s album No Prayer For The Dying, Tailgunner were born officially on New Year’s Day 2022, although Bones had been developing the concept for some time.
"This is a band I’ve had in my head since I was a kid, the kind of band all of us [in Tailgunner] hoped would come along – and never did," he explains.
"As heavy metal became more and more extreme, traditional metal just got left on the shelf," says Rhea Thompson, the shred guitarist whose arrival in 2023 completed Tailgunner’s current line-up. "It’s such a shame, as ours is the country that invented it all."
Years of intimate gigs, occasional support slots and the 2023 release of their debut album, Guns For Hire, put the band on the map, but it was the opportunity to open for KK’s Priest and former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno that same year that changed their lives.
New album Midnight Blitz, the first of three albums that Tailgunner are contracted to make for Napalm Records, is clean and powerful, placing the guitars of Thompson and Zach Salvini front and centre (as you’d expect), while enhancing the inherent melody of tracks such as Dead Until Dark and War In Heaven. "Although we’re about playing fast and loud, what matters most is the songs," Bones insists.
Nevertheless, Tailgunner stand for leather, studs and bullet belts. The biography for Midnight Blitz describes it as “classic heavy metal without being pastiche".
"A lot of bands are obsessed with the mid-eighties, but we don’t purely worship at that altar," Bones says. "We want to stand on that altar and be heroes for a whole new generation.”
Midnight Blitz is out now via Napalm Records.
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