Jag Panzer is a band that a lot of people seem to adore and love. I, for one, don’t really get this. Granted, Mechanized Warfare was a solid album, The Fourth Judgment just seemed confused and tired. Thane to the Throne was another decent affair and after that I have had no more exposure to this band until now with Decade of the Nail Spiked Bat, re-recorded songs from the bands past. At first glance I thought that this would be some huge two hour plus long collection but it doesn’t even clock in at ninety minutes, they could have axed one of the weaker cuts and fit everything on one disc. That little nitpick aside the packaging is nice with a good read in the track by track commentary. No lyrics however, probably cos Joey Tafolla didn’t want them in, hell that’s the reason why these songs are re-recorded in the first place. I’m sure by now you know the story behind this album so there’s no need to repeat it here. Most of the songs on this album are very simplistic but still retain a sense of power without being dated, a good deal of that owes to the sharp production. The general sound is a driving, “keep it simple” riffage, with Harry Conklin’s soaring voice on top. Guitar solos are definitely old school and the highlight of the album especially on She Waits, the best song on here in general. There aren’t too many fast numbers on this collection either and despite the fact that I like mid tempo numbers a whole album of them doesn’t do much for me. Even songs that would have made me go, “Woa, cool,” are greeted less than warmly after hearing the same tempo before for about forty minutes like Black Sunday, cool song but the slowness of the album makes this less enjoyable than if it was placed in the fourth spot on an album full of speedsters.

As a newbie to Jag Panzer my unfamiliarity with the material on here could be a detriment if you’re a long time fan screaming at your computer screen that I don’t know shit, or if you are like me and haven’t really paid much attention to these guys then my opinion might have more weight than a raving fanboy. The great: Reign of the Tyrants with it’s headbanging riff and killer harmonized guitar solo, The Church and it’s vicious slithery guitar vibe and Harry’s lamenting voice, Forsaken again brought to the top by Harry’s singing, and Licensed to Kill which finally sees some speed being brought to the table. The weak: Death Row, The Crucifix, and Blindness. These songs don’t do anything for me other than cause me to get up and hit skip on my cd player because of their slow, plodding, boringness. As for the rest of the songs on Decade of the Nail Spiked Bat they are all just “good”. I didn’t really find anything that really amazed me here, just several old school traditional sounding bunch of songs that took my mind off the new Theocracy cd for awhile. If you are a diehard fan of Jag Panzer then you will probably like this album a lot more than I did but if you are new to the band then give this a spin before you buy it. With the addition of faster tempos and more dynamic changes Decade of the Nail Spiked Bat could have been great but instead it’s just fair.