Vol.(L)Ume 14

You can go ahead and count them: that's exactly 14 long-necks poking out of the celebratory case of beer adorning Tankard's 14th studio album, Vol(L)ume 14…burp! Excuse me. As fans familiar with the self-described "Kings of Beer" know all too well, this band has always known how to have fun, and Vol(L)ume 14 certainly keeps the laughs coming, whether parodying diet plans ("Fat Snackers [The Hippo Effect]"), getting thrown off airplanes for public intoxication ("Somewhere in Nowhere"), lampooning the die-hard metal fan experience ("Brain Piercing öf Death"), or even inventing speed metal dating ("Beck's in the City") — now there's a concept! Heck, even when Tankard contemplate the thought-provoking notion of traveling back in time (see "Time Warp"), their chosen protagonist doesn't bother with attempting to murder Hitler, foiling the 9/11 terrorist attack, or averting some such other disaster; he just wants to win back his girlfriend, even if it means shooting his numbskull self before he drives her away in the first place. God bless their shaggy heads. By the time Tankard reveal some genuine concern for the environment ("Black Plague [BP]"), take Wall Street to task ("The Agency"), or rebuke sensationalistic news agencies ("Condemnation"), most listeners will probably be too tipsy to take notice — so bartender, this round's on us! At the end of the day, though, the band's lyrics are so entertaining, in one way or another, that they helpfully obscure Tankard's still rather modest songwriting imagination, along with their indistinct, middle-of-the-road aggressive thrash sound. So who cares if Tankard never got the same amount of respect as other members of the 1980s' Teutonic thrash family tree — they definitely enjoyed the most laughs along the way.