New Wave Of British Heavy Metal veterans TANK will release a deluxe edition of their landmark 1982 debut album "Filth Hounds Of Hades" on August 14 via Cleopatra Records, available on both CD and vinyl.
Originally released in early 1982, "Filth Hounds Of Hades" was described by Sounds magazine at the time as ushering in "a new, frighteningly brutal breed of breakneck rock," and the album has since come to be regarded as one of the finest debuts of the entire NWOBHM movement. It was produced by "Fast" Eddie Clarke of MOTÖRHEAD, whose involvement helped cement the album's raw, high-velocity sound.
The deluxe edition expands the original ten-track album with a substantial haul of archival material, including the band's first demo — also produced by Clarke — along with alternate versions and non-album single tracks. Also included is a John Peel radio session recorded in March 1982, alongside eight previously unreleased live tracks captured in Dortmund, Germany during the band's first European tour.
TANK was formed by bassist and vocalist Algy Ward, previously of THE SAINTS and THE DAMNED, alongside brothers Mark and Peter Brabbs. The band's uncompromising approach and Clarke's production made "Filth Hounds Of Hades" an underground touchstone that influenced the thrash and speed metal scenes that followed later in the decade.
The reissue arrives with additional poignancy given the losses the band has suffered in recent years. Ward passed away in May 2023 at age 63, while drummer Peter Brabbs died on July 5, 2025 at age 68, leaving the deluxe edition as a fitting archival tribute to two of the album's founding members.
More than four decades after its original release, "Filth Hounds Of Hades" remains a foundational document of British heavy metal's earliest, most confrontational era, and the expanded reissue offers longtime fans and newcomers alike a fuller picture of the band's ferocious early years, including a previously unheard live document of the sound that helped shape a generation of extreme metal to come.