Album: The Tankard by Tankard (1995)

A distinctive album by Tankard where the majority of the songs have to deal with sociopolitical and especially environmental issues.

Grave New World

Melt to the beat of the drum
Melt to be one, to be one

What thou were, what thou be
Creature of the hatchery
Not a man reeling free
Bear this mark of destiny

Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta
Is the song that society sings
Soma coma, fucking by numbers
And consume as much as you can

Free from love, free from hate
Sterile and stable
Urge and instinct channeling
Feeling disabled

Pour the genes into the mould
Of what is needed
Engineer conformity
The pool is weeded

No more devils, no more heaven
Grave new world
Free and killing or bound and willing
Slave or savage

Dear the calm weighed in souls
But the matter goes untold
What was one man's alone
Multiplies in wretched clones

Endless columns,
mother of sameness
Breeding life in a clinical way
Fear of flowers, learning and playing
For the ones
that are meant to be slaves

Factoried, standardized
Humans conditioned
Play the part
that they're ascribed
No free decision

No More doubt, no more quest
Nothing but answers
Whispered twenty million times
Til all believe them

We are clay in the hands
Of those who make us
In a vision not our own
Blindfolded robots

God is dead, man is god
Above his fellow
Nothing here's an accident
But you will not know


A song inspired from the novel “Brave New World” but the title turned to what such a sterile of true life world is: A grave new world, where people were transformed to working robot-like humanoids, in technical everlasting happiness (soma –happiness pill for any inner mental disturbance), without needs, emotions, intellectual pursuits, questions about society, etc.


Mess In The West

Out in the west, where the coyotes rest
Lives Ed on a dusty little ranch
400 miles from anything that smiles
Just snakes, tumbleweed,
and countro tapes

Barrels in an old mine,
waiting for the right time
Seepage into waterways and wells
"Cactus got a red head
and my chicken all dead,
I got green spots itchin' me like hell"

High life in the desert wasteland
There's a big mess in the west
Dioxin or heavy metal
It's a big mess in the west
Dump now you'll be payin' later
For the big mess in the west

"FUCK Inc., preaches ecology"
Boss smiles, holding up recycled cup
But in the night, when evil's out of site
His waste goes on west and disappears

Meanwhile in the distance,
Ed is kinda' pissed and
All his cows are growing funny horns
Ed is losing his hair,
and he's full of despair
"Christ Almighty, everything is wrong!"

Out in the west, where the coyotes rest
Lived Ed on a dusty little ranch
400 miles from anything that smiles
Just snakes, tumbleweed,
and country tapes

Ed was taken east
and noone ever missed him
Had no kids, no relatives, no wife
Then he was dissected,
data were corrected
But they won't be published on hour life


A great song that speak bluntly about how heavy polluting corporations throw their toxic waste in desert places (old mines, rivers, water sources, etc) where noone sees them, and in order to keep an environmental friendly image they use mass media for showing fake hypocritical spots or leaflets either for recycling, or for donations to environmental organizations. But years later, toxicity hits cattles, or even people because pollution has entered in the food chain and life cycles.



Atomic Twilight

Today it is quiet and peaceful
Year 2045, life in the domes is easy
Hermetically sealed,
keeping mankind alive

The outer regions are poisoned
The radiation's high
Ashes and dust are falling
Deadly heat, the planet is dry

Hellish days, toxic and infectious times
Atomic twilight outside
Nuclear gods, you brought us here
Dragging our would into fear
Hellish days, atomic twilight outside

It started just by testing
Some new technologies
Providing peace and balance
Back in those years
it did sound good to me

Now with the memories fading
I can't remember too well
But jealousy in our hearts
Wiped out reason, security failed

I went out again this evening
To watch the violet night
But my blind eyes don't see anything
Time is up, I feel the cancer inside

A futuristic vision of mankind living in domes underground in order to be protected by nuclear radiation that spread through the lands either by war of by peaceful use of nuclear energy. A blind survivor having cancer, recalls back and thinks how stupid they were, when they believe that nuclear energy would bring peace and security, so they gave their consent to develop extensively such a technology.




Fuck Christmas

Christmas time is here again
Time to give your cash to them
At the cross is where we'll meet
Leaving presents at his feet
Buy your gifts in harmony
Feed the Christmas industry

Fuck Christmas! All the time
Now I've got my yuletide pride!
Fuck Christmas! All the time
I've got Jesus on my side!
Fuck Christmas! Fuck Christmas!
Fuck Christmas! All the time!

Jesus came and Jesus went
Look at all the cash we spent
Mother Mary you will see
Never bought a Christmas tree
Christmas is for me and me
I give only to receive

Christmas time is here again ...

He was fuckin' born in August anyway ...

An anti-consuming song that focuses in the number-one celebration of consumerism, that of Christmas. Billions of money that could be used for social issues are thrown in vain these days only to feed Christmas industry and some of our false needs.

You can hear some songs in youtube
A song from this album that critisizes people's apathy:
Minds on the moon

and some more:
The beauty and the beast
The morning after