Well, those were the days. No one ever thought of Nu Metal or Metal Core back then in the early 80s when an invasion of countless and thunderous British Heavy Metal bands started to dominate the world. Now more than two decades later I have to thank Sanctuary Records for their awesome NWOBHM Classic re-releases. JAGUAR, FIST, BLITZKRIEG, HELLANBACH and many more jewels were brought back to the surface. All of those anthologies (not to forget the massive Neat Single Series box sets) are terrific and tremendous monuments of an outstanding Metal epoch. Most of those old recordings still sound very fresh and in my humble opinion those old British bands really captured the true essence of what Heavy Metal is all about. To be honest since those days only very few bands within the traditional Metal genre really convinced me. Those NWOBHM bands definitely had something really special and I still prefer the sound and the atmosphere of those old recordings compared to contemporary high tech and sterile productions. TYSONDOG did not play a very different style than most of the other NWOBHM bands. I would describe it as a mixture of early JUDAS PRIEST, JAGUAR and bit of BLITZKRIEG. This double CD set contains the 1984 debut album “Beware OF The Dog”, its 1986 successor “Crimes Of Insanity” and three bonus tracks taken from the “Shoot To Kill” EP from 1985 (by the way the fourth song from this EP “Hammerhead” is also included as part of the debut album). After those two albums TYSONDOG disbanded so this anthology contains their entire heritage (they also released two singles but all the songs are also on the two albums). “Painted Heroes – The Anthology” is not something really original but it is a damned cool and ass kicking album in the tradition of The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Maybe TYSONDOG delivered more energetic songs (especially on their second album) than most of their country mates back then. On “Crimes Of Insanity” the band seemed to be inspired by the upcoming Speed Metal scene and so TYSONDOG delivered here a much heavier dose of Metal than on the debut. By the way, with ‘School’s Out’ “Crimes Of Insanity” includes a proper ALICE COOPER cover version. To sum it up “Painted Heroes – The Anthology” is a very interesting CD for you if you are an old fart and too lazy to handle your classic vinyl or if you’re too young and missed the good old times and of course if you just appreciate timeless Heavy Metal. Anyway, it doesn’t matter what’s your reason – just buy it!