Although they've been around for 40 years as of 2022, Germany's Tankard is far from being a household name amongst thrash fans. That isn't to say they don't have a loyal following - nothing could be further from the truth - but even founder / frontman Andreas "Gerre" Geremia agrees that Tankard is overshadowed by countrymen Kreator, Sodom and Destruction, with the trio seen as the gold standard when it comes to European thrash metal. Be that as it may, the 40-year milestone is something to celebrate even for a criminally underrated band, and that celebration comes in the form a deluxe box set, For A Thousand Beers. Focusing on the band's early years, it compiles Tankard's first seven albums on vinyl and CD - Zombie Attack (1986), Chemical Invasion (1987), The Morning After (1988), The Meaning Of Life (1990), Stone Cold Sober (1992), Two-Faced (1994) and The Tankard (1995) - released via their first official label, Noise Records, along with the Fat, Ugly & Live DVD, and a 40-page hardback book. It's the ultimate keepsake for the diehard Tankard fan, and in Gerre's estimation the best way for younger thrash fans to discover one of Germany's finest undiscovered brews.

BraveWords: Nobody who starts a band expects to be around for 40 years, but was there ever a point in the early days where you thought Tankard could in fact be around well into your adult life?

Gerre: "Of course not. We were all friends in school, and we started Tankard in 1982 when we were all 14 and 15 years old. We never believed at the time that the band would still exist 40 years later; that's really unbelievable. And we've been active the whole time. We never stopped or broke up and had a reunion. Tankard is still going strong. Frank (Thorwarth / bass) and me went to school together starting at the age of six, so we're the original remaining members. Our drummer Olaf (Zissel) joined in 1994, and our guitar player Andreas (Gutjahr) joined in 1998, so this line-up been together for 24 years now which is also really amazing."

BraveWords: Did you guys have a hand in assembling For A Thousand Beers, or was this strictly a label idea that Tankard signed off on?

Gerre: "The label came up with the idea. They re-released all the old stuff a couple years ago, back in 2017. It wasn't easy to find out who had the rights to everything (for the box set) because they went from Noise to Sanctuary Records, and then from Sanctuary Records to BMG. Our manager tried to connect with the right people so we could put something together because it gives the younger fans that we have now the opportunity to get the old albums. The label came up with the idea of the box set, and me and Frank were involved in putting it together."

"We watched a couple of old video cassettes - I collect everything (laughs) - and we found a great show from the Dynamo Festival in 1987 in Eindhoven. As far as I can remember that was Tankard's first show outside of Germany, so we decided to use that as some bonus material. Our manager had a 1988 soundboard tape from a Frankfurt show which we also included. We don't have any unreleased material in the vault that we could use for the box set, but we do have a lot of bootleg stuff. It's a good way to start the year, and in September we'll release a new album called Pavlov's Dawg."

BraveWords: Your previous album was released in 2017. Is the long wait between albums pandemic related? As we know, a lot of bands are holding back on releasing new music until they're able to tour properly.

Gerre: "We aren't 20 anymore (laughs). Doing an album every two years in the '80s... we were definitely working at a different tempo. We wanted to release something two years ago but we didn't have enough time to put the songs together. Then we got shut down because of Corona. We decided to take a break from the band for a couple months except for doing a few shows - three shows in 2020, five shows last year - and then we started practicing again and writing new songs. Five years is a long time between albums, but if you're as old as me five years is like five months (laughs). So, there is no special reason for the long wait between albums. Everything has been recorded and the album is now being mixed, so I'm excited to hear the final result."

BraveWords: There's no sense in asking about the musical direction of the next album. Tankard has that Motörhead / AC/DC-level consistency when it comes to retaining your sound.

Gerre: "Well, The Tankard album in 1995 was some kind of... it was our most melodic album. It was different compared to the ones before it, and Disco Destroyer in '98 was really back to the roots when thrash metal really wasn't very popular. We don't think about it, we just do what we do. We start with the writing process and everything usually goes very fast from that point. We don't have a plan of how a new album has to sound; we just start writing songs and at the end we find out what works and what doesn't."

BraveWords: I saw an interview with you leading up to this chat where you mentioned Tankard tried to get away from the "comedy" aspect of the band at one point. Wouldn't you agree the humour is a big part of Tankard's DNA?

Gerre: "Yes, absolutely, because it fits to us as people. And I think it can be fun to play a song live that has very serious lyrics. We've done everything to earn that kind of image, but starting from the Chemical Invasion album we also had serious lyrics on the albums. We tried to get rid of that funny image in the middle of the '90s but we totally failed, of course (laughs). Nowadays there is a lot of humour and fun that comes out of that image. If the new album would talk about death and destruction and things like that, nobody would believe it's Tankard. This combination of humour and thrash metal really fits to us as people."

BraveWords: Kreator, Destruction and Sodom are regarded as Germany's Big Three, but Tankard has been tacked onto that as the European counterpart to the infamous Big Four from the US. How do you feel about that?

Gerre: "Kreator is the biggest band of the four, #1 in Europe when it comes to thrash metal. Around 2000 they toured together and everyone was talking about the Big Three, and I don't know who came up with the idea of the Teutonic Four, but it's great to be part of that club (laughs). It would be great if there was the possibility to play some shows together. Maybe one day..."

BraveWords: It's fair to say Tankard doesn't get the attention you deserve considering you've been around for 40 years. Can you chalk that up to one particular factor? It doesn't make sense, really...

Gerre: "We made the decision at the end of the '80s not to do Tankard as a fulltime thing because everyone in the band had something else going on. We weren't really able to go on tour for three or four months at a time. We have so many offers to go out and play, and we can't, so that's the sad side of it. We have out regular jobs and we spend a lot of our free time working on the albums and trying to play as often as we can. But there's no pressure on us. Of course it's a lot of work keeping Tankard alive, but it's also a lot of fun."