I brought 'The Cage' hoping it would contain traditional NWOBHM akin to the 'Tygers' first two releases, regrettably I was well off the mark. This their fourth album sees a far more commercial approach, that is also notable for the absence of influential and talented guitarist 'John Sykes', (although he contributes a guitar solo on their cover of 'Love Potion Number 9'). Overall 'The Cage' sounds like a poor mans version of a more commercial sounding 'Magnum', while being graced with a below average production and further let down by sloppy penmanship along with a rushed feel evident on most tracks.

'The Cage' opens disappointingly, with the spiritless radio friendly rock track 'Rendezvous', lyrically it's predictable with a trite chorus, the only redeeming feature is some decent 'Jon Deverill' vocals. Slight improvements are made with the more rocky 'Lonely at the Top', which highlights some fair guitar work and a respectable chorus, but still falls short of earlier material. 'Letter from L.A.' follows and fails to impress, this might have some chart appeal, but this listless, repetitive plodder which incorporates some shocking synthesiser work fails to stir my interest. The single release 'Paris by Air' is possibly the best track on the first half of the album, but still failed to make a dent on the UK charts and will further fail to excite any self respectable rocker. Worst still is 'Tides' which sounds like the poorest song 'Magnum' have ever written, insipid, shockingly produced and makes you release how far the 'Tygers of Pan Tang' have fallen in only a couple of years. Side two (yes I do have this on vinyl) opens with the pulsating 'Making Tracks', unfortunately this is akin to a bad 'Gary Glitter' "B" side, in fact this is awful- one of the worst songs I've ever reviewed. Next up is the instrumental title track, a decent enough melodic number, quite graceful and well played but about as Metal as 'Abba'. Even less impressive is a cover of 'Leiber / Stoller's' 'Love Potion No. 9', other than 'John Skyes's' solid guitar work this is a sloppy, poorly worked version of an inappropriate song. Little progress is made with the simplistic rocker 'You Always See', while 'Danger in Paradise' is halfway decent as the 'Tygers' take a more 'Fastway' approach. Last and I'm not disappointed to get to the end is 'The Actor', boring title for a boring song, lyrically its pretty decent and the piano work is respectable, but this ain't heavy enough to be even classed as rock!

There's not one song on the entire album that excites me and although this turned out to be one of the 'Tygers' biggest sellers in the UK, those who enjoyed the earlier NWOBHM like myself won't take much from this lukewarm radio friendly effort.