{"id":1773994,"date":"2026-02-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1773994"},"modified":"2026-02-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:00:00","slug":"tailgunners-rhea-thompson-shows-off-the-riffs-that-taught-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1773994","title":{"rendered":"TAILGUNNER&#8217;s RHEA THOMPSON Shows Off The Riffs That Taught Her"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-p.smehost.net\/sites\/7f9737f2506941499994d771a29ad47a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/rhea-thompson-tailgunner.jpeg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"zox-post-body left zoxrel zox100\">\n<div id=\"5336\"><\/div>\n<p>Yesterday we checked in with <strong>Tailgunner<\/strong> guitarist <strong>Zach Salvini<\/strong> about the riffs that taught him, and now we&#8217;ve got fellow <strong>Tailgunner<\/strong> guitarist <strong>Rhea Thompson<\/strong> doing the same! Check out our video above and get <em>Midnight Blitz<\/em> here as it&#8217;s out today.<\/p>\n<p>Freshly signed and already carrying rare approval from the genre&#8217;s elite, <strong>Tailgunner<\/strong> enlisted none other than <strong>K.K. Downing<\/strong> (<strong>Judas Priest<\/strong>) to produce the album. After making a strong impression supporting <strong>KK&#8217;s Priest<\/strong>, <strong>Downing<\/strong>&#8216;s involvement became a natural next step.<\/p>\n<p>The band explains: &#8220;Whilst touring our debut album, we shared stages with members of <strong>Iron Maiden<\/strong>, <strong>Judas Priest<\/strong> and <strong>Accept<\/strong> \u2013 we watched, we learned, and we put it all down on tape. The aim behind &#8216;Midnight Blitz&#8217; was to craft an all-time album opener, like &#8216;Aces High&#8217;, &#8216;Painkiller&#8217;, &#8216;Welcome to the Jungle&#8217; and &#8216;Hells Bells&#8217;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That influence is worn proudly, but with ambition: &#8220;We are not just worshipping at the altar of those who have gone before, but determined to stand upon it and be the heroes for a whole new generation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>K.K. Downing<\/strong> himself offered glowing praise: &#8220;<strong>Tailgunner<\/strong> is a band we should have seen emerge years ago from the UK. They personify everything that is heavy metal\u2026 <strong>Maiden<\/strong>, <strong>Priest<\/strong>, <strong>Mot\u00f6rhead<\/strong>, <strong>Def Leppard<\/strong> \u2013 the list is endless. Their youthful freshness and uniqueness will no doubt elevate them to being a true Metal favourite of the fans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"zox-post-body left zoxrel zox100\"><strong>Want More Metal? Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Enter your information below to get a daily update with all of our headlines and receive The Orchard Metal newsletter.<\/p>\n<div id=\"main-newsletter-form\">\n<fieldset>\n<p><button id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" class=\"submit\" name=\"subscribe\" type=\"submit\">Subscribe<\/button><\/p>\n<\/fieldset>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/video\/tailgunners-rhea-thompson-shows-off-the-riffs-that-taught-her&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-p.smehost.net\/sites\/7f9737f2506941499994d771a29ad47a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/rhea-thompson-tailgunner.jpeg&#8221;] Yesterday we checked in with Tailgunner guitarist Zach Salvini about the riffs that taught him, and now we&#8217;ve got fellow Tailgunner guitarist Rhea Thompson doing the same! Check out our video above and get Midnight Blitz here as it&#8217;s out today. Freshly signed and already carrying rare approval from the genre&#8217;s elite, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,55],"class_list":["post-1773994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-metalinjection-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1773994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1773994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1773994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1773994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}