So in light of the news of their new Studio album Pavlov's Dawgs which is due out this year thought I would make this post. Got into these a few years back now, they were the last I got into of the big four of Germany, for the most part very solid work what I've heard of them but they do have many albums, i like their less serious but cool musical themes. They're a fun band! These are the albums I have so far:

Zombie Attack
Chemical Invasion
The Morning After
Alien E.P.
Beast of Bourbon
Thirst
Vol(l)ume 14
A Girl Called Cerveza
R.I.B
One Foot in the Grave

Are there any essentials I have missed? Do tell me which ones if so, never bothered with their mid 90s stuff as I imagine like many other bands at this time the metal scene was dying and was overtaken by more mainstream crap. Though I liked Sodom's Code Red and Tapping The Vein but they did do three weak albums in the 90s even so.

The Beauty and the Beer is my favorite post 80s.

Seconding The Beauty and the Beer: it's among their best in general

You can't go wrong with any of them. I really like Stone Cold Sober and B-Day.

So they didn't go stale in the 90s?

I don't think so. I even enjoyed Disco Destroyer and Kings of Beer. Tankard never really lost their edge.

Tankard has never made a bad record IMO. In fact, outside of a song here or there, they've rarely ever wavered from being consistently thrashy. The Tankard is their most experimental album, but even that album has a lot to like. One really unusual song they've done that I love is Days of the Gun from Two-Faced.

As for albums, I'll echo everyone saying Beauty and the Beer is a career highlight. In fact, the 3-album run of B-Day, Beast of Bourbon, and Beauty and the Beer is the best part of their discography. It looks like you don't have B-Day, but give a listen to Notorious Scum and Rectifier and you'll be sold.

Of the early stuff, the one I like best that you're missing is Stone Cold Sober. It looks like you also have most of the later albums, so nothing key missing there. Volume 14 is definitely my favourite of their post-Beauty and the Beer work.

I love the song Atomic Twilight on The Tankard as it's kinda slow and doomy. Otherwise perhaps it's a bit mainstream but it's a good quality album. I tend to crave hearing bands try something different like that, hence why I had it as one of my top 10 metal releases of the 90s.

The Meaning of Life and Stone Cold Sober are great too. The 00s is the decade where I lose interest a bit. I like B-Day but get a bit bored with the 3 albums that followed it.

First, check this thread about Tankard that people offer their opinions on the band and their discography.

For a quick answer:
The Meaning of Life is essential Tankard and as far as I know, their best selling album.
Kings of Beer is one of my personal favorites, the first with "new" guitarist Gutjahr.
Those two would be my recommendation but I think you'll be fine with Beauty and the Beer and B-Day as well. Rectifier indeed is awesome!

This. I would say 'Zombie attack', 'Beast of bourbon' and 'The beauty and the beer' are my top three, but yeah, you can't go wrong really.
Regarding the weakest records, I would nominate 'The tankard' and 'Disco destroyer', definitely the ones I have listened to the least and I don't even own a copy of 'The tankard'.
EDIT: Just relistening to 'The tankard' after many years and I'm actually really enjoying it, definitely a fun and different album.

The Meaning of Life is a Tankard essential, probably their 2nd or 3rd best.

Repeating everyone with a vote for Beauty and the Beer. I also have a soft spot for A Girl Called Cerveza as it's their first work I encountered.

Interesting to see the mentions of The Meaning of Life. It has one of their worst review ratings here (67%) so I never listened. Will have to check it out.

"The Meaning of Life" (it's more mid-paced though)
"Stone Cold Sober" (ditto)
"The Beauty and the Beer" (similar to "Beast of Bourbon" but not as furious)

My favourite after their classic run of early albums is probably "Beast of Bourbon" because of its closeness to Slayer and Exodus, respectively. It's as if they wanted to prove that even they can be dangerous.

Maybe "Fat... Ugly & Live" is another one worth mentioning if you're into the early stuff. It's been a while since I last listened to it, so I don't know how it compares to live albums by other bands, but I guess Tankard live is better than no Tankard live.

Thanks for the replies and recommendations so far, seems most of you make out I am missing out on not yet hearing The Meaning of life and B-Day, and Beauty and the Beer. So I will be sure to make these a listening priority. Another thing I found out worth noting is rateyourmusic.com have Disco Destroyer down as Crossover Thrash, that correct?

Thanks for that but ouch...I generally try and avoid mid paced ''Thrash'' then again many seem to say here its good.

Α Girl Called Cerveza is absolutely great, at least 5 songs that I completely love (s/t, Son of a Fridge, Metal Lady Boy, Running on Fumes, Rapid Fire) and I think it's in the definite highlights of the Gutjahr years.

As for The Meaning of Life's ratings, I've seen it mentioned a few times lately by other people as well: there are too few people reviewing for the scores to be an objective indication of the general consensus. It's a shame because adding the option to just rate an album on this site, would increase the objectivity factor quite a bit. You'd be much better served looking at the ratings average and perhaps even more indicative, the number of ratings(=how many people cared enough to look into the album) on rateyourmusic, where you have hundreds or thousands of votes. Click on "Ratings" at the top of the discography or Average (although, the differences between most albums are in the 0.1 - 0.5 vicinity - out of 5, so it's not very informative).

In any case, Meaning of Life was the clear best seller of the first era of Tankard - and I would be very surprised if they surpassed it in the brave new world of streaming (The 90s were a bad time for thrash commercially anyway). It's a fine album, still lots of crazy speed/thrash with Arnulf at the kit (I seriously miss him), catchy refrains and hooks (Open All Night, We Are Us, Dancing on Our Grave), Gerre on top of his game, some more techy (Mechanical Man, Wheel of Rebirth) and mid-paced stuff, which works very well for the variety and of course Space Beer and Beermuda, two of their most well-known beer anthems (and they have many!). It's an EASY 8.5 and an easier 9 if you are a fan of the band. Definitely in the top 5 of their discography. Iconic Kruger cover too (the one with the Pope smoking a joint).

I'd say yes. It's more punk-influenced than any other Tankard release and the only one I really can't put up with. There are a handful of worthwhile tracks but when I need some crossover I'd rather go to D.R.I., Broken Bones and the like.

If you don't like mid-paced thrash, avoid "The Tankard". It's so sedate that it's almost a "traditional heavy metal" album, far away from thrash. Compositionally, it isn't bad at all, there are riffs, hooks and melodies, even attempts at sounding "serious" and "deep", not bad, not bad, but just not what you're looking for or what most people want to hear from the band...

Yes and no. Has a couple of crossover thrash songs, or you could say some obvious melodic, beer-drinking punk anthems (like my favorite URB or Away!) but it's a "typical" Tankard album that doesn't deviate really from what they had done in the past (which is thrash with many faces: speed, punk, crossover, heavy/thrash and any mix - with their characteristic flavor). The production is crossovery(!) though.

the aforementioned crossover/punk anthems, Hard Rocking Dinosaur and the s/t are the highlights, followed by Queen of Hearts, which is the only song from the album I've heard live (they really don't do justice to this and kings of Beer unfortunately).

well B-Day was fantastic thanks for that recommendation, some Tankard fan I am i cant believe i overlooked that for so long! Meaning of life was very strong too but maybe lost the edge slightly that their first few albums had, still very enjoyable, stone cold sober next i think

Tankard really do rule. I think my favorite from them is probably Chemical Invasion due to how caustic it sounds. Just riff after riff with great vocals. I'm also huge on Two-Faced, which I never really see getting much love for some reason. The bass sound on it is great, and I enjoy the dynamic nature of a lot of the tracks. Probably one of their most "mature" sounding albums.

It's good to see some Tankard love here. Been a fan since the Zombie days.

Recently purchased their Noise Records 9 album vinyl box set called For A Thousand Beers and I fucking love it! Been a fan since Zombie Attack so this was an awesome run through when I recorded everything. There are no double albums, the first seven studio albums are here plus the Alien EP and one of their two Tankwart albums which is the same band but playing German punk covers. It also comes with the Fat, Ugly and Live DVD with a bonus show and an audio only bonus show. Liner notes describing each album and tour opened up a lot of info about lineup changes that I wasn't aware of. Plus it comes with a kick ass picture book with lots of classic era pics that I have never seen before. All in all, I highly recommend getting the box set for any Thrash fan, not just Tankard fans.