A lesser known fact about me is that I am a major fan of the rock legend Meat Loaf (much like my friend NivCorp; in fact it was I who first introduced him to the music when I loaned him the first 2 Bat Out Of Hell albums when we were in high school). As you may or may not be aware (and in case the title didn't tip you off), he recently released Bat Out Of Hell III, nearly 30 years after the original came out. This weekend just gone I picked it up.
NivCorp confessed to being somewhat disappointed with it, and I have to agree it isn't up to the incredibly high standards of the original Bat Out of Hell or Back Into Hell, but it's still a solid album. I have a few favourites already. The title track 'The Monster Is Loose' is 100% sound and fury (although possibly a little too long at 7:12) and I just fell in love with the next track, 'Blind As A Bat'. Sure, the bat connection seems a little flimsy, but the chorus! Oh, I like it!
Rather depressingly, I found the covers of 'It's All Coming Back to Me' and Jim Steinman's earlier 'Bad For Good' to be not as good as the originals. In the first case Meat Loaf's voice, while still in great form, just doesn't (in my opinion) match the feel of the song as well as Celine Dion's (even though the song was originally written for him). In 'Bad For Good' Meat Loaf clearly outdoes Steinman's original rendition vocally, but the instrumentation wasn't a patch on Steinman's far sharper, more hard-rocking version. They're still great songs, but I don't know if I wouldn't prefer to listen to the originals.
Additionally, I thought the album centrepiece song 'Seize the Night' to be quite bland, reusing varied samples from Steinman's earlier work (most notably the guitar riff from 'Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)' and the orchestral theme from 'The Storm') and featuring some truly lousy lyrics. And the album closer, 'Cry To Heaven' was nothing special, no comparison to 'Lost Boys and Golden Girls' (from Bat II) and not even close to 'For Crying Out Loud' (from Bat I).
And 'If It Ain't Broke, Break It' is outright terrible. Much like 'Do It!' from his previous album, it just isn't in Meat Loaf's style and the lyrics are awful.
But most of the other tracks ranged from pretty good to very good, especially 'Alive' and 'If God Could Talk'. Overall it's not a bad album at all, although there are a couple of patchy points, but it really has a hard time living up to the Bat Out Of Hell name.
On a related note, as an AMV maker I can't help but be excited about the possibilities for combining 'The Monster Is Loose' with Naruto, at least once Shippuuden comes out and we get more Demon Fox action.
Oh and if you've never tried salt-and-vinegar rice crackers; have a go, they're not half bad.
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