If you like your music melodramatic with a healthy dose of bombast, then the new Meat Loaf album "Bat Out of Hell III: the Monster is Loose," has everything you need from the erstwhile pop/rock star.
Loaf, aka Marvin Lee Aday, has emerged from years of legal battles with past and present partner Jim Steinman to come up with "Bat III" and the results are mixed. It works for what it is, but at 77 minutes it's far too much of a good thing.
Following their wildly successful "Bat Out of Hell," which gave new meaning to the glow of dashboard lights everywhere, the two eventually fell out after Steinman registered the "Bat" phrase as his trademark. They have since come to a settlement and Steinman, to whom the album is dedicated, wrote seven of "Bat III's" 14 cuts.
It runs the gamut from mock metal to mopey Kleenex rock with just a little in between. No song, no matter how "mellow," is free from rolling drums and soaring crescendos that leave the listener exhausted halfway into it.
The opening cut, "The Monster is Loose," sounds more like Metallica than Meat Loaf, which should be no surprise since Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx wrote the song along with John 5 of Marilyn Manson and producer Desmond Child. It's loud all right, but it lacks the wit or even much melody of previous Loaf productions.
It's as though they decided to make it big, make it loud, and no one will notice lyrics like "I had my head in a noose/I had nothing to lose/Had enough of abuse/So now I'm dangerous/ Hate's so contagious/ It owns us/ I'm angry/I'm raging/I'm breaking through the pain."
Phew.
Combine those lyrics with the roaring guitars and you've got, well, something, that's for sure. And "The Monster is Loose" pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the album, with a few exceptions. Even the album cover, with a flame-spitting bat, looks like something from the Dio discography.
Steinman's contributions certainly lack a certain subtlety as well. Take "In the Land of the Pig the Butcher is King," a song in which Loaf wails about animals singing over the sound of ringing slaughterhouse bells. It ends with the sound of squealing pigs, making you long for the clever songwriting Steinman came up with on the first "Bat" album just about 30 years ago. Where was Phil Rizzuto when Loaf really needed him?
"Monstro" opens and closes as a bizarre sort of Carmina Burana rip off and - a little help here - does "Tu eres cruel/No eres fiel" have anything to do with rounding third and heading for home?
There are tender moments on numbers like "Alive," on which Loaf in his lower registers sounds like a growling Roger Daltrey; and "Cry to Heaven," a weeper on which Loaf stays just this side of whiney.
Still, for all of its flaws, "Bat III" isn't a bad album. It has its moments, and Loaf hasn't lost anything in his vocal range. It's just that after about halfway through the album you feel as though someone has been shouting in your ear for the better part of an hour. The album even features instructions to "Turn It Up!!!"
So yes, it rocks and rolls and cries and coos, but by the second to last song, Steinman's "The Future Ain't What It Used to Be," you begin to long for Loaf and Steinman's successful collaborations of the past.
Loaf, aka Marvin Lee Aday, has emerged from years of legal battles with past and present partner Jim Steinman to come up with "Bat III" and the results are mixed. It works for what it is, but at 77 minutes it's far too much of a good thing.
Following their wildly successful "Bat Out of Hell," which gave new meaning to the glow of dashboard lights everywhere, the two eventually fell out after Steinman registered the "Bat" phrase as his trademark. They have since come to a settlement and Steinman, to whom the album is dedicated, wrote seven of "Bat III's" 14 cuts.
It runs the gamut from mock metal to mopey Kleenex rock with just a little in between. No song, no matter how "mellow," is free from rolling drums and soaring crescendos that leave the listener exhausted halfway into it.
The opening cut, "The Monster is Loose," sounds more like Metallica than Meat Loaf, which should be no surprise since Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx wrote the song along with John 5 of Marilyn Manson and producer Desmond Child. It's loud all right, but it lacks the wit or even much melody of previous Loaf productions.
It's as though they decided to make it big, make it loud, and no one will notice lyrics like "I had my head in a noose/I had nothing to lose/Had enough of abuse/So now I'm dangerous/ Hate's so contagious/ It owns us/ I'm angry/I'm raging/I'm breaking through the pain."
Phew.
Combine those lyrics with the roaring guitars and you've got, well, something, that's for sure. And "The Monster is Loose" pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the album, with a few exceptions. Even the album cover, with a flame-spitting bat, looks like something from the Dio discography.
Steinman's contributions certainly lack a certain subtlety as well. Take "In the Land of the Pig the Butcher is King," a song in which Loaf wails about animals singing over the sound of ringing slaughterhouse bells. It ends with the sound of squealing pigs, making you long for the clever songwriting Steinman came up with on the first "Bat" album just about 30 years ago. Where was Phil Rizzuto when Loaf really needed him?
"Monstro" opens and closes as a bizarre sort of Carmina Burana rip off and - a little help here - does "Tu eres cruel/No eres fiel" have anything to do with rounding third and heading for home?
There are tender moments on numbers like "Alive," on which Loaf in his lower registers sounds like a growling Roger Daltrey; and "Cry to Heaven," a weeper on which Loaf stays just this side of whiney.
Still, for all of its flaws, "Bat III" isn't a bad album. It has its moments, and Loaf hasn't lost anything in his vocal range. It's just that after about halfway through the album you feel as though someone has been shouting in your ear for the better part of an hour. The album even features instructions to "Turn It Up!!!"
So yes, it rocks and rolls and cries and coos, but by the second to last song, Steinman's "The Future Ain't What It Used to Be," you begin to long for Loaf and Steinman's successful collaborations of the past.
