Trollheart

You're such a rebel, aren't you?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

I am Southern.

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Trollheart

Too Fast For Love --- Motley Crue --- 1981

I was never hugely into glam rock/metal (though if you want to lump Bon Jovi in with that subgenre then fine: I was into them, but none of your Hanoi Rocks, Poison, Quiet Riot, all those guys) but it looks as if this, Motley Crue's debut album, may have been released before the glam metal invasion, and so may be a totally different animal to later releases such as Shout at the Devil, Dr. Feelgood and Girls, Girls, Girls: I don't know. I wasn't a fan of these guys, and this is their first full album I'll be listening to, so let's see how it goes.

1. Live wire: Eighties metal from the off, with big biting guitars and that unmistakable American twist to the vocals from Vince Neil, the kind of song that may have been thrown together in a few hours. No deep message, no hidden meanings, just an out-and-out “look at me” rocker. Disengage brain and enjoy. The phased guitar that brings in the slower midsection is good. So are the false endings.
2. Public enemy #1: It's a good happy rock song, smooth guitar work. I just wonder where the popularity for MC came from, as they really don't sound any different to a bunch of metal bands from that era. Guess it was all about the image.
3. Merry-go-round: Now this has a nice guitar sound opening it, sort of reflective, could be a ballad, maybe. Sort of is, though it kicks up in the chorus a little. Good song
4. Take me to the top: This one kicks out the lights. Love the Maidenesque guitar run in the final minute.
5. Piece of your action: Good straightahead hard rock vibe on this. Again, they weren't reinventing the genre or anything, but fun songs and a lot of heart in them. Big, dirty guitar riff here is very welcome.
6. Starry eyes: Tommy takes us in as the Crue really foreshadow eighties Bon Jovi. This is so close to material off their debut, you'd have to wonder if Jon and Ritchie were listening to Vince and Mick when they wrote songs like “Roulette”, “Come back” and “Burning for love”? Even that solo can be heard all over Bon Jovi's debut, and later albums too.
7. Stick to your guns: And they robbed this title for a song on New Jersey, which didn't come out till seven years later! Mind you, Bon Jovi cowboyed it up, as they liked to do, whereas Crue here give it a sort of fifties feel in the vocal department and a seventies hard rock anthem everywhere else.
8. Come on and dance: Eighties metal cliche #56: open your song with the sound of a revving motorbike engine. Hey, it was all the rage back then. Song's a little weak if I'm honest. What is Tommy Lee doing on the kit? Banging cans? Pretty funny actually; I think he made this part of his sound, as it were. Good solo from Mick Mars
9. Too fast for love: It's just pure testosterone and slam a guitar in there and off we go! Great fun.
10. On with the show: This is pretty clever. They've (knowingly or not) integrated the Canon in D Major classical composition into the opening lines of the melody. Starts kind of slow, kicks up then and rocks along nicely. Great melody, and I like Neil's singing in a slightly different way here.

Conclusion: Never going to be an album where you would pick out technical excellence in playing, deep lyrics or world-changing riffs, but as a heads-down, bash-it-out, partyhard-and-have-a-good-time album could take some beating. These guys certainly knew how to give the world the finger and do what they liked. Cool, even today.

Rating:

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

In no way is this album a cliche. It was the first glam metal album, and everything that came after was chasing its coattails, even if the poseurs didn't realize it. Too Fast for Love was the trend setter for glam, for better or worse. "Piece of Your Action" was the template for any like-minded band, while being more badass than 99% of anything those bands released. And there is no glam metal song like "Live Wire". Glam metal or not, that is pure speed metal.

There are people I would kill to have seen this band at this point in their career. Apparently Nicki Sixx was still setting himself on fire on stage at this point.

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Trollheart

That's all you'll get from me before Christmas. My cup runneth over...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

... with mediocrity.

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Trollheart

I never said the album was a cliche. I said using a motorcycle revving is, was and ever shall be a cliche, and it is. And was. They were not the first to do it.

Bolded: Here I think you've inadvertently proven my argument, which is that MC were more about live antics onstage than music. Their music was good, but if your'e going to base your image around hi-jinks on stage (hellloooooo Kiss!) then your music had better be up to it. This is, but I still don't see any real difference between them and, say, Hanoi, Riot (Quiet or not), RATT, Cinderella, Poison....

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

If you don't like Hanoi rocks then I don't know what to say to you, Quiet Riot were a ****ty seventies rock band jumping on a bandwagon as far as I know, and the other two were chasing after Motley Crue's glory (though I do like them).

If you take one offhand comment about Motley Crue's stage show and use it to typify their music then you're just looking for an excuse to hide your ignorance.

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Trollheart

No, you seem to be taking one comment from me about cliches and trying to apply it to the whole album, and by extension the band. I'm just saying their music is good, but I don't see superstar written on it. And if you have to justify that by referring to the things they got up to onstage, then you're just reinforcing my opinion that they were somewhat copying Kiss and focussing on style over substance.

Which is fine. I have no problem with it. But just because I don't want to suck their dicks you've decided to paint me as a Crue-hater. I'm not. I enjoyed the album (did you read the review?) but I would rather listen to other bands from that era and I would not give much of a curse as to what they did onstage. Nothing here, musically, seems new. I like it all, but it all sounds similar to a lot of stuff from before, building on seventies hard rock and I suppose some punk (though I don't know) and making it more about an image than music really. Nothing wrong with that, but I just don't get the appeal, in the music. It's good, but it's nothing special, that I can see.

What was that No-Wave band again?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

No, I get it. You'd rather listen to a pop band with guitars and pretend they're a rock band.

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