MEAT LOAF
Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose
Virgin
· When the mastermind behind your first two successes goes to court to stop the third, it’s never a good sign.
Don’t listen to the haters – 1977’s Bat Out of Hell was a classic. Songwriter Jim Steinman’s hormone-fuelled opus mixed the high camp of off-Broadway with life-or-death language of teen romance and rock operas, performed with outrageous gusto by the man who would be Meat. It was, and is, brilliant.
So, maybe it’s best to pretend the sequels don’t exist. That might be a challenge with the second Bat and its surprise smash "I Would Do Anything for Love," but fortunately, Bat III is as forgettable as Halloween 3: Season of the Witch.
To say that Steinman had no active role in Bat III is an understatement – the guy filed a lawsuit to stop the production. His fingerprints are still on the album, both in the songs he did write and the ones by Desmond Child that shamelessly ape his style. However, it’s painfully clear that these are cast-offs – "Bad for Good" with Queen’s Brian May is as good as anything Meat’s ever done, but "In the Land of the Pig, The Butcher is King" is painful metal mess, and "If it Ain’t Broke, Break it" seems entirely too appropriately titled for this album.
Meat still sings his lungs out with a theatricality rarely seen in pop music. It’s hard to fault his performance here, but the songs just don’t justify any praise. The opening number in Tenacious D’s Pick of Destiny proves Mr. Loaf can still excel with the right material. This isn’t it.
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