Mötley Crüe Shout At The Devil Review by Gary Hill
Motley Crue somewhat defined an era of heavy metal, and this landmark album was the beginning of that influence by them. The copy reviewed here is a reissue with several demo versions and an unreleased track added to the lineup.
Motley Crue was Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee on this album.
Track by Track Review
IN The Beginning A spooky and textural piece, this one has a spoken word narrative as its only vocals.
Shout at the Devil This cut is good solid, no-frills metal.
Looks That Kill The main chorus riff on this cut is incredibly tasty and calls to mind classic Kiss. This is definitely a winning number.
Bastard Starting with a drum intro, this song has a very stripped down, garage band sound, but really rips. The instrumental break before the guitar solo has a quirky progish texture.
God Bless the Children of the Beast Haunting acoustic guitar starts this instrumental, which features wonderful guitar interplay between the electric and acoustic modes.
Helter Skelter This is a strong metal version of what was probably The Beatles' only cut that might qualify as metal. Nothing is drastically changed from the original, but it is a solid performance.
Red Hot A driving drum beat propels this cut.
Too Young to Fall In Love This tasty Crue rocker is one of their best cuts. It features a nice vocal arrangement on the chorus.
Knock Em Dead Kid Knock Em Dead Kid is a stripped down metal cut.
Ten Seconds to Love This is a straightforward metal cut with a tasty guitar solo.
Danger An acoustic guitar driven segment starts this song, which is very solid hard rock with some intriguing arrangements. This is a standout song.
Shout At The Devil (Demo) This is a somewhat rawer take on the title cut.
Looks That Kill (Demo) The overall difference here between the original album version is a rawer texture, but the ending does make for an interesting twist.
Hotter Than Hell (Demo) A slow drum beat starts this cut. The tune is essentially a slow grinding metal number with a very tasty arrangement.
I Will Survive Portions of this strong metal number come off as a harder edged version of early Aerosmith. The ending to this cut is quite creative.
You'll find concert pics of this artist in the Music Street Journal members area.
