By Darren Young
Meat Loaf has been fighting a downhill-slide his whole career. This is not uncommon for an artist responsible for a highly influential album such as Bat Out of Hell. Determined to recreate his past successes, Meat Loaf has now released a third Bat Out of Hell–the uphill battle rages on.
Besides the legal troubles and personal issues Meat Loaf has faced over the release of Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose, there is a far more pressing matter at hand: the album is simply awful. By attempting to recreate the glory of its immediate predecessor’s predecessor, The Monster is Loose inevitably exists as an embarrassing artifact far too epic for the ears of modern man. A good portion of the songs on the album are overly long, unabashedly nu-metal, and consequently about as relevant as a Limp Bizkit tribute band. Most of the melodies take themselves too seriously, sounding as if they were written on a trek to Mordor with a bunch of Trekkies bombastically singing “The Ride of the Valkyries.” The worst perpetrator of this is the shameful cover of the Pandora’s Box song “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” As if Celine Dion hadn’t damaged it enough, Meat Loaf just sets its teeth against a cement curb and stomps down hard.
In essence, The Monster is Loose is the physical manifestation of Meat Loaf’s lost relevance. Someone should send the bat back to hell with Meat Loaf, the trolls, orcs, Trekkies and Celine Dion.