Amazing for Modern Rock, Mediocre for Meat Loaf

Review Score: (8/10)
Considering that I've spent the past several years listening to the absolute intensity of "Bat Out of Hell II", this CD didn't quite blow me away. However, I soon realized how great it was when I compared it to most everything else that's done by everyone else other than Meat Loaf. This CD is a prime example of material you listen to all day, and also stuff you'll always skip over after only listening to it twice (if more than once). To elaborate what exacly I mean, I'll have to break this CD down fully. Hell, there's only 12 tracks.

The songs "Martha" and "Where Angels Sing" are examples that you only listen to a couple of times and never again. While not generally bad, they just don't seem to deliver enough emotion, nor do they seem to try to emit the emotion that we listeners want to feel. We listen to Meat Loaf whenever we want to feel the power of love, or strong portrayals of lust, frustration or sadness; we just don't like Meat Loaf singing about sentimentality very much. However, "Fiesta De Las Almas Perdidas" and "45 Seconds of Ecstasy" are the examples of songs you only hear once in your life simply because they are awful songs. You can tell that they would be considering Meat Loaf isn't in either one.

Going up a decent notch are the few examples of songs that are neither awful or great. They're IMO "Original Sin" and "Amnesty is Granted". I listen to those songs occasionally, for they are quite decent songs, but both deliver a nice amount of emotion and leave the listener pleading for more. "Original Sin" is a really heavily done song, just stangely not done quite right; maybe because the metaphor that Steinman was stating was unclear. And what's the big problem with "Amnesty is Granted" is that it opens with THE MOST INCREDIBLE guitar riff ever, but the rest of the song is quite lacking in comparison. Another that seems to fit in the middle would be "Running for the Red Light", but I feel that it's because it's a totally loose style, totally void of heavy emotion, but is still fun to listen to.

"Left In the Dark" is a nice song, full of emotion, and clever lyrics. Like in the old "Bat Out of Hell" song, you mainly hear the same lyrics a couple of times, but unlike the old Meat Loaf classic, no new lyrics come in later, and you notice the second time that the lyrics are the exact same. At least the music increases in intensity beautifully, but that's the main reason for liking this song. "Not a Dry Eye" and "Where the Rubber Meets the Road" are another notch up in the right direction, and always cool to listen to. Both feature the right amounts and portrayal styles of emotion.

However, "If This is the Last Kiss" and "I'd Lie for You and That's the Truth" really steal the show. The only problems with them is that "If This Is Our Last Kiss" is that it is less than five minutes, and "I'd Lie for You and That's the Truth" is a bit ackward because Meat Loaf generally portrays love as a very painful thing of heartbreak, but here it's righteous praise.

However, maybe this did take a long time, but at least I think I covered it well. If you want another mind blowing thing from Meat Loaf, this isn't quite it, but if you just want nic amounts of emotion and rock music, look no further.

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