Okay, let's pretend Vince Neil never existed otherwise every die-hard Crue fan is gonna find this record a hard one to fathom. On one account, it's ridiculous to suggest the band could do a record with out Vince Neil and his sleazy whine, but on another note, this is one hell of a metal album, but as Motley Crue, it just leaves me scratching my head. After the wholesome juice of 'Dr Feelgood', yet five years later, the band go all bombastic, combing slamming heavy rock with Beatles-esque trips. As a record away from the rest of the Crue discography, this rocks big time and in John Corabi they found a true voice of power, but not a frontman. Crue have always been about the sex, the drugs and the rock 'n' roll and even in the past if such image often clouded the music, Crue have always been able to party, churning out anthemic lipstick rock combined with oily glam, but this record is far from those days and remains their darkest effort to date. Corabi sings with iron lungs, and it's actually difficult to fault the album as a heavy metal platter, but as a Crue record it almost doesn't make sense, and that's why so many hardcore fans were pissed off, but I think such judgement was a little unfair considering this was seen as a step forward for the band. If Vince no longer suited the band, or didn't want to be in the band, then splitting up was the only other option. Thankfully they didn't, and when you hear the boom of 'Hooligans Holiday', the '60s sway of 'Misunderstood' and riffage of 'Poison Apples', you'll see why this band has more faces than many people give them credit for. It's not always been about cheesy glam rock songs, Nikki Sixx is a classy songwriter, and this is a truly ballsy display heavier than most records of the time, and when the band look back on this effort they can be very proud, although I'm sure that Vince would beg to differ.
8/10
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