Wolfsbane - Live Fast Die Fast (1989) - How to get a great rock and roll party started - 75% (07/09/11)

Fear not, dear metal maniacs, "Live Fast, Die Fast" is not as superficial as its stupid title might suggest. Wolfsbane deliver in fact a quite entertaining and solid record somewhere between AOR, hard rock and heavy metal. The fast and short songs get quite boring after a while but especially the more experimental tracks are easily worth checking this record out.

The longest track "Tears From A Fool" starts an acoustic rock ballad and turns into an energizing commercial hard rock track with some strong eighty vibes. Blaze Bayley, later vocalist of Iron Maiden and also in his two solo projects amongst others, delivers a quite diversified job on this track that reminds me in fact a little bit of Iron Maiden's No Prayer For The Dying and Bruce Dickinson's first solo outputs Tattooed Millionaire and Balls To Picasso. Influences from Alice Cooper or Whitesnake can also be detected as this record hails the most famous rock icons of the eighties. The straight party smasher and perfect album closer "Pretty Baby", the more pumping and metal orientated "Killing Machine" and the more commercial "I Like It Hot" that would have made a great single are other notable highlights of this easily listening record that almost constantly puts a smile on our faces with its sympathetic energy, rebellious attitude and wild romantic lyrics. The production is mellow, the cover artwork is mellow and the song material not more than good but it's the authenticity of the band that saves this debut record for me from its small flaws. It's a fun album and there must be albums like this as one simply can't always feel for intellectual, original and ambitious music. This is a pure piece of rock and roll rebellion.

We surely have no original highlight here and some filler material such as "Shakin'" can be found on the record, but overall I would warmly suggest this album to any fan of good hard rock music and the already quite charismatic voice of Blaze Bayley. This album is the ideal way to get a great nostalgic hard rock party started.