Luv Hunter

Perhaps the most endearing part of heavy metal in the 80s was the lack of a clean break between many of its developing sub-genres, as seemingly disparate groups were joined together by a unifying cause, namely the almighty guitar riff. It was often the case that a band's image would not necessarily coincide with an expected musical outcome, with such noted acts as Crimson Glory, Lizzy Borden and even Laaz Rockit (for a time anyway) might have been confused for a glam band despite their respectively different stylistic inclinations. Given it's close proximity to southern California, it's fitting that the visual aspects of the Sunset Strip would find its way into the Las Vegas area, which is very much the case in the peculiar merging of a mid-80s Motley Crue meets Dokken image matched with a strongly USPM musical demeanor that was Luv Hunter. The name itself all but screams L.A. sleaze, yet the culmination of their sound on their eponymous debut and lone offering, while somewhat influenced by the likes of Ratt and Quiet Riot, carries a greater affinity with the late 80s power metal character of Operation: Mindcrime and Transcendence than one might guess.

There are naturally some strong indications that this isn't a run-of-the-mill exercise in teased hair and mascara once peering a layer beneath the glitzy surface. Arguably the most blatant of the bunch is the participation of bassist Steve Bray and drummer David Schiller, both culminating in the same rhythm section that offered up a string of beastly thrasher releases with fellow Vegas act Mersinary, though their performance on here is not quite the same maddened frenzy of Agent Steel and Toxik influences as what they took to Dead Is Dead a couple years prior. Then again, vocalist Dave Milligan immediately strikes one's ears as being among the most atypical of front men for a band that looks like they opened up for Poison back in '86, bringing a high-end, somewhat screechy rendition of Geoff Tate's signature sound that's a tad thinner and more airy, not all the far off from that of Lance King. When combined with a highly competent guitar duo that mix in the proper dosage of hard-hitting riffs and tastefully shred-happy guitar solos, the resulting sound is sweet enough to pass for a heavier rendition of Dokken at times, but largely resembles the punchier character of Lizzy Borden and Queensryche.

Perhaps the only thing that keeps this from being on the same level as a typical outing by the likes of Omen or Helstar, apart from the lack of overt speed metal moments and love-obsessed lyrics, is that the songwriting tends to stick to conventional practices. Catchy bangers like "Times Are a Changing", "Make It Right" and "Looks (That Take Control)" don't want for anything metallic in the riff department, but definitely have an arena-oriented, fanfare quality to them that's comparable to Saxon's Innocence Is No Excuse. Likewise, the more drawn out character of semi-ballad "Life On The Edge", which definitely reminds of the dreary acoustic atmosphere of Crimson Glory's "Painted Skies", largely flows in a predictable fashion and lays on the keyboards pretty thickly. Occasionally when the tempo is kicked up and things hit a more metallic roar like on "Dreamwave" (which almost perfectly predict where Lance King would take Balance Of Power musically in the late 1990s) and "Victory Battle", things manage to get raucous enough to make one forget that this band was decked out with the same androgynous look that just about every L.A. band was sporting circa 1985.

Sadly this was the only official studio offering that Luv Hunter would offer up before disbanding, and given how late in the game it was for this style of music by the time 1990 rolled in, it's not a terribly surprising turn of events. Often times the bands that had the most potential for growth in the golden days of heavy metal were the ones that either signed a bad deal or got into the act long after the initial wave had crested. This is the sort of album that exists pretty comfortably within two seemingly incompatible worlds, one where things tended towards the hedonistic excesses of the party scene that dominated much of the 80s, the other the more poetic and introverted side of the coin that largely became represented in those USPM bands that stuck a bit closer to the grittier sound originally exported from Britain in the early 80s. And while it's fairly smooth and polished character might tend to endear it more towards the crowd that were hoping for Dokken to reprise their role of soundtrack composers in the fourth Nightmare On Elm Street film, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to picture fans of The Warning and Battle At Helm's Deep taking to this.