Terrified

This is a very typical Quiet Riot album. The boys didn't submit to changes and stuck to their own style, outdated as it was in 1993. And yes, it's a style that belongs firmly into the mid-to-late 80s, it's unabashed glam aesthetics.

Unfortunately, it's also not a very energetic album. Especially in the first half, it feels like Quiet Riot are phoning it in; there's not that much rocking going on, especially after the opener. "Loaded Gun" does try, but falls short. They stray a bit from the tried and tested glam rock later on, like in the intro to "Rude Boy", but not even that makes the songs feel inspired, the vocalist especially is unconvincing. Oh, they all play well enough, but it feels like this is a job they had to do, not like they're passionate artists trying to express themselves. It does get better in the second half - after the absolute low point of this album, "Psycho City", is over, they deliver three more or less acceptable rock songs back to back, the last one being the best (the fact that it's an instrumental, meaning we are spared from the vocalist's listless delivery, helps a lot).

The producers probably didn't feel like doing the job properly, either: the production is way too quiet and pretty dull. That in itself isn't much of a problem - that's what your volume knob is for - but here, everything is mixed too quiet, the guitars especially, which saps most of the life out of them, which, in turn, causes the songs to lose most of their heaviness. The rhythm group is mostly fine, I especially like the basslines, they can be pretty engaging sometimes, but when the guitars just lack power, it all cancels itself out. As a result, we are left with an album done out of contractual obligation more than anything else, that we can't even listen to properly.

At least the songs aren't actually bad...