Street Lethal

Let's all don our white sports coats and iridescent aviators, hop into our Chrysler Cordoba, support Pablo Escobar's business endeavors from betwixt a bosom, and listen to some Racer X. 80's to the point of nausea for the uninitiated, Street Lethal is as gnarly as it is dudical, as kickin' as it is the bombdiggety. If none of this is giving you a clear indication of what you're in for, you can view this album as an exhaustive test to see how many fretboard smoldering steroids can be injected into hair metal's buttcheek.

With the power of young guitar prodigy Paul Gilbert behind the wheel, Racer X managed to get off to a flying start. Their rabid fanbase was in awe of Gilbert's extreme shredding, and it wasn't long until he was sharing magazine space with the guitarist who influenced him - none other than Mr. Malmsteen himself. Gilbert acknowledges this influence as unequivocally as the track 'Y.R.O (Yngwie Rip-Off)', but in an amusing case of turnabout, one could argue Street Lethal's brilliant fusing of neoclassical and hair metal would later become the inspiration for Malmsteen's superb Odyssey and Eclipse albums.

So the warp-speed shredder Paul Gilbert is the star of the Racer X show, as you may have guessed from their logo, and as such, he's given ample spotlight. The unadulterated, unmoderated shredding sessions like the aforementioned 'Y.R.O' and 'Frenzy' are a good place to start looking, but it's the title track where Gilbert really shows off his technical precision to its maximum. It's difficult to come across overstatement when regarding the sheer speed of Gibert's squealy pinch harmonics and low tremolo picking.

But as I'm sure Gilbert receives plenty of fan-mail, I'll turn my compliments to the more unsung members of Racer X, particularly the velvety pipes of Jeff Martin. Longtime friend of Rob Halford and backing vocalist for Turbo, of all things, Martin is an extraordinarily underrated singer who can commit to falsetto with ease and reach some impressively high notes in the process. Like the rest of the band, he performs best during the faster tracks like 'Loud and Clear' and the disgustingly catchy 'Rock It'.

Sadly, and perhaps inevitably when considering this band's location, there's the usual dosage of soppy glam filler to wade through. 'Into the Night' is a clutch-depressing downshift after the whirlwind of a title track, and 'Getaway' is an overproduced turd between the curvaceous buttocks 'Dangerous Love' and 'Rock It'. Wholly forgettable and little more than a flirtatious wink toward radio rock, 'Getaway' can be praised only for its brevity.

But Street Lethal still deserves every ounce of its praise, and the cherry on top is its glorious production. Just as one can't exaggerate Paul Gilbert's shredding, Steve Fontano is the patron saint of speed metal who's mixed and engineered almost every single one of my favorite neoclassical shredfests to a level of unprecedented refinement: Perpetual Burn, Infra-Blue, Speed Metal Symphony, I could go on and on. But one album at a time, right?