Disco de Mötley Crüe: “Shout at the Devil”

Shout at the Devil is a critically important album. While its predecessor, Too Fast for Love, was quite good, SATD lunged forward with a fury that left the aforementioned release in a glamorous dust. SATD is heavy--in pacing, in mood, in lyrics, in its mantra. But it's an image of a moment in musical time and location that will never happen again. It never could happen again. Ask anyone who survived it. You can hear the Sunset Strip beginning to unravel even here in 83'--well before Cobain--and in many ways this sad imminent doom is every bit as punk as albums that are officially labeled as such. This album never tried to be punk; it just is, and that is what makes it so, even if it is in a non-standard way.

Knock em Dead Kid -- Loomis

No, folks, "Shout At The Devil" isn't a masterpiece of technical wizardry and/or brutal, thrashing heaviness...but that's not what it's about anyway.

It's about energy and attitude...fist-pumping adrenaline...and good ol' fashioned headbanging. This is the essence of what Motley Crue is all about...raunch 'n' roll...but with a harder, darker edge than their previous or subsequent albums. It stands out because of that...the focus here was on darker, sinister, heavier music and themes...there's not as much of the tongue-in-cheek humorous sneer that marks Motley Crue's other works. This was about leather and spikes.

It's simple, direct, to-the-point classic metal. With this album Motley Crue really opened the door to the L.A. metal and "pop" metal scenes (though I wouldn't classify this as pop metal...it's more classic metal). It's a highly influential album.

Again, it's a simple formula: rude guitars, snarling, screaming, sultry vocals, pounding bass and drums. You won't find musical breakthroughs here, but you will find two things on here that make this album worthy: classic metal guitar riffs and licks, and GROOVE. It's 4/4 and it grooves and pounds -- after all, despite his personal issues, you have one of the better rock/metal drummers on this album in the person of Tommy Lee.

So check it out and hear one of the albums that started it all. Get past the 80's leather-and-spikes and hairspray look and you'll find some metal to get your head banging. "Looks That Kill", "Shout At The Devil", "Too Young To Fall In Love" and a killer cover of "Helter Skelter."

As far as impact on the hard rock/metal scene, this album is near the very top. The distortion is absolutely killer, Vince Neil's vocals are top-notch, and the drums are outstanding. This album is razor-sharp metal. Unfortunately after this album, the Crue would go on to make pop-metal on par with Warrant, Poison, and Slaughter. But this album is nothin' but metal.

Highlights include pretty much everything, though the best are "Looks that Kill", "Red Hot","Ten Seconds to Love" and the title song. However, again, don't discount the others. A masterpiece. If you love hard rock/metal and don't own this album shame on you. But if you do, well you probably already own this.

This album really got me interested in the band, but I have to admit, nothing else they did compares. They have some other good songs, but not albums. With that said, this album rocks! Definitely a classic in my book. To this day, its a great listen. Definitely happy to have this one in my collection.

Absolutely without a doubt their best album ever !