Steel Panther - 3 Japanese SHM-CD (2009-2014)

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Steel Panther - 3 Japanese SHM-CD (2009-2014)

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Steel Panther - 3 Japanese SHM-CD (2009-2014)

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In case you're wondering, despite what VH1's Behind the Music might have you believe, hair metal is still alive and kicking. Unfortunately, it's more lowbrow than ever, thanks to L.A.'s Steel Panther. Taking debauchery to the next level for their debut, Feel the Steel, Steel Panther gather inspiration from Warrant, Poison, and Mötley Crüe as they pretend to be a metal group with two primal desires: rocking faces and scoring chicks. Metal satire is a well-traveled road, with Bad News, Spinal Tap, and Tenacious D all taking their respective turns portraying lunkheaded metalheads. Likewise, onetime L.A. Guns frontman Ralph Saenz (playing the part of "Michael Starr") does his best impression of an egotistical David Lee Roth/Bret Michaels type who dedicates 50 percent of his time on the microphone to objectifying women ("Fat Girl [Thar She Blows]") and the other half to boasting about his appendage. It's a convincing act, as is the performance by the rest of the band (drummer Stix Zadinia, bassist Lexxi Foxxx, and lead guitarist Satchel), with their textbook Hit Parader shredding and spot-on attention to '80s production details. Metal references fly out of every corner, with nods to the Def Leppard ultra-processed "whoa oh" sound, Richie Sambora's "Bad Medicine" guitar talk box intro, and a slapping acoustic ode to Extreme's definitive power ballad, "More Than Words." Steel Panther's ability to create songs that sound like they came from 1987 is commendable. That's about as close to clever as it gets, though. As David St. Hubbins said, "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever," and Saenz's locker-room humor wears thin quickly. Even cameos from Slipknot's Corey Taylor, Anthrax's Scott Ian, Nelson's Matt Nelson, the Donnas' Allison Robertson and Brett Anderson, and the Darkness' frontman Justin Hawkins can't keep the same dick joke interesting for 40 minutes straight.

www.allmusic.com

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Steel Panther - 3 Japanese SHM-CD (2009-2014)

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Whether or not you’re a fan of Steel Panther’s ridiculously over the top glam metal, you have to appreciate their dedication. For a comedy rock band, they manage to tell a joke with a surprisingly straight face, jamming out sleazy hair metal in a way that is equal parts caricature and homage. With the band's pedigree lying with acts like L.A. Guns and Fight, it’s not really a surprise that Balls Out is such a spot-on tribute to the excess of that bygone era, coming from people who were there to see the rise and fall of the genre from the inside. Songs like “It Won’t Suck Itself” and “17 Girls in a Row” show that Steel Panther are still the comedy rock masters of the single entendre, but to be fair, subtlety isn’t what an album like this is all about. This isn’t a carefree, “hang around the house and mow the lawn while you reminisce about the '80s" record, but more of an “all-night bender at a strip club while you reminisce about the '80s" record. As a hair metal album, Balls Out is finely crafted and well produced, evoking the glossy sound of the era, but as a joke, it’s pretty one-note, so either you’re going to get it or it’s going to grate on you. That said, if you’ve been looking for the glam metal equivalent of a theme park ride to be the soundtrack to a guys' night out bird-doggin’ chicks, you’ve found your holy grail.

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Steel Panther - 3 Japanese SHM-CD (2009-2014)

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While Steel Panther made a career for themselves as a living, breathing parody of the legendary debauchery and excess of bands like Mötley Crüe, like hair metal itself, the joke has run its course. On All You Can Eat, the fourth outing from the comedy rock quartet, the band continues to dig deep into its musical bag of tricks, delivering a spot-on homage to the grime and glam of Los Angeles' storied metal scene. Unlike those bands, who at least barely pretended to hide their lyrical sleaze in plain sight, with only the thinnest veneer of double entendre in place to assuage the fears of nervous standards and practices departments, Steel Panther don't even bother to go that far. Sure, the point of the band isn't subtlety, but at this point Steel Panther's escalation of the "wearing makeup and swearing over guitar riffs" joke has gone from ironic pastiche to just plain offensive. And it's easy to write off songs like "Bukkake Tears" and "You're Beautiful When You Don't Talk" as jokes, but at this point those jokes are such low-hanging fruit that they've made the transition from shocking to gross. Musically, Steel Panther still shred pretty hard, but it seems that their well of hot riffs is a lot deeper than their well of comedy. In the end, All You Can Eat is an album that owes as much to Andrew Dice Clay as it does to Skid Row and Warrant, making it more a reminder of a less enlightened era than a reminder of the fun times that might've been had there.

www.allmusic.com