Release The Bats (The Birthday Party As Heard Through The Meat Grinder Of 31G) - Various Artists

Advantages: Bombastic operatic excellence
Disadvantages: Some may baulk at length of songs

...Many musical influences are exerted, sometimes subconciously, during childhood. One major artist my father would constantly play in the car on long journeys was Meat Loaf. One thing that stuck with me was the length and awesome brevity of the songs and albums. The way numerous instruments collided and bounced off each other to create an overblown, epic wall of sound and audio imagery. As you may know, Meat Loaf emerged in the '70's, his crowning achievement being the 'Bat out of Hell' album of 1977, which re-defined popular rock music. The story began when Jim Steinman, a multi-instrumentalist visionary, hooked up with a young heavyweight singer called Marvin Lee Aday, nicknamed Meat Loaf by his father, at an audition for a broadway musical piece written by Steinman in 1974. Suddenly, Steinman realised that he had found the voice... Read review

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Advantages: Music for the Memories
Disadvantages: How many times do you need to release the same thing? Best of, Greatest Hits, Bat Out of Hell Digitally revamped arrrrrgh!

...Please, please, please, we've heard the Best Of, The Greatest Hits, Bat Out of Hell 2 is there no end? Welcome to My Rant! Now don't get me wrong, I would be one of the first to agree that Meatloaf is one of (ONE of) the original and influential artists of the last 2 decades. I am only young myself but I am a big fan of older rock music and Meatloaf is an innovative and original artist hailing from the artistic realms of the 70's, through to the Liquorice allsorts of the 80's. He is a prolific figure in rock history with belters such as Bat OUt Of Hell and I Would Do Anything (for Love), defining his name in History permanently. When Meatloaf started out, he was ridiculed for his size, he was an obese rock star trying to make a name for himself in the wake of the Beatle mania years and the beginning of the Glam Rock movement. He... Read review

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Advantages: Some great vocals and some nice tunes
Disadvantages: meats vocals are a little weaker than on bat out of hell

...MEAT LOAF - DEAD RINGER ----------------------- Marvin Lee Aday (AKA Meat Loaf) is most well known for his Bat out of Hell albums, two of the biggest selling records of all time much to the surprise of the critics at the time. After the release of the smash hit album Bat out of Hell, Meat released this album, in 1981, although it never reached the high sales figures of the previous hit, it still sells to this day and is a massive album. Meat first started making music in the mid 60's, where he performed with various bands, but he never really made the mark with any of them. So he took to working with theater musicals instead, doing both 'hair' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. In 1973 Meat got his first taste of working with Jim Steinman, and the rest is pretty much history. As with the previous Bat out of hell record, Jim wrote all... Read review

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