I listened to Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell II yesterday, intending to enjoy and appreciate it as I always have done. The only distraction was that my mind kept drifting to how I was going to express my thoughts about the album on paper. Evidently that skill is becoming so engrained into me that I cannot even enjoy listening to my favourite album without dreaming up similes, metaphors, oxymorons, alliterations and onomatopoeias.
The first half of the album is a relentless, unprecedented assault on your hearing, that makes me glad not to be deaf. “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” starts with a roaring guitar imitating a motorbike, rather like that in the titular song of Bat II’s predecessor; before a tinkling piano begins its now unmistakeable riff, and before long low drums and a wailing guitar join in, making the longest and most aurally astonishing intro in the history of music.
The instrumental in “Life Is A Lemon (And I Want My Money Back)” is one of thunder and lightning. While the instrumental in “Out Of the Frying Pan (And Into The Fire)” is one of fire and thunder. “It Just Won’t Quit” contains an interlude that always makes me feel as though I am about to be blasted-off on the Space Mountain ride at Disneyland Paris, but without a safety harness.
Although “Rock ‘N’ Roll Dreams Come Through” is slightly toned down, like the rest of the songs that comprise the first forty-five minutes of the album, it still contains a few moments of vocal majesty.
The second half of the album greets us with “Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are”; an epic tale of friendship, death, and love. The next is a spoken recitation from songwriter Jim Steinman that was taken from his solo album, Bad For Good, in which he explores the true spirit of rock ‘n’ roll.
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