1064. Wolfsbane / Live Fast, Die Fast. 1989. 3/5

Back in my youth, I became aware of a band called Wolfsbane through metal magazines such as Hot Metal and Kerrang! and Metal Hammer, comparing their early music to other bands I was favourable to at the time. Certainly the lead singer looked very similar to Bruce Dickinson did at the same time with the same long straight hair. Still, with so many other bands taking my fancy I didn’t feel an urge to check them out. Then in 1994 Bruce had left Maiden, and they actually hired that same lead singer, Blaze Bayley to take his place! Wow! But despite how much I enjoyed most of the material that came from those two albums I still didn’t feel any need to check out Wolfsbane. On his departure from Maiden I was pleasantly surprised by Blaze’s first two solo albums with his new band, as they had a great edge to them. Still, no Wolfsbane. Then he released his double live album As Live As It Gets, and one of the songs he does here is “Steel” which I enjoyed thoroughly. Blaze announces that it is an old Wolfsbane song (albeit from their EP All Hell's Breaking Loose Down at Little Kathy Wilson's Place!). Okay, maybe I need to check them out after all.

Wolfsbane’s first album Live Fast, Die Fast is a mixture of fast and slow, of heavy and mild, of good and bad. I don’t think I ever got around how much in places that this band sounds like Van Halen, and certainly Blaze’s vocals at this time have much in common with David Lee Roth’s. Whether or not they were looking for such similarities I don’t know, but they are obvious to most. It was also an interesting time to release an album like this, which feels like it is a hair metal album about five years too late in the whole scheme of the music world. Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer were dominating with their sound, while the Seattle grunge sound was right around the corner. More than anything else, this always sounds like a fun album, that the band itself is enjoying itself, which is half the battle won.
For me the biggest problem with this album is the differing styles and mood of the songs contained on it. This is what stops me enjoying it more. Both “Man Hunt” and “Killing Machine” are the best of the upbeat songs and the best examples of the heavier side of the album. The single “I Like it Hot” that produced a video that showed the band prancing and partying around in hijinks is one of the fun songs on the album, the ones that you’ll either enjoy because they don’t take themselves seriously or dislike because they don’t take themselves seriously. Much of the rest of the album is stuff that was probably enjoyable back in the day for about six minutes, before being cast aside or ignored in favour of anything else that was being released at the time. It really is full of the sexual innuendos that much of the hair metal movement candied up their songs with during the mid-1980’s, and while that works on some levels with those major bands it leaves me a little flat on this album. No doubt this is a result of not having listened to the album when it was released, for the reasons listed above, but moving back in time it is not these songs that hold up the best. It is the more powerful band tracks such as “Man Hunt” and “Killing Machine” that best express the talents of the band.

The musical reasons why Wolfsbane never really took off in a big way are hear for you to hear on their first album. Despite the promise of a great guitar sound and a solid rhythm section and a front man with some good pipes, the writing itself leaves a bit to be desired. It’s a better than average entrance to the album release stage but without any real hooks to drag you in time and again.

Rating: “Burning through the peace and the quiet. I don't want soft music!” 3/5