David Lee Roth is back!! No, not the vegas lounge singer, but the charismatic, witty, mofo that ruled the 80's. You see... if you go to any dictionary and look up the word "FRONTMAN" you'll see a picture of Diamond Dave, shit-eatin' grin and all, GUARAN-TEED!! Van Halen fans and Guitar ROCK fans know what they want, and it's NOT Van Halen III................ Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........Uh? Arrgh...BARF!!! Sorry I fell asleep, woke up and puked just thinking of that piece of crap. What I'm trying to say is that THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN and apparently Roth was listening, and he delivers!

This CD comes at you like a freight train at the speed of light. And it's headed directly for your skull!! From the opener "Slam Dunk," the ass-kicking begins, and it doesn't end until the last second of the closer "Black Sand." To handle the guitar for this album, Roth hired 3 guitarists; the most known name is John Lowery, who is a member of Rob Halford's shameful TWO (Glad it's such a short name, I could hold the vomit). I never thought much of Lowery until now, and it became apparent that either A) Eddie Van Halen's guitar style has become so dated that anyone can do it, or B) This dude CAN play. We all know the answer to that, or at least I do, and that's all that matters. Check out the opener "Slam Dunk," or "Counter-Blast," where Lowery manages to take your head off.

Also handling guitar work is the recently departed Michael Hartman, whose style is very original - he's certainly a virtuoso. Check out "INDEEDIDO" (MetalGod's Pick) and "King Of the Hill" for an example of his guitar prowess. And last but not least is Terry Kilgore who played on Diamond Dave's last solo album, he is a real good guitar player, more on the bluesy side of shred (check out "Right Tool For The Job"), but it works!

Roth's vocals sound surpringly good and he's singing in the Fair Warning era style. The drumming is very cool also. This album is packed with catchy anthem-style songs that can easily be hits, a couple of bluesy songs, along with one or two fillers. Bottom Line: If you like Van Halen, since Van Halen decided to turn into REM or Fag-Halen, get this CD instead. If you like Roth, or if you want GUITAR ROCK that PACKS a PUNCH and kicks you right in the ASS, GET this CD. 'Nuff Said -- I'm going to Scores!

-MetalGod

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