Kev Rowland Warrant was one of the most popular and successful rock bands to emerge out of Hollywood, CA in the late 80's and early 90's. In 1989, they released their debut ‘Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich’, which immediately entered the charts and launched the hit singles “Down Boys,” “Sometimes She Cries”, and “Heaven”, which climbed up to number two on the US charts. They toured hard and soon that album had racked up sales of more than two million within the States alone. In the summer of 1990, their second album ‘Cherry Pie’, was released with even greater success and the singles “I Saw Red” and the rock anthem “Cherry Pie” received massive airplay. Fast forward to 2017 and the boys are back with their tenth album, and incredibly the line-up is only slightly different from those early days with “new boy” singer Robert Mason (Lynch Mob, Cry of Love) joining original members Joey Allen (guitar), Erik Turner (guitar), Jerry Dixon (bass) and Steven Sweet (drums). Mind you, the new boy has been there since 2008, so it is no surprise that he sounds at home.

The guys always had some similarities with bands such as Poison, Quiet Riot and even Motley Crue and Faster Pussycat, and this album just reinforces that. I have no idea why it has taken them six years to follow on from “Rockaholic”, but let’s just hope that it doesn’t take so long for the next one as this is a blast from start to end. True, it does appear that grunge, black metal or thrash has never taken place, and that we have been transported back to mid-Eighties America, but I don’t have an issue with that. This is American hard rock that is quite naïve in its innocence and bubblegum joy, but it’s as infectious as hell and even the obligatory power ballad doesn’t seem out of place. This is hard rock for people who don’t like hard rock, music destined for the airwaves in the States, and for large arenas where people can hold up their iPhones showing that stupid candle app (so that they don’t have to hold up lighters) during “U In My Life”. There is even a song played on acoustic guitars!

It is cheesy, it is out of date, but most of all it is bloody good fun. When I finished playing it I immediately dug out some Poison and put that on for a change, two bands whose music can be enjoyed without really thinking about it. ‘Louder Harder Faster’ may be full of music that isn’t fashionable any more, if it ever was, but Warrnant know exactly what they are doing, and they are doing it very well indeed.

Stephen After parting ways with Jaime St James, Warrant decided to bring back Jani Lane to the camp but unfortunately the devil within Lane swallowed him and Warrant had to let him go and recruited former Lynch Mob and Big Cock's frontman, Robert Mason, for replacement. Mason, might be a better singer than Lane, but many will remember Lane with his distinguished vocal and prominent songwriting skill which shape Warrant's music back in the heyday.

'Rockaholic' came out as a different outfit altogether which divided the fans into two. The first accepted that the band has to move on, but the other rejected the idea that Warrant is nothing without Lane. 'Sex Ain't Love', the first single, is pure 80s hard rock magic but without that glammy and glittery Cherry Pie flavor, really love this song when the video first came out, but sad to see that throughout the album, not a single song can touch this as the greatest tune of this album.

'Cocaine Freight Train' is perhaps the closest thing to edge that song, the bluesy metal take on this song is brilliant. 'Innocence Gone', 'What Love Can Do', and 'The Last Straw' are the next great songs, but they also loaded this up with at least 4 fillers such as 'Smoke', 'Dusty's Revenge', 'Candy Man', and the worst track on board, 'Sunshine'. The band gave Mason a chance to fill in Lane shoes as songwriter, and some tracks he wrote such as the ballad 'Home' is awesome, 'Found Forever' is pretty good too, although he's also responsible for the fillers as well.

With all due respect to the late Jani Lane, he'll always be remembered and an integral part of Warrant, but he chose the bitter path and what's done is done. To quote the eight track on this album, 'Show Must Go On', and that's clearly what's going to happen with Warrant. This is a great album, much better than 'Born Again', and hopefully the future is brighter for the band.

Recommended for fans of crunchy hard rock sound of the 80s but not really for those who love the first two albums though.

Negoba The Last Gasp of Glam

By 1990, everyone knew Glam was on its last breaths. Many bands were starting to try new tricks to keep the music going, but some of the bands were pathetically the same old same old stuff. In the era of overpolished Trixter and Firehouse, Warrant released their biggest album, Cherry Pie.

While Whitesnake had already pushed the single entendre so far years before that it was a complete joke by 1990, Warrant had the audacity to mine the same dry well so hard that the cover is just stupid. What's worse, the title song and the band's biggest hit of their career was a blatant ripoffs of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Not only did they steal the riff style and songwriting structure, they stole the lyrical content too. (By the way, where do these glam bands find all these diabetic girls. Sugary is not how I'd describe...well let's move on) What annoys me even more is that "Pour Some Sugar on Me" was already a ripoff of Loverboy's "Lovin' Every Minute of It." At least Def Leppard made up their own lyrics.

The band attempts to get serious with "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and the ballad on this album "I Saw Red" is a bit more sophisticated than the vapid "Heaven" from the debut album. Having Warrant, of all airbrushed bands, give an "Ode to Tipper Gore" is just ridiculous. Warrant was about as risky as a trip to the malt shop.

This was the last gasp of glam. The classic story is that high off the success of this album, Jani Lane went into the record company, where "Cherry Pie" had been blaring on the stereo for months, and posters covered the walls, shortly after the release of "Dog Eat Dog" only to be met with the sounds and views of Alice in Chains' "Dirt." Glam was done.

Bottom Line: Formula glam pays off...for the last time.

Negoba Extremely Formulaic MTV Glam

During the mid to late 80's there was an absolutely glut of sleazy glam metal bands. MTV would debut a new pick of the month and one of the bands to roll through was Warrant. Their debut album had everything the record company ordered, a rockin' intro single "Down Boys," and big power ballad, "Heaven," a pretty boy lead singer, Jani Lane, and a light enough touch that hopefully the girls would buy the album too.

Absolutely nothing here is remarkable other than the tunes are hummable enough. Lane's pipes aren't anything as amazing as Mark Slaughter or Sebastian Bach. The guitarists (what were their names anyway) played a few seconds of flash to fill space. It was all very safe and sold some records. Of course, on the next album, the band would really cash in by rewriting Def Leppard's sellout song which was itself a ripoff of Loverboy.

Bottom Line: This bands fifteen minutes were over a long time ago.

Stephen While many voted their first two albums are their greatest, I hailed this one as their strongest release in 1992 and my most favourite album. Warrant smartly blended the heavier side of hair-metal, a teenee-tiny progressive element, and the dark nuance of 90s alternative era. Lyrically, they went from cheesy to meaty, covering a wider perspective from voyeurism, psychopathic murder, drugs abuse, broken relationship, and social.

"Machine Gun" shots right through the heart with its razor blade heavy riffs. "April 2031" portrayed an apocalyptic view with a haunting children voices. "All My Bridges Are Burning" is a radio friendly tune that contained the classic Warrant hooks. Both "The Bitter Pill" and "Let It Rain" are mandatory ballads that they included to please the fans looking for the sequel of "Heaven" or "I Saw Red". "Sad Theresa" is the third attempt but not as good as the two tracks previously mentioned. "Andy Warhol Was Right" is hideous and interesting at the same time. This is the most mature approach of Warrant, the finest hour of Jani Lane's writing skill, and the idealistic masterpiece that marked the end of the 80s glam decade. Probably required a multiple spins to digest the musicality and message of "Dog Eat Dog", but once you get there, you'll know that Warrant had so much to offer here.