SPREAD EAGLE - Spread Eagle
September 30, 2008, 16 years ago
(Lovember)
You’ve probably heard me rail on in various places that Love/Hate was way better than Guns ‘N Roses at making that kind of music, and that Appetite is crazily over-rated. Well, Spread Eagle is in that camp as well, and in both cases, I often forget that there’s a good three years separating the bands I’m championing here versus GN’R. In any event, take that for what you will, but take with it my sincere exhortations that NYC’s Spread Eagle, through their two albums, ‘90’s self-titled and ‘92’s Open To The Public, made equal or better scratch ‘n’ claw party metal than the Gunners ever did (Love/Hate – no contest – geniuses). And now the molten, screechy, hell-raisin’ debut has been reissued, although there’s nothing to the booklet and no bonus tracks, nor is it remastered, making it no improvement on an old MCA copy you might find. Ray West is in the Axl spot, also recalling Baz in full flight, and the production is all about heaving, abrasive guitars. So yeah, check out this small Lovember label (they’ve also done an old Angel album) if you want to pick up an old sleaze metal album that packed an electrocuting ka-pow of a punch. But hey, let’s face it, this is good because it pretty much had to be, given the mountain of party metal that came before, and so much before, that there’s a bit of a deflating vibe given that Spread Eagle was just pulling up and sparking up as the party was in fact ending.
