Review by Daniel for Leatherwolf - Street Ready (1989)

The last decade has seen me developing a bit of a penchant for US power metal which is a movement that I wasn’t always that well versed in. It’s tendency to see what are essentially classic heavy metal bands at their core dabbling in chunkier guitar tones & more modern & extreme brands of metal such as speed metal, power metal & thrash metal is something that offers a fair bit of appeal to this ol’ metalhead so I’ve found myself exploring a lot more of these releases than I would have anticipated previously. It’s also funny that I occasionally stumble across acts that are held in fairly high regard by US power metal enthusiasts but have somehow managed to completely avoid my attention in the 35+ years that I’ve been infatuated with metal music. Californian heavy metallers Leatherwolf definitely fall into this category & I thought I’d better check them out post haste based on the unanimous praise I’ve seen them drawing from some of the more trustworthy Twitter members I follow in recent weeks with their 1989 third album “Street Ready” in particular being held up as some sort of underground classic these days. Let’s see if these dudes can walk the talk then, shall we?

Leatherwolf are a five-piece outfit hailing from Huntington Beach who formed way back in 1981 with their independently released self-titled debut full-length seeing the light of day three years later. They’d maintain a fairly stable lineup through their early years with the only change leading up to their 1989 third album “Street Ready” being that bassist Paul Carman would take over Matt Hurich’s position for the band’s 1987 sophomore album (which, strangely enough, was also self-titled based on Leatherwolf’s new English label Island Records treating the debut as more of a demo). So the band had a fair amount of time to find their sound & gel as a group prior to the recording of “Street Ready” & it certainly shows too. Island had engaged Canadian producer Kevin Beamish (who had previously produced Saxon's 1984 "Crusader" album) for the recording of “Leatherwolf” & elected to go that way once again for “Street Ready” so one would assume that he must have made a pretty reasonable fist of things on his initial engagement. The evidence for that can be found in the stunning results here too as “Street Ready” sports a spectacularly bright & vibrant sound production that is one of its major drawcards, even making some of the less impressive examples of song-writing much more tolerable than they may otherwise have been.

The musicianship on “Street Ready” is also immaculate & often saw me wondering how I could not have heard of some of the individual instrumentalists before given just how capable they are with their chosen tools. The guitar solos of dual axemen Geoff Gayer & Carey Howe are particularly invigorating which begs the question as to why they didn’t receive more coverage in the US guitar magazines I used to read fairly religiously at the time. Perhaps they did feature but I didn’t pay attention to those articles given my lack of familiarity with them? It’s certainly possible but I’d suggest it’s probably unlikely as I generally used to read those mags from cover to cover. Front man Michael Olivieri possessed exactly the sort of voice that you’d want from a melodic US heavy metal singer too with his tone beautifully combining the accessibility of Motley Crue’s Vince Neil with the snarl of Exodus’ Steve Souza.

Although I mentioned the links with US power metal earlier in the review, I have to admit that I can’t really see it on the evidence here. The only track that sits comfortably under that tag is the wonderfully complex & unbelievably well-executed instrumental piece “Black Knight” (which also happens to be my personal favourite) with the rest of the album rarely exceeding the intensity levels of your more traditional heavy metal model. In fact, four of the ten songs included actually veer over into a more poppy glam metal space which leaves Leatherwolf’s sound being somewhat of a cross between glammy hard rockers Icon & the more heavy metal-inclined US power metal bands like Lizzy Borden & Banshee. After consideration I’d suggest that a dual tagging seems pretty appropriate for “Street Ready” too.

The potential for the album to score very highly was actually looking really good when I was halfway through my first listen with all of the highlight tracks sitting on the A side & even the couple of early glam metal tracks being catchy enough to be deemed acceptable. Things take a bit of a dip for the B side though which is a little disappointing, particularly the inclusion of a couple of more disposable glam metal ballads in “The Way I Feel” & “Lonely Road”. Thankfully there’s still enough quality in the tracks around them to keep me engaged but it’s a shame that there wasn’t anything to compare with earlier songs like “Wicked Ways” or “Take A Chance” during the back end of the album which has seen my initial hopes of a high score being dashed.

Look… while it may not take the US power metal direction that I’m led to believe Leatherwolf’s first two records did, there’s no doubt that “Street Ready” is a high-quality example of the middle-of-the-road, radio-friendly American heavy metal record. In fact, I’m baffled that they didn’t become household names on the basis of this release alone as its polished precision is just so easy on the ear. Presumably they were just a little late in the game with the grunge movement about to explode & cause the commercial hard rock scene to do the exact opposite. Perhaps that’s why Leatherwolf dropped off the map altogether after “Street Ready” & have failed to recover ever since? I’m not sure but at least they left us with this hint at what might have been.