Review by Pelle Johnson for Nitro - O.F.R. (1989)

Something of an infamous album to some. Glam metal is pretty controversial already and here we have an album that gets mentioned when talking about the worst stuff from that era. Well, this is one of those albums that you appreciate purely out of its charm or I should say, its novelty. The mission statement of this record is to be the most over the top, outrageous music ever put to tape. I mean, check out the music video for the opening track. Look at MAB rockin' that quadruple guitar. When people say this album is crazy, they mostly mean his playing. This guy does every trick in the book of "crazy fast solos". Sure, none of it may sound good per se but just look at him go! A total circus act, this band is. That said, having novelty be the driving force of your music is pretty dangerous. For one, none of the riffs here are good or even memorable. A good example of this is when there isn't a solo or some kind of showy guitar antic, the main focus is the vocals of Jim Gillete and the guitars just turn into background music. Time to talk about the elephant in the room. The vocals suck. He has six octaves and can shatter glass with his voice but i'd be lying if I said listening to him on this record is a pleasurable experience. His highs alternate from sounding like King Diamond to Vince Neil after inhaling copious amounts of helium and sometimes it opens up to some ridiculous moments which is what this album is all about but it gets annoying real fast. Despite all that, I really do think this is an album that every metal fan should listen to at least once, especially if you're into searching for weird records like me. I'd even recommend this to anyone who's a big fan of the 80s just to see all those hair metal tropes you know blown up to sheer overdrive.