Bat Out of Hell Vol.2: Back Into Hell

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
At a certain point, bad taste and bombast becomes so excessive and so grandiose that they're no longer an easily dismissed irritation but an astonishing monument to the warped imagination. Such a monument is Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, the long-delayed sequel to 1977's Bat Out of Hell. Once again songwriter/producer Jim Steinman has isolated high-school parking-lot aphorisms and inflated them to Wagner-on-Broadway proportions, casting Mr. Loaf as a heavy-metal Ezio Pinza. Typical of the album's strategy is its big hit single, "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)". Steinman piles on the guitars, drums, synthesizers, and choral voices as if he were Phil Spector producing Kiss playing the Who songbook. The rest of the album tackles the themes of teenage lust, frustration, and rock & roll fantasies in similar fashion. It's somehow beside the point to complain about the puerile lyrics, the leaden rhythms, the derivative melodies, the histrionic vocals, or the overblown arrangements. Steinman knows how to push his audience's buttons, and with Meat Loaf's help, he hits those buttons with a sledgehammer. --Geoffrey Himes

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From Amazon.com
At a certain point, bad taste and bombast becomes so excessive and so grandiose that they're no longer an easily dismissed irritation but an astonishing monument to the warped imagination. Such a monument is Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, the long-delayed sequel to 1977's Bat Out of Hell. Once again songwriter/producer Jim Steinman has isolated high-school parking-lot aphorisms and inflated them to Wagner-on-Broadway proportions, casting Mr. Loaf as a heavy-metal Ezio Pinza. Typical of the album's strategy is its big hit single, "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." Steinman piles on the guitars, drums, synthesizers, and choral voices as if he were Phil Spector producing Kiss playing the Who songbook. The rest of the album tackles the themes of teenage lust, frustration, and rock & roll fantasies in similar fashion. It's somehow beside the point to complain about the puerile lyrics, the leaden rhythms, the derivative melodies, the histrionic vocals, or the overblown arrangements. Steinman knows how to push his audience's buttons, and with Meat Loaf's help, he hits those buttons with a sledgehammer. --Geoffrey Himes

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-03-21 rating:
Pure rock genius!
MeatLoaf + Jim Steinman = a must have album!

I'm a huge fan of MeatLoaf and have been for nearly 10 years and hearng this album for the first time blew me away. "Bat 2" blasts along for well over an hour with pure rock genius. Jim Steinman's song writing really works well with MeatLoaf's style of singing.

It's a worthy following to "Bat 1" so-much-so that it won a grammy!

If you're a MeatLoaf fan you would be mad not have this in your collection. If you're not...you don't know what you've been missing all this time!!

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review by: lord derfel cadarn date: 2007-06-16 rating:
Good but not as good as the first.
Meatloaf is again on top form and I suppose that with the success of Bat out of Hell there had to be a follow up. While it follows the same premise as the first it lacks the originality that made Bat out of Hell so good. Yes there are some fantastic tracks and the rock opera works well, but I can't help feeling that it was written because the first did so well they felt they had to do another. Some of the trachs, like the first album, have been released on their own and several have been covered by other artists. 4 stars given because it doesn't quite reach the heights of its predecessor but otherwise it would have been 5.

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review by: lerusty date: 2006-11-11 rating:
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into hell!
Seven years after his previous album and 15 years after the legendary 'Bat Out Of Hell', he's back! And not only that, he's back with Steinman. It's a great album, of course, and puts him back where he should be at his own special niche in rock music. 75 minutes of very long songs (almost 12 minutes for the opener; the highly successful version released as a single was a lot shorter, and perhaps, arguably, more effective?, great big overblown, bombastic, revved up, no holds barred, turn it right up, rock opera. It's as if he never was forced into releasing an album or two in the interim which weren't quite as, well, Meaty. The album cut across the generations: thirty-somethings and teenagers were listening to it. In spite of its power, this album does not quite capture the spirit and magic of the original. Also, most songs were not new; many had been recorded previously by Uncle Jim himself on 'Bad For Good' and also by his own ensemble of foxy femmes fatales known, albeit briefly, as 'Pandora's Box'. But it is an album which can be loved until hell itself freezes over. Or at least until October 2006.

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review by: date: 2005-02-17 rating:
Bat Out Of Hell 2 is exactly what it is!!!!
What a comeback for Meat Loaf in 1993 when he released this album and the single I'd Do Anything For Love, well it's anyone rock star dream to have a comeback like that but it happened to Meat.
After 10 years of delays and wars, Meat and Jim Steinman finally got their second masterpiece together.
This album contains the longest album titles I known such as the very sad and powerful 10 minute song Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are.
Most of the songs of this album are taken from Jim 1981 solo effort Bad For Good and Pandora's Box.
If you've heard all of Jim previous work it may be a slight disapointment of lack of new material. Only 4 songs!!!
Jim and meat's new carnations of Jim's new songs are so much better than the original, Good Girls Go To Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everything) races miles head of it's Pandora's Box orignal.
Everything Louder than Everything Else, well the title explains the song straight away, I wish there were more meat loaf songs like this once.
Every song has a new story to tell, it's a Masterpiece like the first bat album but with much more attitude and jim has got lot more to say this time around.
This album brought Meat Loaf out from the closet and made him into a Rock Superstar, he won a new generation of fans which he deserve and it's good he's still at the top after more than 10 years after the release of this album.


review by: date: 2004-01-09 rating:
Very, very good.
It surpasses Bat out of hell in a few ways. It has more songs and better songs. Plain and simple. 'Everything louder than everything else' is excellent and so is 'Good girls go to heaven'. Not to mention 'Anything for love' as the opening song and 'I want my money back'. This album reeks of value for money and with the exception of the dodgy poem before everything louder than everything else and the musical 'Back into hell' this album is superb. 'out of the frying pan and into the fire is also a great song. The weakest song is probably 'Objects in the rear view mirror becasue i dont count 'back into hell' and 'wasted youth', and 'rock and roll dreams is superb also.

Buy the album and you will realise just how good it is. Nuff said.

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