Product Description

The third instalment of the 'Bat Out Of Hell' series comes 13 years after volume 2 and almost 30 years after the original 'Bat Out Of Hell'; the third best-selling record of all time. An album full of dark, dramatic and epic rock masterpieces, 'Bat Out Of Hell Vol.3' features guest appearances fromthe legends such as Steve Vai, Todd Rundgren and Brian May and was produced by Desmond Child.

Track Listing

1. The Monster Is Loose
2. Blind As A Bat
3. It's All Coming Back To Me Now - Meat Loaf, Marion Raven
4. Bad For Good
5. Cry Over Me
6. In The Land Of The Pig, The Butcher is King
7. Monstro
8. Alive
9. If God Could Talk
10. If It Aint Broke Break It
11. What About Love - Meat Loaf, Patti Russo
12. Seize The Night
13. The Future Ain't What It Used To Be - Meat Loaf, Jennifer Hudson
14. Cry To Heaven

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9064 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Single
• Running time: 78 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The long-awaited third record in the Bat Out of Hell trilogy, The Monster Is Loose, wears bombast, pretension and pyrotechnics proudly on its album sleeve and across the bulging disc's 15 tracks. More a pop orchestral mishmash than a well-defined rock opus, Bat III is dark, seemingly hopeless at times, and über dramatic. Oddly enough, that's also its saving grace. Meat Loaf and company create a great escape into the realm of grand theatricality, with a bunch of radio-friendly rock tunes that sound 20 years old and several lyrically memorable AOR ballads to sustain it all the way to Broadway. With collaborator (and occasional defendant in Meat Loaf lawsuits) Jim Steinman, plus producers Desmond Child and Todd Rundgren, the Meat man consistently has the big sound booming and his despair and his rage on to the point that listeners may feel his pain a little too often. Bat III ain't for sissies. Balanced by the powerful female voices of Marion Raven, Patti Russo, and Jennifer Hudson; along with guest musicians and songwriting help from Steve Vai, Marilyn Manson's John 5, Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx, Queen's Brian May, and others; Meat Loaf's Monster has roared the unlikely rock star back to life. --Martin Keller

Customer Reviews

oh yeah baby!!!
this album rocks big style!! i have over-played the cd to near death. I recommed it to any loaf and steinman fans out there. owning all of his back catologue i can safely say this is one of the best and is worthy of the title 'bat out of hell 3'

Masterpiece!!!
If I had to get rid of my rock music collection, but were allowed to keep a handful of albums, I would choose this without hesitation. 5 stars is simply not enough, "Bat Out Of Hell 3" is a masterpiece with some truely incrediable songs. A must have for all Meatloaf fans.

Overblown pretentious nonsense. Huge, huge fun.
More rounded than Bat2, but with the same production values and self-mockery that made Bat1 & 2 fun, this is a surprisingly good album. Meat Loaf's long-time collaboration with Jim Steinman (30yrs or so) has to be one of the oddest partnerships going. Contractual wrangles and legal procedings finally laid to rest, they came up with this album as a follow-up to the hugely successful follow-up of the third biggest selling album of all time. So, no pressure then.

To be honest, I find the opening, and eponymous, opening track difficult to like - a bit overtly aggressive and energetic, for the "hell" of it, so to speak - so for me the album starts with "Blind As A Bat" which has an epic, anthemic quality to it which is just fantastic. All good Meat Loaf is great to drive to, and this is no exception. What you get in the next few tracks is a combination of several really good songs that blend well together and set the scene for the rest of this very under-rated album.

Whilst the album is not 100% written by Steinman or produced by him, it may as well have been. The songs follow the same formula we've heard before, and in that sense this is not a revolutionary album, but it presses all of the right buttons nevertheless, and you can trace its heritage directly back to 1977's classic. Steinman's songwriting (which is heavily present here, by way of covers and some limited new material) was always deceptively sophisticated - what sound like straightforward structures, and simple melodic themes are often complex, and generally incredibly catchy, and some passages simply make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. For something so simple and so effective, you wonder why it's never been copied. I dare say people have tried...

Each song here is a mini-epic - true the songs are long (many are 7minutes or longer) but they evolve throughout and you're often wondering if you're listening to the same track... right up until the moment when the opening riff, or main chorus returns in a glorious refrain but this time cranked all the way up to 11 - classic Steinman/Meat Loaf. Very effective, and harks back to Bat1, Bat2 and is the kind of musical experimentation that only sophisticated song-writers and musicians can pull off.

Surprisingly strong ballads "Cry over me" and "If god could talk" appear out of the middle album, almost out of no where, and are up there with the best of Steinman's work. Meat turns in a fantastic vocal performance on most of the tracks - great power, intimacy and fun, a real tour de force. He hams up the anguish and extracts every last ounce from the lyrics - and it all hangs together convincingly. "Alive" and "What About Love" are tracks that build and build, evolve in other directions then come slamming back, reaching great rock-out fist-in-the-air moments from quiet beginnings - truly theatrical in style, epic in scale and true to the Steinman formula.

The 'full Meat Loaf treatment' version of "Its All Coming Back To Me Now" far exceeds the almost unlistenable (by comparison) Celine Dion version. DO NOT BE PUT OFF BY SEEING THIS SONG ON THIS ALBUM - this is definitley not Nut Roast, this is full-blooded Meat Loaf, and is a fabulous power-ballad duet, leaning heavily towards "I would do anything for love" in style. Meat's version is more faithful to the original song, which is actually quite an old one - from one of Steinman's solo-albums. Lyrically it is different to the woeful Celine Dion version, and it somehow seems louder, more powerful and just "like it should have been, originally". I heard this track in the Hard Rock Cafe in Copenhagan, and I ordered the album the next day. It's just that kind of track.

True to Meat Loaf form, a truly excellent collection of musicians have been assembled for the recording of his album. Some of them are 'just' first-class session players, but look closer and you'll also find Todd Rundgren and Brian May, as well as Nikki Sixx. The female vocalists are all excellent too - adding fantastic balance to the 'big' duet-ballads - their voices are strong, soleful and measure up well against the power of Meat's lungs. Add in an orchestra, a gospel choir and a swathe of backing singers and you get the sense that this thing could make a tour of Broadway, not just your local arena. Desmond Child (in the role of producer) has done a great job keeping all this under control and maitaining the quality of what you get - and just as you'd expect for a producer with his pedigree and body of work. The production is certainly complex, and lush and indulgent, but it's balanced and controlled. The quality of the playing, mixing and recording is first class - even on the longer tracks (some are north of 9 minutes) the ear does not tire and your foot keeps tapping. The whole thing bounces along with pace, passion, power and a huge sense of fun.

Simply put, it's classic Meat Loaf. More relaxed, and more rounded than Bat1, less trying-so-hard-it-hurts than Bat2, but no less ridiculous, or over the top. It's an assured, confident performance from a group of musicians who are unashamedly doing it for fun, and because they can rather than they need to. Some people have referred to this album as 'bleak' or 'downbeat' - I fundamentally disagree - in my view this is a far more uplifting album than it's predecessors, and whilst you can't take anything away from Bat1 or Bat2, this is a worthy addition.

In short, this album does exactly what you expect, and very occasionally surprises you. Overlook it at your peril.