Classic Album of The Month : Meatloaf

'Bat Out of Hell II' : Back Into Hell

Released : 1993

Most of us have seen it: the motorbikes; the police chase; the graveyard; the phantom figure.  Those of us that haven’t seen it have almost certainly heard it: the unfeasibly long piano intro; the motorbike echoing guitar; the thunderous drums.

1993’s release of the twelve minute Meatloaf epic, I Would Do Anything For Love signaled the continuation of rock’s biggest opera as the opening gambit of Bat Out of Hell II - Back Into Hell. The single won a Grammy Award and reached number one in the charts of 28 countries, making its singer the biggest rock artist in the world at that point.

The album’s thunderous explosion onto the UK music scene was every bit as good as 1977’s Bat Out Of Hell, and far superior to Dead Ringer, Midnight At The Lost And Found, Bad Attitude & Blind Before I Stop.  Four albums in 16 years had not prepared anyone for the musical power and beauty that Meatloaf unleashed with this - the second part of what would become a musical trilogy.

Like its predecessor, song writing credits for BOOH II go to Jim Steinman, but legal, financial & managerial disputes between singer & songwriter also explain the 16 year hiatus between the two albums. These were not the only problems;  Steinman had already started writing a Bat Out of Hell follow up when Meatloaf lost his voice and according to Steinman "sounded literally... like a dragon trying to sing - a horrifying sound." It was 1990 before differences were put aside and the musical chemistry revved into life once more. In the intervening period, the dispute was such that Steinman had released three of the sequel songs – Lost Boys And Golden Girls, Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through & Out Of The Frying Pan (and into the fire), on his own 1981 solo album Bad For Good.  The title track would subsequently go on to feature in the final album of the Bat trilogy, 2006’s The Monster Is Loose.

Back Into Hell is an appropriate title given the dark, almost satanic themes on the album.  Track 2, Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back has Meat’ screaming  how so much in his life is defective including love, sex, gods, childhood and the future:  “What about your childhood? It’s defective!  It’s dead and buried in the past. What about your future? It’s defective! And you can shove it up your ass.”

Objects In The Rear View Mirror is a tragic song, lamenting the loss of a dead friend “I can still recall the sting of all the tears when he was gone”, and detailing an abusive father-son relationship “my father’s eyes were blank as he hit me again and again and again.”  This is followed up by Wasted Youth with the words “I was barely 17 and I once killed a boy with a Fender guitar.” Images of Meatloaf attacking his sleeping parents with a guitar bring Wasted Youth to its narrative end, “Just as I was about to bring the guitar crashing down upon the centre of the bed my Daddy woke up screaming”, before those huge guitar chords reappear to take it seamlessly into Everything Louder Than Everything Else - the latter featuring that enticing line ‘a wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age!’

As well as the opening track, Rock and Roll Dreams & Objects were released as UK singles, and it is the opera-esque videos for the these three tracks that contribute to the greatness of this album over and above the music.  All three videos were directed by Michael Bay who would go on to work on Armageddon & Pearl Harbour.  A young Angelina Jolie even features as a runaway girl in the video for Rock and Roll Dreams.

Steinman’s lyrics, Meatloaf’s voice, Kenny Aronoff’s drums, this album seems to have everything.  It even makes space for an overblown saxophone intro at the start of Good Girls Go To Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere). But somehow, like everything else on this album, it works.  That’s why the album consistently features on ‘Best Ever’ lists.

Quite simply even the most flamboyant and extravagant of today’s rock stars would struggle to make an album as good as this. The comparatively damp squib release of the Monster Is Loose in 2006 only served to underline the fact that even Meatloaf could not again make an album as good as Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell; let’s be thankful that 16 years ago he still could.

Words: Patrick Dennehy

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