Truth be told, once
Meat Loaf had a blockbuster with
Bat Out of Hell in 1977, he never really left the bombastic sound of that
Todd Rundgren-produced,
Jim Steinman-written classic behind. He went through a long stretch where he didn't have any hits -- it's popularly known as the '80s -- but he kept reworking the album, never quite getting it right until he reteamed with
Steinman for 1993's
Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, which became a surprise international hit, re-establishing
Meat Loaf as a major star. After that record, he never went away, continuing to record, tour, and act, but nothing quite matched the success of either
Bat Out of Hell, so it made perfect sense for
Meat to go back to the
Bat well a third time in the mid-2000s -- over 12 years since the second
Bat and nearly 30 years on from the first. But there was a hitch in his well-laid plan:
Steinman didn't want to participate. This was a problem, because the
Bat albums were as much
Steinman's as they were
Meat Loaf's -- and this point was never hidden, either, as
Steinman's name was prominent on the cover of both
Bats. Undaunted,
Meat Loaf went ahead with the project, hiring
Desmond Child as producer and picking several older
Steinman songs to form the heart of
Bat Out of Hell III, which now bore the subtitle of
The Monster Is Loose. As the album's fall 2006 release date approached,
Steinman took
Meat Loaf to court over the record -- after all, not only had he written the
Bat Out of Hell albums, but he owned the copyright to the phrase, so
Meat needed permission in order to release the record. Permission was eventually granted in an out-of-court settlement, paving the way for the October 2006 release of
Bat Out of Hell III, a record that had many
Steinman songs but in no way features his involvement in the recording or production of the album. And this
Bat is quite obviously a patchwork, pieced together from things borrowed and re-created, never quite gelling the way either of the previous
Bats did. It's a brightly lit mess, but there is one redeeming factor here and that's
Meat Loaf, who is singing his heart out as he valiantly tries to make this
Bat a worthy successor to the originals. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine