L.A. GUNS, DANGEROUS TOYS, & FASTER PUSSYCAT are all bands that were good enough to stand out from the massive throng of the 80's Hair Metal bands, but even they didn't have the dice roll for them that seemed to determine who would be the next MOTLEY CRUE, RATT, POISON and so on. NEW YORK's re-issue of their demos is a trip down memory lane, but it also illustrates the sheep like mentality that the recording Industry forced on the genera at the time. Even here in Canada, I literally went from Halifax to Vancouver and every bar with a metal band performing played this cloned music. Even I was guilty of this for a while. Hey, it kinda payed the bills, sort of.

When I first started listening to this re-issue I realized that I couldn't review it as I do most of my other posts, but look at it as a historical document of that era in metal. Hair Metal might seem like a joke now, but at the time it opened the door for more acceptance in the main stream, allowing later bands like G'NR and METALLICA to break through and destroy radio speakers in cars everywhere. The band themselves were talented, but like I said clones. I was trying to figure out if Jimmie Ennis sounded more like Vince Neil or Stephen Percy, but then I realized it was the voice of Glam, regardless of the name. The bands' sound, from Freddy Foster's trebley Marshall to the gated reverb drum sound of Rikk Hanz, it was classic 80's. The bass (yea I know I focus on it a lot) was different I'll admit, that raw sound of a Precision clone Johnny Lover had made me tingle.

Truthfully though I enjoyed it, a lot! It was classic, songs about partying, girls, and rocking till ya puke are all fun, never meant to be taken really seriously, even though at the time we did. Like this album, the whole movement was bar rock, best enjoyed in a crowded environment where you got higher from your girlfriends hairspray than the weed floating around the dance floor. And that's what this album did to me, remember the smell of thick acrid smoke, both legal and not, stale beer and sweat and hot electrical equipment. This anthology is a perfect snapshot of what was happening on stage in clubs around North America! When I give my rating this time around, I added another component to the score, nostalgia. This was my era, full stop! No hair spray for me , just black hair dye and a bandanna but it still was an era of decadence that a lot of my friends didn't make it through (I myself left the era in a wheelchair paralyzed from the shoulders down) Asked if I'd do anything different my reply is "Karma looked at the party that my life was from 84 till 93 and thought I had enough of the fast lane for my lifetime and it was time to slow down NEW YORK brought those times front and center in my memory again and I thank them for it!