If you like MOTLEY CRUE, W.A.S.P. or DEF LEPPARD, then you may truly appreciate COLLATERAL DAMAGE's preservation of the 80s, along with a touch of 21^st century sound in their 2^nd album, "The Carnival." With voluminous power and openness, much like Russell Allen of SYMPHONY X, Matt is our tour guide as Slam gives us percussionist marching orders. There is occasional guitar bad-assery to be had from Izzy, Blade and Steve. The best moments of convergence offer well-rounded rock. Not all songs were attention-grabbers from start to finish. This listener fell into lulled complacency multiple times.

Crank the Jack-in-the-box and "March of the Gladiators" tootles along. Then, pop! Out comes the fanged, rapier-clawed, red-eyed clown to drag you into a hellacious midnight carnival where the caramel apples have worms, the corn dogs are incineration on a stick and the games will cost you your soul. This is the visage with which COLLATERAL DAMAGE greets us in "The Carnival" and "Drag Me To Hell" This ain't your Ma and Pa's amusement park, kiddies, unless they are pals with Freddie Kruger.

If there was a "Billion Dollar Jail" in the county, I'd sure keep my nose clean. But alas, "Seven.00" (aka "Seven O'Clock") tells us somebody's been a naughty little murderer. Mournful balladic tones effectively create empathy for his pain, so hopefully the judge will order him some much-needed help.

"Touch The Fire" inspires visions of Evel Knieval jumping his Harley through a blazing ring. Izzy truly tears it up in "Mad Avenue" (3:13 - 3:42). Here is our roller coaster rocketing around the Carnie, but not really thrilling until the segment mentioned previously. "Shot to the Fog" continues the ride. This listener checked out for this track.

If one's eaten a magic 'shroom, then 2:09 minutes of "Vision" would certainly be a proper hallucinatory meander through a hall of mirrors. The intro best showcases Blade's acoustic talent. "One Way To Nirvana" was not a convincingly blissful match between song and title. The band proved they could do bliss in the previous track, so one wonders what happened here. "If The World" completed the trinity of the strongest tracks, next to "The Carnival" and "Drag Me To Hell".

COLLATERAL DAMAGE has given an overall good effort with "The Carnival." I hope they'll get plenty of listens. A question remains. How will their 80s, Rock, Metal and New Age ideas evolve together and gel beyond album #2?