The original Bat Out of Hell is an indisputable '70s kitsch-rock masterpiece: A gloriously over-the-top collision of Springsteen's epic heartland rock and Phil Spector's sonic bombast, delivered with much Wagnerian gusto and a bit of Elvis by the inimitable Meat Loaf. And nearly all of that is sorely missing from Meat's

Frankenthreequel Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. The problem: Composer Jim Steinman, the mad scientist behind the music, didn't want to play (and reportedly tried to stop Meat from using the Bat title). Undaunted, Meat dug up some old Steinman cuts (like the Celine hit It's All Coming Back to Me Now), grafted songwriter and producer Desmond Child on to the project, and stitched together tunes by Diane Warren, Nikki Sixx and Marti Frederiksen. But none of them manages to replicate Steinman's juvenile humour, Broadway melodies and cinematic grandeur.

Instead, you get heavy-handed lumbering and chugging guitar arpeggios that create a humourless, ominous ambience closer to Eurometal than campy fun. Meat gives it everything he's got as usual, and every now and then -- like on the nostalgic Alive and the punchy If It Ain't Broke, Break It -- you get a glimpse of what might have been.

But ultimately, Meat's Monster is an ugly monstrosity that should never have been brought to life.

Track Listing:

1. The Monster Is Loose
2. Blind As a Bat
3. It's All Coming Back To Me Now
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 Ain't Broke Break It
11. What About Love
12. Seize the Night
13. The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
14. Cry To Heaven