'Mötley Crüe's' 'Shout at the Devil' is not only a landmark album for themselves, but a turning point for the Sleaze / Hair Metal genre which took off around the time of this release. Much more refined and consistent than 'Too Fast for Love' as the sound is tightened with solid individual performances that can easily be picked out. 'Mötley Crüe' received a lot of flack over the demonic imagery surrounding the album cover, songs and title, realistically though this was just a gimmick that paid off, as success was immediate and relatively long lived, until the departure of lead vocalist 'Vince Neil'.

A short foreboding narrative titled 'In the Beginning' opens affairs superbly, the mystical background melody combines with the uneasy vocals for a great album opener. This gives way to the thumping title track, a rhythm heavy pulsating rocker graced with 'Vince Neil's' best snarling vocals, powerful backing contributions on the chorus and choice fist raising lyrics. Better still is the mean chugger 'Looks that Kill' a lively rhythm driven cracker, which features superb work from 'Nikki Sixx' and 'Tommy Lee' while 'Mick Mars' contributes with some deft guitar licks. The tempo remains brisk with the uncompromising 'Bastard', lyrically it's pretty basic but aggressive and hard hitting which is typical of 'Mötley Crüe' on this album, perhaps not the finest track but still a fine journey of punishing Sleaze Metal. The tempo drops for the 'Mick Mars' penned instrumental 'God Bless the Children of the Beast', a decent melodic piece that adds a nice contrast to the previous speaker assault. Next up is a cover of the 'Beatles' 'Helter Skelter', personal I never liked the original and while this is a vast improvement with strong riffs and sweet guitars, I've never been fond of this lyrically inept song. Back on track is the short but energetic rocker 'Red Hot', a simplistic but effective track, driven by strong bass lines and relentless drumming. Continuing in fine form is 'Too Young to Fall in Love' an intense, emotional sung rocker, graced with fine riffs and short solos from 'Mick Mar' and gutsy yet emotional vocals from 'Vince Neil'. The tempo is increased further still for the pulsating 'Knock 'Em Dead Kid', a lively number with a superb sing-a-long chorus, braced by a splendid rhythm and effective backing vocals. A little more restraint is felt on the riff driven 'Ten Seconds to Love', despite the chorus becoming a tad trite, it's a solid affair propelled by an exacting riff and strong overall sleazy approach. The album goes out with 'Danger', probably the weakest track present in my opinion, with suspect and repetitive lyrics, despite this 'Vince Neil' contributes some of his best vocals.

Five bonus tracks and a video for 'Looks that Kill' are included with the re-mastered version of this album. The first is a demo of 'Shout at the Devil' which is overall rawer than the original and closes with 'Vince Neil' snarling some additional spoken lyrics, couldn't really say that it improves on the original though. Next up is a demo of 'Looks that Kill', pretty much the same as the album rendition, but as with the previous track a little less refined, although the guitaring seems a little more punchy to me. 'Hotter than Hell' is a demo that eventually made it onto the next album 'Theatre of Pain', but reworked as 'Louder than Hell', musically it's a gem of a song, but lyrically the chorus sounds awkward, thankfully just altering the lyrics from "Hotter" to "Louder" totally transforms the song. 'I will Survive' is a previously unreleased track and a pretty decent offering it is too, with a little more refinement this passionately executed mid tempo number could have made album status. Finally we are treated to a demo of 'Too Young to Fall in Love', not a million miles away from the one reviewed above but an abridged version.

Undoubtedly a landmark album that captures 'The Crüe'' at their rawest and no fan of theirs or the genre should pass this one up!