When rock stars recast past works in orchestral bombast they are usually one step away from senility or public ridicule. But the Loaf has
no such worries, having never had an ounce of credibility, while Bat Out Of Hell has always cried out for the full rock-opera treatment since its release back in 1977. Recorded in Melbourne in February, Jim Steinman’s Spector-meets-Wagner pomp-rock behemoth mostly suits these absurdly overblown arrangements, while Meat indulges his Elvis-meets-Pavarotti tendencies to the full. It’s monumentally kitsch, of course, but no-shit classic tunes like “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad” can stand any amount of high-camp vandalism.
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