Mötley Crüe - "Theatre of Pain", 1985

"Theatre of Pain" is an album with a bad rep. Like many records that suffered the same fate, it's been called the worst album of the band for so long that people started to believe it without even questioning it; the band itself repeatedly stated there were just a couple of good songs on it and that the rest was crap. As is often the case, it seems to me that the band members were just in a bad place during the making of the record, so every time they think back to it, they associate it with bad memories and troubled times. It was recorded in the aftermath of Vince Neil's car accident, where Hanoi Rocks' drummer Razzle lost his life; Mick Mars was slowly sinking into alcohol abuse, Nikki Sixx was in his heroin days, and Tommy Lee was coked out of his mind while chasing Heather Locklear. It was a fractured band for sure, but still the album is actually way better than you (or Mötley Crüe itself) think, and maybe all the negativity that surrounded it was actually what gave it a darker edge.

For starters, it's the last Mötley Crüe record to retain some proper grit. While the production by Tom Werman sounds apparently quite polished, at least when compared to the previous two records, it feels like he's just been painting over a deep layer of Sunset Strip grime; the dirt and sleaze still show, despite the attempts to cover 'em up. Drenched in reverb, it's got one of those typical mid-80s hard rock productions that I like to label as "nocturnal"; what I mean by that is that it's not the kind of record made to be experienced in the daylight; it's got a nightly aura that smells like crime-ridden alleys, dirty needles, broken Jack Daniels bottles, strip clubs, fistfights, and lice-infested hookers. There are quite a few of those records, such as AC/DC's "Fly on the Wall" or WASP's self-titled, just to name a couple of the most popular bands. 1985's Mötley Crüe might have switched to a glam metal-oriented image - more in line with Poison than with the post-apocalyptic warriors of "Shout at the Devil" - or it might have compromised to reach a bigger audience with its first power ballad, "Home Sweet Home", tailor-made to court the MTV generation; in spite of that, most of the record still sounded like a hungry band coming from the gutter to take over the world, and certainly not afraid of rocking as hard as possible.

It's not that surprising after all, once you find out that three of the songs were actually already demoed in the "Shout at the Devil" days under different titles; "Louder than Hell", "Tonight (We Need a Lover)", and "Save Our Souls" are absolute bangers, worthy of being included among the best songs written by the band, with the latter being an especially heavy number, almost doomy and sporting a truly memorable chorus.

"Smokin' in the Boys Room", chosen as a single, is a Brownsville Station cover song that Neil brought over from his backyard keg-party days, when he regularly performed it with some of his high school bands; it's a great old-fashioned rock & roll track, popularized by a rather memorable video clip that played like a short movie. The second single was the sappy power ballad "Home Sweet Home", introduced by a piano melody played by none other than drummer Tommy Lee, and while it was shamelessly commercial, radio-friendly stuff, it featured a pretty epic guitar solo by Mars. All things considered, I always found it less annoying than other popular metal ballads of the hair metal era.

"City Boy Blues" is a sleazy number featuring some atmospheric keys and introducing the slide-guitar talents of Mick Mars; "Keep Your Eye on the Money" is a powerful hard rock mid-tempo with an anthemic chorus, and "Use It or Lose It" is a double kick-laden track bordering on speed metal.

"Raise Your Hands to Rock" is a semi-ballad with a rather silly chorus that immediately qualifies as filler, but luckily the album closer, "Fight for Your Rights", fares way better, displaying catchy riffs and another irresistible refrain.

"Theatre of Pain" is a pretty dark record, featuring some heavy tunes and excellent, gritty lyrics by the talented Sixx. The band is firing on all cylinders, despite the various setbacks it was facing at the time; all the members sound on top of their game, from the always tasteful drumming by Lee to the unmistakable vocals by Neil, without forgetting the ever-underrated Mars and the songwriting skills of Sixx (who also provides some rather cool bass lines, to be fair). While the two albums that followed coincided with the biggest commercial success the band ever experienced and featured some big singles, as a whole they weren't as consistent or fierce as "Theatre of Pain". The album probably suffered from being sandwiched between a classic such as "Shout at the Devil" and a commercially acclaimed top seller such as "Girls, Girls, Girls", almost serving as a stepping stone from the humble Hollywood beginnings to the worldwide stages.

"It's been the hard road, edge of an overdose / No matter how high, you're still too low."