Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell

Meat Loaf | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 14, 1993)
• Original Release Date: September 14, 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002OMN
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (119 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,589 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

At a certain point, bad taste and bombast becomes so excessive and so grandiose that they're no longer an easily dismissed irritation but an astonishing monument to the warped imagination. Such a monument is Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, the long-delayed sequel to 1977's Bat Out of Hell. Once again songwriter/producer Jim Steinman has isolated high-school parking-lot aphorisms and inflated them to Wagner-on-Broadway proportions, casting Mr. Loaf as a heavy-metal Ezio Pinza. Typical of the album's strategy is its big hit single, "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." Steinman piles on the guitars, drums, synthesizers, and choral voices as if he were Phil Spector producing Kiss playing the Who songbook. The rest of the album tackles the themes of teenage lust, frustration, and rock & roll fantasies in similar fashion. It's somehow beside the point to complain about the puerile lyrics, the leaden rhythms, the derivative melodies, the histrionic vocals, or the overblown arrangements. Steinman knows how to push his audience's buttons, and with Meat Loaf's help, he hits those buttons with a sledgehammer. --Geoffrey Himes

Product Description

Special deluxe three disc (two CD + PAL/Region 0 DVD) edition of Meat's 1993 sequel to the original Bat Out Of Hell. Features the digitally remastered album on Disc One, eight live tracks on Disc Two including spirited versions of all seven of the original BOOH tracks plus a bonus DVD that includes three videos plus an interview with Mr. Loaf. Universal. 2006 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ah, the Meaning of Life, May 11, 2004

By 

D. Rausch "myspace.com/rauschofficial" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell (Audio CD)

That point may very well be different for everyone. But this album will help you find it. Lost? Depressed? Suicidal? Searching? Confused? Anything other than feeling alive and at peace? That may sound like an antidepressant commercial, but I'm just prepping you for one of the greatest albums ever made - as Meat Loaf is certainly no more subtle.

This album, every time I put it on, gives me a wake-up call. Meat Loaf/Jim Steinman's music is so emotional, so human, so real, artistic, accessible - this album is where everything came together (again!) and reminded a few million people why music is so important in one's life. I think the most important purpose about music is that it makes a person feel. It moves you. And very few things out there are more intense than this. Warning: this album is not for the casual fan of bland music. Not everyone deserves these songs. But if you think you are human, you may just pass the test.

I'm not going to waste any more than this lone sentance to utter what a shame it is that some call this music cheesy, campy, pompous, etc. - give us a break. This album is one of the best ever made. There's so much to say, it's probably doing more justice to analyze minimally here. Even nostalgic people from the first Bat Out of Hell era love this album - and THAT's a rare thing indeed, to have an album that easily rivals another classic from its own lineage-and by the same fans.

These songs address life. There's not a weak spot on the album, and not a wasted minute. I saw an interview once where Meat was asked to respond to the criticism of his songs being so long. With impeccable retort, he reasoned that none of these songs are as long as life itself. How dare anyone scorn repitition, given that probably any of these offenders' own music choices contain drum loops or samples repeated 500 times? Bat II is in your face, passionately dramatic, and far more gutwrenchingly moving than even any movie could ever hope to accomplish. If you are questioning why so many people consider Rock and Roll a religion, this album will make you believe. Listen to "Everything Louder than Everything Else:" It's loud, in your face, anthemic, - it's the only thing that matters when you're in that moment. The bagpipes at the end are awesome. The instrumental composition "Back into Hell" is highly impressive and thematic with the album as a whole.

When I'm left questioning my purpose on the planet, I take this album for a spin - 10 years later it's just as fresh - I go through the cathartic "Life is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back" (one of the greatest songs ever), into the divine "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through," on to the confession stage with "It Just Won't Quit," and on and on until the only less-than-perfect song "Lost Boys and Golden Girls" concludes this emotional roller coaster of almost 80 minutes. It's the best 12-step program there is. The songs are diverse, rocking, musical, ... perfect. Oh, and the opening ditty "I'd do Anything for Love" doesn't hurt the record either. What better alternative to the uninspired, lackluster 'alternative' music of the nineties. If lightening can strike 3 times with the upcoming Bat 3, then our Savior of Rock and Roll is alive and well. We survived disco (ok i wasn't even born yet), grunge, techno, boy bands, rap, .... and good music always wins out. There is nothing bad about this album and everything good about it. I own a diverse cd collection of almost a thousand cd's, and Bat 2 has earned a solid permanent position in my top 10. If you find Jim Steinman's songwriting to be too over-the-top, than you, my friend, need a cleansing of the soul. Yowsah.

In all seriousness: Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell is one of the best (and cheapest) ways of therapy out there. I could write a doctoral thesis on the power of each song, but find it out for yourself. A review shouldn't give away the ending, but rather it should motivate you to investigate. Not all commercial success sellers are crap. Indeed, this album is the antithesis.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For love, November 28, 2006

By 

Murl J. Sprout Jr. (Bradenton, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell (Audio CD)

For some reason, people ask me - and I'm not kidding - "What is it that Meat Loaf won't do for love?"

So here's the list:

HE WON'T:

* Lie to you (and that's a fact)
* Never forget the way you feel right now, oh no, no way
* Forgive himself if you don't go all the way tonight
* Ever do it better than he does it with you (so long, so long)
* Ever stop dreaming of you every night of his life (no way)
* Forget everything and "see that it's time to move on"
* Let it all turn to dust so we'll all fall down
* Be screwing around

For those of you really curious about the inner workings of his heart and level of commitment, here's what he will, in fact, do for love...

HE WILL:

* Run right into Hell and back
* take a vow and seal a pact
* be there til the final act
* do anything you've been dreaming of
* Raise you up and help you down
* Get you right out of this Godforsaken town
* Make it all a little less cold
* Hold you sacred and hold you tight
* Colorize your life because you're so sick of black and white
* make it all a little less old
* make you some magic with his own two hands
* build you an emerald city from grains of sand
* give you something you can take home
* cater to every fantasy you got
* hose you down with holy water if you get too hot
* take you places you've never known

*all items listed are from the Meat Loaf song "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" from the album Bat Out of Hell 2

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant bombast, completely successful in its own way, April 14, 2005

By 

Joseph L. Shipman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell (Audio CD)

Practically every genre of music has its own masterpieces. Late 70's white-boy rock fantasy is a genre not many people appreciate, but I have the age and background to. This album is exactly like its great predecessor "Bat Out of Hell"; it makes up for not being the groundbreaking shocker BOOH1 was by being more complex and much longer (without sacrificing any energy). Steinman's writing is brilliant, and Meat Loaf's vocals are just as good as in 1977 (voice less angelically beautiful now but he's even better at drenching the songs in emotion).