Whitesnake

This 1987 album was a smash. After Whitesnake's ho-hum Zep-rock beginnings, Coverdale put together a shiny, power ballad-laden pop metal record that hit the hair-scene like a bomb. A video with his wife practically naked in it helped, too. "Still Of the Night" still sounds as good as it did when it was released.

Originality is not an essential virtue in heavy-metal circles. Even so, few heavy-metal acts
have ever delivered anything as unblushingly derivative as Whitesnake. You'd think the
album was some sort of perverse research project. From the epic crunch of "Crying in the
Rain" through the brisk, synth-spiked pomp of "Straight for the Heart" to the
hyperstrummed overdrive of "Children of the Night," the group spits back every... More >

The attraction of this veteran pop-metal has got to be total predictability. The glistening solos, the surging crescendos, the familiar macho love rhymes, the tunes you can hum before the verse is over--not one heard before, yet every one somehow known. Who cares if they're an obscure nine-year-old vehicle for the guy who took over Deep Purple's vocal chores five years before that? Rock and roll's ninth or tenth "generation" of terrified high-school boys can call them their own. And may they pass from the ether before the eleven-year-olds who are just now sprouting pubic hair claim their MTV. (Grade - D+)