Now that the mystique has been stripped away from them, Mötley Crüe seem just a little bit tawdry, not so much Golden Gods as slightly rusty Goblins. But ‘back in the day’, when this album heaved itself into the collective metal consciousness, it really looked as if the sky was the limit for Nikki Sixx and company…

And why wouldn’t it have? Building on a near-legendary debut, Too Fast For Love,  that staked out the band’s ground as being a truly dangerous quartet hell bent on bringing all manner of depravity to a stereo near you very soon, Shout At The Devil took everything established by that opening statement of intent and turned it up not just to eleven, but one hundred and eleven.

The title track and Looks That Kill were bona fide stadium metal classics the moment the needle hit the groove, whilst the skeletal speed metal of Bastard harked back to the early days, brutally simple and terminally catchy… Mick Mars, always the master of simple yet effective rifferama, proving once again that, although music of a blusier bent was really his bag, he still had a thing or too over the flashy Sunset Strip metallians of 1983.

The band’s cover of Beatles standard Helter Skelter was probably unnecessary given the calibre of material they’d already proven themselves capable of producing, but still holds up well when compared with other versions of the song released since, particular the highly lauded but entirely execrable U2 take on the song. The band are solid, nothing more, nothing less, but when they break into the album’s standout cut, Red Hot, immediately afterwards, everything makes ludicrous, leather-clad, stackheeled sense…

This was the band at their unassailable best, Tommy Lee‘s double kick causing a stirring in the loins of a thousand nascent Euro power metal drummers, in union with Nikki Sixx’s dead-eyed four string rumble and Mars’ grinding riffage the perfect exposition of raw-edged American metal in 1983. And then of course, there’s Vince Neil…

The fall from grace has been well-documented, the laughable stage malapropisms of his later years the rule now rather than the exception, but take a listen to Too Young To Fall In Love, even now on this lovingly-remastered fortieth anniversary edition of the album, and try telling me that young Vince wasn’t king of all he surveyed when this album was laying it down to 1983. To this day, nobody has EVER managed to sing the word ‘guillotine’ with as much panache as our hero on too young…

Knock ‘Em Dead Kid features Mars’ best solo on the album and probably Neil’s most convincing all-round vocal performance, yet remains an underrated gem in the general populace’s memory; closing brace Ten Seconds To Love and Danger seal the deal with more of the same at a slightly lower level of intensity, and then… whilst the band went from strength to strength after the temporary blip of Theatre of Pain, things were never quite the same.

They didn’t hit the real paydirt heights until 1989’s Dr. Feelgood, but for this Crüe fan nothing matches the glamour, the excitement and the sheer danger of Shout At The Devil. If you’ve never heard the album, this reissue offers you the perfect chance to immerse yourself in some truly important heavy rock. Get on it!

the remastered Shout At The Devil is out now.