Stephen Pearcy

View To A Thrill Frontiers Grab your bandanas, we’re heading back to the arena.

When not embroiled in the eternal infernal drama of the warring Ratts, Stephen Pearcy is a surprisingly prolific solo artist. Hot on the heels of last year’s optimistically titled Smash – a fairly slamming dose of boilerplate 80s popmetal, albeit with a slight country twang – he returns with an album that feels like something Ratt might have come up with if metal hadn’t dominated the airwaves during their rise to the arenas.

It’s hard rock, for sure, but in the same way TKO, Starz or Y&T were back before the fishnet revolution, with radio-baiting pop hooks and the odd piping synthesiser here and there. The clear winner here is One In A Million, a slow-burning headbanger that rivals anything Ratt did in their heyday, but there’s plenty more to chew on, from the synthy AOR of U Only Live Twice to the chugging Double Shot. Pearcy borrows from his own past pretty liberally – From The Inside’s main riff is a very slight variation on You Think You’re Tough – but I mean, whatever. It’s supposed to sound like that. He’s the Ratt guy, for Chrissakes.