This follow-up to
Kingdom Come
's commercially successful but critically abused debut was a surprising failure, shocking even to those most disgusted by the band's perceived plagiarism of
Led Zeppelin
. In one of
hard rock
's most intense backlashes,
redefined the term "one hit wonder" before
In Your Face
even hit record store shelves, sealing the record's fate. Stuffed with mid-tempo
AOR
anthems like
"Gotta Go (Can't Wage a War),"
"Just Like a Wild Rose,"
and others, this 1989 release has all the commercial
rock
trappings of the times, plus a few direct Zep knockoffs like
"Perfect 'O'."
During the late '80s, there must have been dozens, if not hundreds of
releases that were inferior to, and better received than,
. But the bile reserved for this sophomore effort suggests that it is better to be directionless that patently derivative when it come to making
rock & roll
. ~ Vincent Jeffries