Album Review: Poison – ‘Flesh & Blood’ [Original Recording Remastered]

By Patrick Luce Aug 2, 2006, 0:38 GMT

Released in 1990, Poison’s third studio album ‘Flesh & Blood’ saw the glam metal band moving further away from its “Nothin’ But A Good Time” roots and start to grow in songwriting ability. The album reached #2 on the U.S charts and is now being re-released in digitally remastered for the band’s 20th anniversary - featuring an acoustic version of “Something to Believe In” and an instrumental demo of “God Save the Queen.”

While parts of ‘Flesh & Blood’ featured Poison (consisting of singer Bret Michaels, bassist Bobby Dall, guitarist C.C. DeVille, and drummer Rikki Rockett) singing and playing about what they new best – partying and fast guitar solos, other portions of the album saw the group further exploring some of the more bluesy sides of rock (such as the tracks “Let It Play” and “Poor Boy Blues”), and writing lyrics that could actually matter to the people who were listening (such as tracks like “Life Loves A Tragedy”).
 
Unlike the sexually charged ‘Open Up and Say … Ahh!,’ the band’s third studio album kicks off with the dark song “Valley of Lost Souls” – which detailed a darker side of the band’s partying image. Poison quickly follows the track up with the sex themed “(Flesh & Blood) Sacrifice” and the radio single “Unskinny Bop.” Tracks like “Don’t Give Up an Inch” and “Ball and Chain” feature the band’s more traditional use of catchy lyrics, once again drawing on sexual innuendo, and more scorching guitar riffs from DeVille.

While trying to capture past success on with power ballads on the track “Life Goes On,” the band saw new success with the single “Ride the Wind” – which explored Michaels’ love of motorcycles. The track “Something to Believe In” saw the most growth in the band’s songwriting ability, and featured the same massive appeal to a wider audience that Poison achieved with “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” - even if it didn’t have the same success on the single charts.

‘Flesh & Blood’ was a solid follow-up to Poison’s ‘Open Up and Say … Ahh!’ and showed that the band could move past its glam image. While some of the songs (like “Something to Believe In”) showed the band was trying to grow, other tracks (like “Don’t Give Up an Inch”) demonstrated they group was firmly grounded in the “hair metal” style of music. This style of songs could be one reason why they quickly fell from the charts.

The departure of DeVille following the album’s release and the “death” of their brand of metal further hurt the band’s chances of continuing its dominance on the charts. Poison would go on to release another studio album ‘Native Tongue’ without DeVille, but the album was quickly forgotten.

I would recommend ‘Flesh & Blood’ to Poison fans who will enjoy the new digitally remastered version. It is also worth buying if you are a fan of rock, and has some really great guitar driven songs on it. Although it is not the band’s best album (in my opinion), it probably the best demonstration of their songwriting ability, and represents the largest amount of growth both musically and lyrically from Poison between studio albums.

‘Flesh & Blood’ [Original Recording Remastered] is now available at Amazon. Visit the music database for more information and a complete track listing.