Molly Hatchet
Flirtin' With Disaster

THE REVIEW

The Lost Viking.

I bought it when I was young solely and exclusively for the cover. The bearded Viking armed with a bloody axe making his way through corpses. Even if the back, to tell the truth, had me dubious, with the six guys portrayed in front of a saloon or a shoe store, I don't remember (one was even wearing slippers), I thought to myself: these guys will rock, pure metal! Damn, who could have imagined such a surprise? One expects Manowar clones and instead, out come the cousins of Lynyrd Skynyrd: SOUTHERN rock!!!, damn you Molly.

Once I recovered, I let the record spin anyway, and I have to say a couple of things fundamentally before draining the pasta:

1) two songs, Flirtin' with disaster and Long time, at the extremes with each other, are worth the entire album: the first is a ride, and since there's the Viking, let's say by Valkyries, or like a rodeo; the other is a slow one with all the trimmings, with a guitar riff as clear as whisky, you can just imagine these drunks sitting at the bar trying to catch the shot glass thrown by the bartender. As for the others, well, they're all somewhat similar, too many instruments, too much ruckus, three guitars (what the hell do you need three guitars for?, why on earth two bassists?), keyboards, percussion, Bo and Luke on the General Lee, and a Ku Klux Klan choir. And then, there's this singer with the typical voice of an old man in the midst of intestinal ethyl distillation that manages the remarkable feat of making them all sound even more alike;

2) so, having said that, the question: seashells on the Dolomites are explained by the fact that they were soaked in the sea, but considering that America imported blacks, can someone explain to me who the hell brought the Nordic Viking to Florida?