By Vinnie Apicella

They knew you'd be back… and face it, so did you-we all did. Sporting their "New Tattoo" for an analogy, Hollywood's original bad boys return to the scene where it all began some eighteen years before and showing everything old is new again, the Crue bounce back in true Motley fashion. Yes the good doctor has returned, armed with a new set of needles and a fire in his belly that up to now has only been hinted at in the form of extra tracks here or an add-on cut there. Now the full force rocking machine back in working order. "Hell on High Heel's" gets the motor running in typical good time Crue fashion-the old tongue in cheek thing no doubt, and rest assured not the last place you'd expect to find it by the time this one's through! "Treat Me Like the Dog I am," now this one's got some balls to it-excellent work. By now it's no secret that longtime drummer and tabloid terror Tommy Lee has gone on to bold new adventures with his hip new sound-I'll give 'em one more album, maybe two… so in steps Randy Castillo and the signature Crue rhythm section remains in tact. The title track's the first of the slow variety-an ode to our better half shall we say? Interestingly by the time the fourth song kicks into gear, that being "Dragstrip Superstar," which finds Mars' hitting upon some downright despondent grooves and slowly but surely the doubt's wearing off on this listener… I'll admit losing interest in the band after the release of that "Girls Girls Girls" bomb they dropped back then and for me it was all downhill from there. At times "New Tattoo" sounds like vintage Crue and at others it's like a completely different band that's performing here-The Tubes maybe (they do a pretty convincing cover of the "White Punks on Dope" neo-classic… wild!)-So back to the tattoo analogy, let's go it a step further. A new tattoo that becomes old needs to be redrawn, re-colored and basically freshened in order to look new again… thus we have this "New Tattoo" and the freshened sound they've come up with-I didn't think they could do it. "Generation Swine" for what it was had some decent stuff on it and bits and traces of what was leftover can be heard, albeit faintly over the surging rhythms, and so we get a little extra flair to go with attitude aplenty on what is quickly becoming a painfully pleasurable ink job. The one-two punch of "First Band on the Moon" and "She Needs Rock and Roll" pack little impact but then they follow up with a booming right in "Punched in the Teeth by Love" and I swear I can't remember when they've come up with such a powerful groove… but rockin' is their business, right? The build up on the part of the band members for the most part has been right on the money. "New Tattoo's" a solid combination of the primeval sound from their pre-glory days fused but not doused with the poppy elements that surrounded them in the "Girls…" and "Dr. Feelgood" period and taken to the studio and given a sound thrashing…

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