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Vixen - Vixen
Vixen - Rev It Up

In the 1980s we were introduced to what we now know as Hair Metal. Hair metal was a male dominated music scene for the most part, sure there were a few gals involved like Lita Ford, or the Canadian offering of the Headpins, but it was still a sound of bands made up mainly of the male of the species. That was fine for a while, but in the latter part of the 1980s a new band came onto the scene that screamed to be heard, and gave young males the same reason to drool and dream as the Male bands did with young girls. The band was known as Vixen, and in 1988 and 1990, Vixen released two of the most important chick-rock CDs in Hair Metal history. The two important works were the self titled CD, and the follow-up CD "Rev It Up".

So, what was so special about Vixen you ask that made them stand out? Well really, looking back, Vixen showed us that Gals could rock too, gave the teenage male some great posters for their wall, and some puberty driven dreams. The band not only had the sound, but the look was fitting, as far as outfits, Vixen were the Mötley Crüe of the female variety. Janet Gardner's vocals could easily be compared to those of the Wilson sisters of Heart, and she could scream the hard driving anthems home just as easily. So, they had the looks, they had the vocals, and Vixen could rock just as heavily and with just as much force as their male counterparts.

The first album, now thankfully re-released, gave us some great tracks like "Edge of a Broken Heart", "I Want You To Rock Me", or "Hell Raisers" and they could even give us some more melodic pseudo-power-ballads like "Desperate" that build into a heated frenzy for the chorus and then lay back again. I have to admit the fact that the gals were always clad in Spandex and Leather kind of fueled the fantasies of the band as well. That is all fine as it is, but looking back and listening to the 2 releases from Vixen have proven one thing to me, why the hell weren't the band taken more seriously. Some of the Male bands with less talent than Vixen when it comes to instrumentation had longer careers than Vixen, or was it the simple fact the gals may have come onto the scene when Hair Metal was in its later stage, just a symptom of poor timing more than anything else? 

Well, no matter what the case, I urge you if you are a die hard 80s fan to pick up the CDs here, whether you have heard of them or not. Just because Vixen is a Femme based band doesn't mean they couldn't rock with the best of them. The second release "Rev It Up" wasn't without its great tracks either, "How Much Love", "Bad Reputation", and "Hard 16" were just as good as anything on the first album. So, whether you just want to bring back some schoolboy fantasies, or maybe you just want to rock on, check out these 2 very significant albums of the Hair Metal era, it may just make you want to dig out your Spandex and hair crimper to really remember the days gone by! You may just be surprised at how well Janet, Jan Kuehnemund (Guitars/Back Vox), Roxy Petrucci (Drums / Back Vox), and Share Pederson (Bass / Background Vox) can rock. Enjoy!

( 5 Stars Out of 6 )

Play MP3 Clip of "Edge Of A Broken Heart"

Play MP3 Clip of "One Night Alone"

Play MP3 Clip of "How Much Love"

Play MP3 Clip of "Desperate"