Search - Gypsy Rose :: Prey

3.5 stars for this lesser-known hair metal album

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 08/24/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Gypsy Rose was a short-lived Canadian hard rock act that was signed to KISS mastermind Gene Simmons' record label back in the late 1980's. Simmons and/or his underlings micromanaged this band to death, forcing them to fire half of its lineup and discarded several of the songs they had already written for their debut album. Gypsy Rose and House of Lords had at least that much in common.



The band finally released their debut album - Prey - in 1990, and for all of the interference it was still a remarkably solid hard rock album very much in a Cinderella/Britny Fox vein. It's a fairly straightforward hair metal album with a slightly bluesy undertone. The lyrics rely on the same old booze and sex clichés, but hey, that's what was big at the time. All told, it's a perfectly decent, if perfectly unoriginal album. I don't know what it is about Canadian rock bands in the late 80's and early 90's, but you could always count on them to deliver high quality hard rock albums.



Despite the moderate success of leadoff single Poisoned By Love, the album never really took off, and would prove to be the band's only release. Prey is well worth checking out if you're a fan of late 80's/early 90's hard rock, particularly of the Canadian variety."