By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

DANGEROUS TOYS – PISSED (1994)

With the sold-out Dangerous Toys show at The Vault in New Bedford, MA, happening just two days (Saturday October 21, 2023) after this article will post online, I thought it would be interesting to check out the band’s album Pissed this week. While I’ve written about the band’s self-titled debut album and their Hellacious Acres release, not only have I not written about their third album but I’ve never even heard it before deciding to write about it for The Cassette Chronicles.

So I get to go in totally cold on the 10 tracks that make up the album because to the best of my knowledge I’ve never heard any of the songs at all. And since the most recent set lists attributed to the band on setlist.fm say that two songs from Pissed are played live, it might be nice for me to have some familiarity with them.

And that new-slash-growing familiarity with those two songs comes right at the start with both the title track and “Paintrain” opening things up on Side One.

There’s nothing in the way of overture or intro for the title track with the music pretty much kicking in hard and fast right from the first notes. It’s aggressive with singer Jason McMaster viciously intoning “You always seem to piss me off!” While the song may not have had the same “hit single” attached to it as the band’s best known songs, I really liked this song and the seeming level of extra intensity the band had in the delivery.

With “Paintrain” listeners get another in-your-face rocker with a razor sharp focus from the music given increasing fuel to the fire with the gripping vocal performance.

As for the rest of Side One, “The Law Is Mine” kicked off with this very brief but cool sounding drum beat in the intro before the band kicked in as one. This is a blast of a track for me. I loved the way the guitar solo came out on this one. The fast pace had my foot a-tapping throughout.

On “Promise The Moon”, I wasn’t crazy about the way Jason McMaster’s vocals were presented during the song’s first lyrical verse. It was just too over-produced sounding to me. And while this song is probably what we all would consider a “power ballad” (or at least the Dangerous Toys version of one), it’s actually a pretty cool track. McMaster’s vocals return to a more natural style after the song’s first stanza and the questioning and emotional nature of the lyrics come through a bit more powerfully.

The first side closes out on a far more aggressive posture with the song “Strange”. The immediate opening of the song might make you think differently the first time you hear the song but man, once that more fiery delivery kicks in, you can hear how the band’s songwriting “posture” changed immediately (and for the better). And the gutteral yet elastic vibe conveyed through the vocal performances are just fantastic. Edgy and vicious without sacrificing clarity and power.

The second side of Pissed opens pretty much like side one. There’s no real table setting intro for the song “Loser”. Instead the song once again just bursts forth from your speakers and goes full bore right from the first note. And man, the guitar playing on this one (particularly the solo) is phenomenal.

And then comes an absolute monster track in “Hard Luck Champion”. OH MY GAWD! This is incredible. A full frontal musical attack of the senses, the music is fierce (with another highly motivating guitar solo) and the way McMaster attacks the vocals is awesome. The middle part of the song slows down just a bit before getting back to the more aggressive stance of the track. This is an amazing song. I WISH this was going to be in the set list this coming weekend.

“Screamin’ For More” and “Oh Well, So What!” serves to provide a particular focus on the way that McMaster’s vocals are rapid fire machine gun bursts. He spits out the lyrics that leaves you rocked back and glued to your seat.

When you hit the album’s final cut, “Illustrated Man” you’ll find that the tempo is a bit more restrained than the two tracks that preceded it but it is still a pretty lively number. And it brings the album to a fitting conclusion.

After Dangerous Toys was dropped from their major label during the tour for their 2nd album, you have to think they were indeed ticked off about how things had gone for them. I would say this third album being called Pissed is probable confirmation of that notion. I’ve seen other reviews and editorial comments calling the album darker and harsher in terms of the music and lyrics. But I have to say that I found myself thoroughly enjoying this album from start to finish.

This was a really interesting development for me because when I wrote about the first two Dangerous Toys album back in 2017 and 2021, I wasn’t quite as taken with those releases as a whole. Sure I liked the “known” songs but particularly with the first album, I thought the non-single tracks left me wanting just a bit.

But Pissed pretty much avoided anything resembling a song I wouldn’t want to hear ever again. It’s a great collection of songs that may have missed its mark with audiences in 1994 but nearly three decades later, it’s finding a home in my cold dead heart.

Listening to this album will leave you feeling anything but “pissed”. Instead, you’ll find yourselves wondering why I was so stupid as to have spent nearly thirty years without knowing just how damn good Pissed really is!

NOTES OF INTEREST: After the recording of the Pissed album, bassist Mike Watson was replaced by Salty Dog’s Michael Hannon.

The Pissed album was produced by Billy Sherwood, who has had two stints (including the current lineup) with the prog rockers Yes.

The album was reissued in 2017 through ex-Megadeth bassist David Ellefson’s record label EMP Label Group.