Description

1985 flexi disc from Metal Hammer magazine.

Heavy Pettin followed Lettin Loose with Rock Ain’t Dead in 1985, and it stands as significantly stronger than their debut. The production is much better, the songwriting more is more thought-out and everything just seems more professional and complex. This is most likely because Heavy Pettin’ really began picking up on the Airplay-Oriented rock trend that groups like Journey and Foreigner had brought to massive acclaim. Like many New Wave of British Heavy Metal groups, the best idea for success was to imitate the American AOR bands. Saxon did this; Raven did this; Tygers of Pan Tang did this. While most now look back and see that with the glaring exception of Def Leppard this idea nearly always resulted in commercial failure or fan alienation, it surely made sense at the time. And with Heavy Pettin, it actually kind of worked. Steve Hamie Hayman sounds slightly less like Brian Vollmer from the Canadian heavy rock band Helix than he used to. The title track from the album is a straightforward, fist-pumping anthem to rock music that basically does what KISS and Twisted Sister are famous for. So this really proves that when Heavy Pettin’ make a good song, they blow you away like dynamite.

25 Hours A Day is a party-hardy anthem that Y&T wrote and recorded already back in the 70s. It was released on the bands eponymous 1976 debut and shows the amazingly high musicianship standards all around and searing leads from main man Dave Meniketti. The version here is a live version recorded in London and would also appear on the bands live album Open Fire.

Track list:
1. Y & T –25 Hours A Day
2. Heavy Pettin –Rock Ain’t Dead