They had the album covers down, especially the “Freakshow” one. I said to myself if the songs are crap at least the cover is worth keeping.

The debut dropped in 1988 and “Hard As A Rock” kicked it off. Which was okay.

“Smooth Up In Ya” is pretty cool musically and melodically. But the lyrics and title certainly got a lot of attention. And at almost 5 million streams on Spotify, it’s their hit.

The best song is “F#9” And it’s buried deep in the album. This one sounds a lot like something Jake E Lee wrote for Ozzy. Crank it and listen to the riff.

And I wasn’t sure what to make of the first album. It had some nice riffage scattered throughout like “Crank Me Up” and “Hell On My Heels”. But overall, there wasn’t enough.

But I gave em one more chance because of the cover.

So“Freakshow” was released in 1991. And I listened and I moved onto the next song and I listened and I kept moving onto the next song.

Then “Say Your Prayers” started and I was tapping my foot at the riff, but the vocal melody just didn’t capture me. So I listened.

And when I was done listening I knew that I wouldn’t be going back to Bulletboys.

And I heard that Motley Crue were auditioning Marq Torien on vocals and I was curious to hear how that would sound because with a bit of assistance in the lyrical department and the melody department, well, anything is possible.

But it didn’t eventuate. And that was that.