Deadline Music / Cleopatra Records – 2025
https://dangeroustoys.us

Taken from a reported 70 songs written in the lead up to the DANGEROUS TOYS album ‘Pissed’, the ten tracks that make up the “new” archival release ‘Demolition’ from the Texas rockers take you back in time to the late 1980s and early 1990s.
While the overall production sound might vary some from track to track, the material on ‘Demolition’ is all surprisingly well formed and for my own personal wants and desires, I found it rather easy to simply treat this release less as an archival project and just look at as a new studio album in full.

I first heard the lead track “Rock Shock Cowboy” when the announcement was made that there would be a new release. But on the day of the actual release on the album, I ended up hearing it in full over the speakers at a friend’s record shop. I was there helping him out and I think you’ll get a hint of the direction of this review when I tell you that I listened to the album five times straight through that day.

Yes, call it a spoiler alert if you want, but this is a damn good album. Recorded by the lineup that made the first two DANGEROUS TOYS albums (Singer Jason McMaster, guitarists Scott Dalhover and Danny Aaron, bassist Mike Watson and drummer Mark Geary), these tracks had my foot bouncing to the rhythm of each song and just being blown away by how much I was enjoying each track. Yes, I know current guitarist Paul Lidel isn’t on the album as he wasn’t in the band when these tracks were written and recorded but man I love what I heard here. For more of Lidel’s contributions to the band, I’ll be eagerly awaiting the brand new studio album coming from DANGEROUS TOYS in 2026 (or listening to his phenomenal SCREAM THERAPY solo releases).

Anyway, let’s get on to the music shall we?

As I mentioned, the album kicks off with “Rock Shock Cowboy” and what immediately grabs you is the way the song bursts out of your speakers lacking any kind of intro. It just goes into the song’s chorus right there at the start. I admit that the first time I heard the song, I thought there was a bit cut off in the beginning or something. The uptempo pacing to the song quickly establishes a cool vibe and when you combine that with the nostalgic wistfulness of the track’s lyrics, it’s clear that this song is just the beginning of what you can expect from DANGEROUS TOYS on this release.

You get a strong turn for the anthemic fist pumping kind of rock and roll the band provides with the song “Come Out Swinging”. This song is a bit rougher in the production sound than “Rock Shock Cowboy”, but I loved the chorus line “Come out swinging, go down fighting”.

On “Rattle My Cage”, the already fast moving pace of the first two songs is amplified that much more. It’s a higher gear of relentlessness. The whole song just really caught my ear and each time I’ve listened to it, I find my heartbeat picking up. The guitar solo is fantastic and I love the way McMaster’s vocals come through on the song. And the line “Shake, rock and rattle my cage” sounds so damn cool as it comes through the speakers.

Even if I didn’t like the song itself, the title “Rhapsody in Barbed Wire” is simply a knockout title for a song. Thankfully I actually did love the song. There’s a kicking tempo to the song and yet it also has a solid bit of “THUMP” to it as well. Like “Come Out Swinging”, the sound is a bit rougher overall but that doesn’t rob the song of its import in the least. The vocals come through with just a bit more of that raspy raw throat that McMaster seems to have made his stock in trade. This one just works beautifully.

From the intro using a recorded phone sex line intro, you can quickly latch onto the…ahem…thrust of the song “One On One Live”. Yes, the song isn’t subtle but you know what? I don’t want it to be. This is just a smoking hot “get your blood pumping” rocker that finds the band paying homage to the infamous phone sex lines so prevalent back in the day. Here and now, the song is less likely to be fully embraced but back when this was originally recorded, it would’ve gone over so well I think. And the way they end the song with another recording was a perfect way to bring things to their conclusion.

Want a bit of a softer side to DANGEROUS TOYS? Check out “Burning Bridges”. This song is a beast of a track. You want to know what my original thought was about this song? It reminded me of the kind of LED ZEPPELIN track that managed to be fully rocking and yet feature a heavily acoustic sound to the music. The vocals are a lot smoother in tone and definitely show a different side to the band.

On “Your Sister”, you get a bit of a bluesy swing and foot stomping rocker. It’s got a gripping hard driving rhythm at the same time. You can practically hear at least (“ten”) boots stompin’ in the background as the song plays through.

There’s a killer guitar line threaded throughout the song “Backstreet Girl” that elevates the song immensely. The song draws you in pretty quickly and just rocks you from start to finish. The guitar work is great and while there’s some definite rough edges in the sound of this track, the band shines in full on this one.

On “Shot To Hell”, the unrestrained ripping viciousness of McMaster’s vocals return in full form. It’s a gritty and gripping number that never lets up through the song’s run time.

The album closes out with the song “SNAFU” and it is another hard-hitting attacking rocker with a spitting / spitfire vocal take. I like the way the chorus has a rhythm to it that enhances the song as a whole. Musically, the band is on fire (the guitar solo is killer) and it makes sense that this song is placed as the final song because when it ends, you feel it as a concluding crescendo that puts a cap on everything that came before on the album.

While you can clearly hear the rough and raw “demo” aspect of the material on ‘Demolition’, the power and strength of the material overcomes the less smooth production sound easily.

Instead of focusing on the less than sonic perfection, I found myself thoroughly rocked by new music from a band that I’ve been desperately wanting new material from for years. It took me a while to really get into the band back in the day but over the ensuing years, DANGEROUS TOYS has become one of those bands that exceeded my expectations.

I’ve seen them live a couple times in recent years and they’ve been so damn good live that it only reinforced my enjoyment of the band’s first three albums. Call it Texas sleaze rock, hard rock, heavy metal or whatever…yes it is all rock and roll to me. With ‘Demolition’, DANGEROUS TOYS have opened their vault to show everyone that they were criminally underrappreciated back in the day. It’s a great collection of material that shows you where the band stood back in the early 1990s and serves as the appetizer for the brand new music to come in the new year.

It may be an archival release, but ‘Demolition’ is freaking phenomenal and a must hear musical experience.

4.5 Out Of 5.0