Don't Tread

by Gary HillSometimes the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Such is the case with Damn Yankees, a group that should have been so much better than it was. When you have a band including such hard rock heroes as Ted Nugent, Tommy Shaw (Styx), and Jack Blades (Night Ranger), you really expect something special. This album, Damn Yankees' second, shows the band falling even shorter from those expectations than on its debut. The songwriting just never seems to gel: The majority of the material feels like each member wrote a part and then they just tried to stick the various pieces into one assembly. The result is not really bad, and there are some shining moments. It's just that one would think that this group would be capable of so much more. Interestingly enough, with all this talent, the brightest moments of the album are the ones that are trademark Nugent.