By the time
Flirtin' with Disaster reached stores, the
Hatchet were already bona fide forces to be reckoned with on the Southern rock circuit, with a fan base nearly on par with contemporaries like
Skynyrd and
the Allmans (who they covered on their eponymous debut LP). With a Frank Frazetta album cover that clearly sent a message that the band means business -- the business of hard partying and equally as hard rocking --
Flirtin' with Disaster is a 40-minute tour de force spearheaded by a triple guitar attack and the raspy thrillbilly growl of Danny Joe Brown. The album slowly builds from "Whiskey Man" into the classic soul rocker "It's All over All Now" and peaks with the brilliant title track -- largely considered by many to be
Hatchet's finest moment committed to analog tape. It's a hard driving rock record, plain and simple with no frills or lofty concepts. Just ten songs designed to keep rocking until the sun comes up over the Florida swamplands. And it does the job better than most of its contemporaries. [The 2001 'Expanded Edition' includes four bonus tracks of alternate and live takes.] ~ Rob Theakston