by Vincent Jeffries
With titles like &Tear Down the Walls,& &Don't Stop the Fight,& and &Get Tough,& not to mention the title cut, it's an easy assumption that Fastway's Trick or Treat soundtrack hasn't exactly aged well. After the group made a huge splash with their 1983 hard rock debut, they fell off the hard rock map but briefly received a little attention for this, their fifth. That is unfortunate as Trick or Treat is perhaps the worst Fastway release featuring the combined talents of Dave King and namesake &Fast& Eddie Clarke. King's vocals are in typically good form, but the material he's given to work with ranges from bland to inane. Clarke's bluesy rambunctiousness that matched up so nicely with King's vocal work on earlier recordings is all but gone, and in its stead, Trick or Treat is laced with formulaic, over-processed guitar chunking that's barely worthy of the album's boring material. With its tepid sound and phoned-in material, this is one inferior piece of work -- especially for the talented King.