Dangerous Toys Demolition Review
Dangerous Toys
Demolition
Cleopatra Records
2025
It’s been roughly three decades since we’ve had anything new-to-us from the Dangerous Toys camp - 30 damn years too long for someone who basically grew up baptized in the smoldering ashes of these Southern Sleaze legends. I finally got to see the band live for the first time a couple years back, and when they tore into the unreleased “Hold Your Horses,” it felt like a promise. A promise I’m still waiting to see stamped onto a new full-length. But in the meantime, the band has done the next best thing, they’ve dug into the vault, pulled out a mountain of demos tracked between “Hellacious Acres” and “Pissed”, and stitched together a brand-new release: “Demolition”.
First reaction? Thank Ozzy and every unholy power of Rock ’n’ Roll that they finally threw us DT diehards a bone. Rumor has it there were around 70 tracks to sort through to make this thing, and we only got ten. Ten! Which means they’re sitting on more. And if any members of DT happen to lay eyes on this: don’t you dare wait another 30 years. Drop the rest of that stash in 2026 and let’s call it even.
Digging into “Demolition”, it’s exactly what any self-respecting Toys fanatic would expect: Texas Sleaze with one fist clenched and the other one permanently throwing horns. But let’s keep it real, the sound isn’t as polished as the first two records. The production’s rougher, grittier, and not what the casual fan might be used to. But if you’re here reading this, you’re not a casual fan. You already know that if these songs had been discovered on a half-mangled cassette that spent six months crushed in a leather jacket, we’d still treat it like holy scripture. And honestly, these cuts sound far better than that, just don’t go in expecting a pristine studio gloss.
McMaster sounds feral and fantastic, hitting those signature vocal acrobatics like it’s still 1992, and the band comes out swinging. What does blow my mind is how “Rattle My Cage,” “Burning Bridges,” “Back Street Girl,” and “Shot To Hell” never saw daylight until now. Sure, the musical landscape shifted back then, but these tracks would’ve made one hell of an entry point for the era that eventually led to “The Rtist 4merly Known As Dangerous Toys”. I wasn’t living their reality, life’s a bastard even without being in a band, but hearing these tracks now makes that whole chapter hit a little different. I’ve grown to love that album, but these songs feel like the missing puzzle pieces from the era that shaped it.
The point is simple: these demos are finally out, finally blasting through speakers instead of rotting in limbo, and that alone is worth celebrating. And if there’s one thing you need to know about this fanbase, starting with me, it’s that we’ve been RABID for exactly this kind of release. Dangerous Toys has always held a special place in my personal timeline, a band I can revisit anytime I need to reconnect with the chaos, electricity, and reckless joy of my youth. In my world, they remain one of the greatest bands to ever crawl out of Texas, right up there with the almighty Junkyard.
If you haven’t pre-ordered “Demolition” yet, stop dragging your feet. Grab a bottle of whiskey, spark up whatever vice you’ve got left, throw this record on, and let yourself feel young and bulletproof again, fast. Don’t wait. Do it now.