Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose

Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose is the ninth studio album by Meat Loaf, and the third and final album in the Bat Out of Hell trilogy. It was released in Ireland on October 20, 2006, 29 years after Bat Out of Hell (1977), and 13 years after Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993). It was released in the UK on October 23, 2006, and in the US on October 31, 2006. Produced by Desmond Child, it is the only Bat album not involving Jim Steinman in its production. The album was subject to a legal dispute between Meat Loaf and Steinman, who had registered the phrase "Bat Out of Hell" as a trademark and attempted to prevent the album using the phrase. In the end, seven songs that Steinman wrote for various other projects were included. As with its predecessors, the album received mixed reviews. A tour, named The Seize the Night Tour, followed the release, concentrating upon songs from the Bat albums.

The album opens with the title track. "The Monster Is Loose" feature the Gothic style of John 5, who plays the main guitar parts. The song is very heavy and continues Meat Loaf's association with Major League Baseball established with Phil Rizzuto's commentary on "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". According to Steinman, "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" was inspired by Wuthering Heights, and was an attempt to write "the most passionate, romantic song" he could ever create. In interviews, Meat Loaf has said that, in his mind, the song was always meant to be a duet. Norwegian artist Marion Raven, who had been working on her solo album with Child, was chosen because the timbre of her voice starkly contrasts to Meat Loaf's. "Bad for Good" was one of the many songs written by Steinman under the inspiration of Peter Pan and lost boys who never grow up. This is reflected in lyrics such as "You know I'm gonna be like this forever/I'm never gonna be what I should." The song was written to appear on the follow up to Bat Out of Hell, but which Steinman recorded himself as the album Bad for Good. Because of this, Meat Loaf was aware that there is a "core of fans that know that song", so he "had that under the microscope more than any other on the album". Guitarist Steve Vai describes it as "very Gothic; almost terrifying". Like the first two Bat albums, Steinman's songwriting is credited on the cover, this time shared with Desmond Child. The booklet contains all of the lyrics to the songs, with most pages featuring a small illustration. The CD liner contains a dedication "For thirty years of friendship and inspiration, Bat Out of Hell III is dedicated to Jim Steinman."

The album debuted at number 8 on the US Billboard 200 and sold about 81,000 copies in its opening week, Meat Loaf's best since Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell. However, it slipped to number 60 after three weeks. The album also reached number 3 on the UK Albums Chart, but quickly fell off. Q gave the album a positive review, calling it "the second best album to bear the 'Bat' name", and saying that Child did an "impressive recreation of Steinman's Andrew Lloyd Webber on steroids approach", while the album was "overblown, frequently ridiculous and largely devoid of irony." They were unimpressed with the title track, suggesting that "whoever decided it would be a good idea for Meat Loaf to tackle nu metal should be tarred and feathered." Q did, however, praise the "operatic" vocals and Brian May's "fabulously hysterical guitar" on the track "Bad for Good". The Village Voice named it as 'Album of the Year This Week', calling it "absurdist, righteous majesty". Some reviews lamented Steinman's absence. According to AllMusic, "this Bat is quite obviously a patchwork, pieced together from things borrowed and recreated, never quite gelling the way either of the previous Bats did." They criticized "The Monster Is Loose" as "disarming, a grindingly metallic riff rocker that sits very uncomfortably next to Steinman's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", and Child as "a professional who is playing a game without bothering to learn the rules." On the other hand, the review commended Meat Loaf's voice: he sings "his heart out as he valiantly tries to make this Bat a worthy successor to the originals." "Blind As a Bat" was scheduled to be released in the UK on December 18, but was then put back to February 26, as two CDs. In turn, this single was pulled at the last minute, in favor of "Cry Over Me", which was released on May 7, 2007. P. R. Brown directed the videos for "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" and "Cry Over Me". "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" is an elaborate production, in which Meat Loaf is being haunted by the memory of his dead lover. Told in flashback, Raven's character crashes her car to avoid a man standing in the road. She sings as an unseen spirit following Meat Loaf. It echoes Steinman's comments that the song is about the "dark side of love" and the "ability to be resurrected by it". The video for "Cry Over Me" had the lowest budget since those for the original album. A simple video, Meat Loaf has said that it only took four hours to film. the album contains two songs ("It's All Coming Back " and "The Future Ain't What It Used to Be") that originally appeared on Original Sin, Steinman's 1989 concept album with Pandora's Box. Steinman's demo of "In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher Is King" was part of the preparations for the unrealized Batman: The Musical project. Steinman's "Cry to Heaven" demo was intended for the possibility that Steinman would provide songs for a musical based on the film Cry Baby. Cry Baby has since been staged, but without any work from Steinman. "Bad for Good" was featured as the title track on Steinman's 1981 album. Some of the songs on the Bad for Good album were once intended to be a Meat Loaf solo album. "Seize the Night" first appeared as "Carpe Noctem" in the German language musical Tanz der Vampire. It was also performed in English in the 2002 Broadway show called Dance of the Vampires, and demos of the song in English became widely available around that time. "If It Ain't Broke, Break It" first appeared in the MTV film Wuthering Heights, and a recording of the song was released on the soundtrack CD for the film.

A limited edition was released with an accompanying DVD, containing a short "making of" featurette, the animated trailer, and "The Monster Is Loose" career montage video. The US version also includes a photo gallery and the "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" video. Best Buy's version of the album came with an exclusive bonus track: a live version of "Testify" (from Couldn't Have Said It Better). This track was originally announced to be on the CD itself, but Best Buy opted to include an insert in the packaging giving customers a code to download the song. Circuit City's version came with an exclusive downloadable track: a live version of "Life Is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back". Target released a "Limited Tour Edition" with a concert ticket pre sale offer. Wal Mart released the album as part of an exclusive 2 pack with the Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell Classic Albums DVD. The version of the album available from Apple's iTunes Store includes two bonus tracks, a live version of "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", recorded at a concert in Australia, and "Heads Will Roll", sung by Marion Raven from her EP of the same name.

Meat Loaf embarked on a 112 date world tour to promote the album. He performed a concert performing some songs from all three Bat Out of Hell albums on October 16 at London's Royal Albert Hall, and performed many of those songs on the rest of his tour as well. He also performed a "Bat on Broadway" performance on November 2, 2006 at New York City's Palace Theatre, as well as shows in Toronto, Atlantic City, Uncasville, and Mexico City. Marion Raven joined Meat Loaf for the first leg of his 2007 tour, Seize the Night tour. She was the supporting act, promoting her Set Me Free album. Meat Loaf introduced her on stage at the latter stages of the concerts to duet on "It's All Coming Back to Me Now". A DVD of the tour was released in October 2007, entitled 3 Bats Live. It also contains a bonus disc featuring the promotional videos and animations from Bat III. Portions of the tour were captured on film in the Theatrical Documentary Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise, directed by Bruce David Klein, which was released in 2008.