VAIN - No Respect - The Metal Channel

No Respect is a glam metal juggernaut. The album features a distinct sound with driving rhythms and memorable choruses but still manages to follow the sleaze formula.

I grew up as a child of the ‘80s and musically, I believe this to be one of the greatest times to be alive. Heavy Metal ruled the world, and I listened to it all! Never pigeonholed into a particular genre, I came to appreciate all forms, something which I continue to this day. I’ll admit things got dicey for metal in the early ‘90s. The arrival of ‘Grunge’ killed a lot of great bands. No groups were more impacted by this sudden change of landscape than glam metal acts. The sexually charged carefree party attitude was considered antiquated, and it was quickly replaced with social burdens and introspective laments of social injustice.

I recall numerous groups who had ‘arrived’ in 1989 releasing promising debuts, only to be canned by major labels when it came to unveil their sophomore efforts, one of the most promising of these acts was the band Vain.

Vain’s history is intriguing. Founder and vocalist, Davy Vain, had originally began his musical career as a record producer. He produced Death Angel‘s famed debut effort, The Ultra-Violence, before embarking on a demo recording with Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett in 1986. The demo propelled Vain to form a band in the San Francisco Bay Area under his own moniker. In 1989 Vain released their debut album, No Respect, via Island Records.

No Respect is a glam metal juggernaut. The album features a distinct sound with driving rhythms and memorable choruses but still manages to follow the sleaze formula. The end result is an album with lots of replay ability. Highlight tracks for me are: “Secrets”, “Beat The Bullet”, “Who’s Watching You”, “Smoke And Shadows”, “No Respect” and “Icy”.

Vain has been considered by critics to be ‘harder than their peers’, less refined’ and generally ‘rougher around the edges than other glam bands. The album, No Respect, was popular amongst my friends. We were waiting for a follow up effort but Vain was unexpectedly dropped by their record label when ‘Grunge’ reared its ugly head.

The band moved and eventually released new material but the window leading to mainstream success was closed. Vain has released seven albums since their debut effort, the most recent being Disintegrate Together unveiled in 2024.

I’ll admit I haven’t heard anything by Vain since No Respect, largely because their musical releases were not well publicized and often difficult to obtain. The writing of this article has sparked my interest and I will take some time to track down other releases by the band. Until that time, I’ll be jamming Vain’s debut effort, which I’ve always respected as a glam metal classic. \m/