The four members of the Minneapolis band Soul Asylum honed their chops in the imposing shadow of the almighty Hüsker Dü. When the Hüskers split up in 1987, many people – most notably, the brave souls at A&M who signed Soul Asylum – expected the group to spread its wings and rise out of Hüsker Dü's ashes. Of course, that didn't happen.

Many rotations of the Earth later, you might think that simmering on a back burner of rock consciousness for so long would have made these four grooveniks run out of steam. Wrong again. Soul Asylum and the Horse They Rode In On is still not in the same league with Hüsker Dü's New Day Rising, but it's certainly as strong and worthy as any of the Asylum's six previous records.

There's a great heavy-metal band lurking in Soul Asylum's guitar grinders and boogie-rock power boosters. "All the King's Friends," the last song on the album, is a brand-new-world anthem filled with the sort of fake prophecies, guitar overstatement and dance-thwarting rhythm changes that give head bangers whiplash. It's one of the best songs Soul Asylum has ever recorded; the group highlights its bad sense, however, by placing it after "We 3," a schlocky ballad about a guy who feels cut out by his best friend's new girlfriend because "Who wears the pants? It's faded but clear."

Remember that metal bands make maudlin ballads, too. Soul Asylum, though, seems burdened by its earnest claims to authenticity; the band wears its heartland on its sleeve. When the group two-steps to a country vamp on "Brand New Shine," it's okay. But when the boys put on sincere faces and act meaningful on "Nice Guys (Don't Get Paid)," it's not Singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave Pirner has some nifty ideas and a fine crow voice, but he's no Bob Dylan. His lyrics work more as strings of wordplay than as stories; his tunes are compositions, not songs. Rather than striving to be epic, Soul Asylum should just play its cornfed hard rock like a cartoon. Then, riding atop bawling guitars and a thumping bass drum, Pirner's spiel – "Out of luck, out of space, out of time, out of place" – would sound almost righteous. (RS 592)

EVELYN MCDONNELL