Originality is not an essential virtue in heavy-metal circles. Even so, few heavy-metal acts have ever delivered anything as unblushingly derivative as Whitesnake. You'd think the album was some sort of perverse research project. From the epic crunch of "Crying in the Rain" through the brisk, synth-spiked pomp of "Straight for the Heart" to the hyperstrummed overdrive of "Children of the Night," the group spits back every worthwhile mannerism and lick in the heavy-rock vocabulary.

In fact, a few tunes – the Scorpions-style rocker "Bad Boys" and the Foreigner-like ballad "Is This Love" – offer such dead-accurate impressions it's hard not to wonder if singer David Coverdale didn't pick the wrong reptile in naming his group. After all, wouldn't it make more sense to call this group Chameleon?

Coverdale and company hit their stride with "Still of the Night," a full-blown Zep-a-rama that finds the singer unleashing his best Robert Plant howl as the arrangement apes the stop-time guitar of "Black Dog," the monolithic stutter of "Kashmir" and the spacey bridge from "Whole Lotta Love" – and that's just in the first couple of minutes. What makes it such a guilty pleasure, though, is that Coverdale isn't simply stealing licks; he and guitarist John Sykes understand the structure, pacing and drama of the old Led Zeppelin sound and deserve credit for concocting such a convincing simulacrum.

Still, Whitesnake's most inspired move was to bring in Dutch guitar hotshot Adrian Vandenberg to augment Sykes. Vandenberg is a speed demon in the Eddie Van Halen mold, and his buzz-bombing solos add a modern veneer to Sykes's stolid, workmanlike foundation. But because Vandenberg is only a guest here, his fret-board flash is kept to a minimum; the focus remains on the songs, not the solos.

All in all, Whitesnake is shamelessly alluring, coming at the listener with hook after eerily familiar hook. Never mind that there's more lyrical content in most Pepsi commercials. White-snake does what it sets out to do: it delivers the goods. What more could a metalhead want? (RS 502)

J.D. CONSIDINE