Time to Burn

Time to Burn is the second album, on which Giant balanced weight and polish around Dann Huff’s expressive guitar and singing and the steady playing of David Huff and the others. Released on Epic in March 1992 and produced by Terry Thomas (ex-Charlie), who had worked with Bad Company and Foreigner, it also has co-writing from Jim Vallance and Van Stephenson. The riffs are thick and the choruses open wide, but a precise session-musician ensemble breathes in every song. The seven-minute-plus “Chained” reached No. 16 on the US Mainstream Rock chart, and “Stay” got airplay too. From the racing opener “Thunder and Lightning,” through the short instrumental “Smoulder” into the title track, the ballad “Now Until Forever,” and the closer “Get Used to It,” the playing works to lift the songs’ emotion rather than show off technique. Within a heavier sound than the debut, bracing hard rock and wistful ballads sit side by side — a hidden gem closing out the era of major-label melodic hard rock just before grunge took over.