Reception
Allmusic's Maginnis praises aspects of the song, including its "nice build ups, breakdowns and solos," but does not think that the string interludes work as well in "Gonna Raise Hell" as they did in the title track of the Dream Police album. Maginnis also criticizes the song's length, at over nine minutes. Carlos has explained the length by stating that the song was originally intended to be about five minutes long, but when the band decided to go for a disco interpretation, they improvised an additional five minutes during the recording. According to Carlos, the first take of the improvised music sounded good enough to the band to be left in.
Fellow Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine praises "Gonna Raise Hell" as an "epic rocker" that ranks "among Cheap Trick's finest." Rolling Stone Magazine critic Dave Marsh sees the song as a "variation on 'Helter Skelter'" by The Beatles, and believes that the layering of the vocals was inspired by The Beatles' Abbey Road. Mojo Magazine claimed that "Gonna Raise Hell" and "Need Your Love," another song from Dream Police, "proved the Trick could do heavy, freaky rock jams as well as any of their peers." Audio Magazine found the track amusing but complained that Cheap Trick was willing to go so far as to record a disco track in order to be successful. Author Mike Hayes claims that with this song, producer Tom Werman achieved "the definitive Cheap Trick sound," even though the song's style differs from typical Cheap Trick fare.
The song has been popular live at Cheap Trick concerts.
Read more about this topic: Gonna Raise Hell
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