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AllMusic says that the composition of the Call of the Wild album was influenced by AM and FM radio hits of the period in which the album was recorded.[1] The publication says that the album's title track, which opens the album, is "not as blistering as ["Cat Scratch Fever"], but more metallic than the psychedelia/blues of the original Amboy Dukes", calling the song "more Jeff Beck gone rock than the quasi-Ozzie persona Nugent gleefully would embrace" in his subsequent albums under his own name, comparing the composition to the music of Spirit and Jo Jo Gunne.[1]AllMusic also said that "Sweet Revenge" lifted it's melody from the Grass Roots' song "Things I Should Have Said".[1] The website called the song "Pony Express" "a strange amalgam of '60s out-of-the-garage/heading-toward-stadiums riff rock", saying that it borrowed it's melody from Deep Purple's "Highway Star", and said that "Ain't It the Truth" was a piano boogie, comparing it to "Jumpin' Jack Flash".[1] The album's second side is sequenced to sound like a single continuous jam session.[1]AllMusic says that "Rot Gut" sounds like "Joe Perry emulating Jeff Beck".[1] "Below the Belt" contains keyboard and flute instrumentation played by Gabe Magno; AllMusic compared the song to the Rolling Stones' "2000 Light Years from Home", and called "Cannon Balls" a "heavy vocal progressive rocker".[1]
AllMusic described the Call of the Wild album as "Ted Nugent going through another mutation, but shows him as more diverse and adventurous than he sometimes gets credit for".[1]Metal Hammer included the album cover on their list of "50 most hilariously ugly rock and metal album covers ever".[2]