Review Summary: Awake from dusk till dawn, WATCHIN THE CITY LIGHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTS
As far as hair bands go, Slaughter are absolutely in the bottom third, and if it hadn’t been for a few totally badass moments on “Stick It To Ya,” they would most likely be bottom 5 in a group of illustrious counterparts like Bango Tango, Kix, and Stryper. Even in his prime Mark Slaughter was best described as a really sh*tty imitation of a poor (exceptionally bad) Rob Halford/Brian Johnson hybrid. He tried to combine ear piercing screaming with a real man’s snarl, and the results were often indescribably atrocious. To say that the majority of songs involving Mark Slaughter are mostly unlistenable might be an understatement, and if you heard him today (seriously look up a recent You Tube video), you will feel more pity than any type of revulsion.
Slaughter were one of those hair bands that hit about 2 years too late, enjoying a small window of success in 1990 before “Nevermind” came barreling out of the Pacific Northwest forest and bludgeoned the entire genre with a morose self-deprecation fueled axe. Like other hair metal albums released in 1990 like “Cherry Pie” and “Flesh and Blood,” “Stick It To Ya” had one extremely popular “rock” single (“Up All Night”) and an equally impressive and lasting power ballad (“Fly to the Angels”). Unlike those albums, the entire remainder “Stick It To Ya” is best described as an avalanche of corporate sheened sh*t that makes Jani Lane resemble the pinnacle of barrel chested manliness. If there are three redeeming factors for “Stick It To Ya,” they are the previously mentioned songs which are indeed completely radical and the fact that the album cover is one of the more fap-worthy in rock history. Aside from the anthemic overtones of “Up All Night” and the irresistible tenderness of “Fly to the Angels” however, the remainder of “Stick It To Ya” is considered laughable by even Poison’s worst moments in the 80’s.
Mark Slaughter used to sound gayer than Halford actually was and is now sonically akin to a 70 year old Bob Dylan after having his throat cut out, but he can hang his hat on a few hit singles and a double platinum album. If he has trouble looking into the mirror, he can still take pride in the fact his band wasn’t quite as limp wristed as Winger and had two songs that will act as some of the best cuts on every hair metal compilation ever. It might be difficult to conceive, but Slaughter’s following releases were unquestionably worse than “Stick It To Ya,” but Mark Slaughter stands as proof that even an extremely untalented flash in the pan can find a nugget of gold in an ocean of sh*t.
