Tag: Dana Strum

You Picked It! – Slaughter – “Stick It To Ya” – Album Review

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Alright…You Picked It! And this one was really close. It was back and forth most of the time with Slaughter taking an early lead then Tesla going out in front, but in the end Slaughter pulled ahead and never relented after that. Slaughter’s ‘Stick it to Ya’ was one of the ones in my collection. Here are the results.

  1. Slaughter – ‘Stick it to Ya’ – 5 votes
  2. Tesla – ‘Psychotic Supper’ – 4 votes
  3. Daft Punk – ‘Random Access Memories’ – 3 votes
  4. Eddie Vedder – ‘Earthling’ – 3 votes
  5. Kanye West – ‘The College Dropout’ – 3 votes

Thanks to all for participating. The April choices will be up on Saturday!

SLAUGHTER – ‘STICK IT TO YA’:

Slaughter owes all their success to Vinnie Vincent. A strange comment for sure but true. Let me explain. Back after Vinnie left Kiss, he started his own band with a gentleman by the name of Dana Strum. The band, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, signed with Chrysalis…okay, Vinnie had a record contract, the band really didn’t. The auditioned a lot of singers including a very young Mark Slaughter. However, Vinnie didn’t like Mark so he passed and went with former Journey singer, Robert Fleischman.

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Kuni – ‘Lookin’ For Action’ (1988) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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After Jeff Scott Soto’s stint with Yngwie Malmsteen was over, Soto was able to land a gig with the Japanese guitar virtuoso, Kuni. The rest of the band included Mike Terrana on Drums, who played with Yngwie and Beau Nasty, as well as Douglas Taylor Baker on Bass, who also wound up playing with Beau Nasty. Behind the boards on this one is a name a lot of you should be familiar with due to the bands Vinnie Vincent Invasion and Slaughter. That is right, Dana Strum produced the album and I have to say the production work on here is fantastic.

The band was very popular in Japan and they even got to tour. One of the shows was recorded for TV so it makes wonder if there is a live album or bootleg of that show anywhere. I need to start looking for that.

The copy I have is actually a re-release from 2018 and has a couple live bonus tracks and who doesn’t love bonus tracks. All releases of this album are Japan only which means…yes…OBI strips and my copy is no different. You can see it a few pictures down. Also included is a fold out page that has an essay in Japanese and I have no idea what it says, but you see Vinnie Vincent’s name mentioned, Loudness, Yngwie and several other band names so I am guessing it is talking about the band members and where they came from plus tons of other great information that would be nice to read…if I read Japanese. The page also has the lyrics to the songs, in English, on both sides.

Continue reading “Kuni – ‘Lookin’ For Action’ (1988) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)” →

Vinnie Vincent Invasion – ‘Vinnie Vincent Invasion’ (1986) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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After the Lick It Up Tour with Kiss, Vinnie Vincent was officially let go from the band. Except can you call it official since technically never signed his contract so I guess he was never officially in the band. However you want to look at it, by mid-1984 Vinnie Vincent was gone from Kiss. And since my goal in the Kiss Review Series is to review the first thing the former band members put out after leaving Kiss, we are going to discuss Vinnie’s debut release with Vinnie Vincent’s Invasion. After being let go, Vinnie decided to go see the world and upon his return, he was ready to make music. His paths crossed with Dana Strum who had worked with Ozzy. Dana knew Vinnie was out of Kiss and was looking for a good guitar to play with so he searched out Vinnie and they finally connected.

Now the band needed a drummer and they found that in the muscle-man himself, Bobby Rock. The main band was now together and all they needed now was a singer. They looked no further than the former lead singer of the band Journey. No, Steve Perry hadn’t left Journey (yet), they found the guy he replaced, Robert Fleischman. And the band was now complete. The band got a record deal with Chrysalis…okay, it wasn’t really the band, it was actually only Vinnie that had the deal, but we are splitting hairs at this point. And they were off to make a new album.

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Slaughter – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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Founding members Mark Slaughter and Dana Strum were in a little band called Vinnie Vincent’s Invasion.  When that imploded due to its namesake, they decided to form a new band and they liked Mark’s last name and so it became Slaughter.  The decision was easy because the VVI label, Chrysalis, just transferred the Invasion contract to them and let them form a band. Pretty easy!!  They added guitarist Tim Kelly who has since passed away in 1998 and drummer Blas Elias.

The band put out 5 albums over their career from 1988 to today.  The band showed up on the scene with their first album in 1990 and their second came in 1992. The problem was not the albums, but the timing.  The market was so oversaturated with these 80’s Rock bands that the tide was turning. Grunge showed up on the scene and wiped them out of existence on MTV and the radio.  But they didn’t stop.  The continued to release albums throughout the 90’s and maybe someday we will get a new one.  For now, we will discuss and rank their 90’s output.  I hope you enjoy.

THE WORST – ‘FEAR NO EVIL (1995):

The band’s third album was called “Fear No Evil” and released in 1995.  I had already checked out by this time and didn’t even know they had an album.  Listening to this now, it really isn’t that bad.  They don’t really have a terrible album. This one sounded like the first two, but I think the biggest problem was Mark’s vocals were a little more shrill then usual.  Mark’s vocals are a little different and not for everyone. They never really bothered me except this one was a little too much. Continue reading “Slaughter – The Albums Ranked Worst to First” →

My Sunday Song – “Fly to the Angels” by Slaughter

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My Sunday Song #91 is “Fly to the Angels” by Slaughter.  The song was off their debut album ‘Stick It To Ya” and was there biggest selling single which charted #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart.  It was the band’s only million selling song and was one of the best power ballads to come out of the 80’s Hair Metal scene. The funny thing is, the band isn’t an 80’s band.  All of their albums were released in the 90’s starting with this one in 1990.  To be fair, the 80’s Hair Metal scene hadn’t fully died off yet, that came a couple years later.

The song features Mark Slaughter’s unique vocals which were a little raw and scratchy which fit perfectly for the sound they were going for and helped them stand out on their own from other bands.  The slow groove of the guitar heavy song hypnotically takes you through the story of the loss of someone that the person of the song truly loved.  You can really feel the loneliness and the pain this person is feeling at his loss.  It is a really touching song when you break it down and explore it.

I am sure everyone has lost someone at one point in time so that is probably why the song connected with so many people at the time.  If you haven’t heard it in awhile, give it a listen.

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