1279. Slaughter / Stick It to Ya. 1990. 3.5/5

The eventual formation of the band Slaughter came about from the rise and then disintegration of the band Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Bass guitarist Dana Strum was an original member of that group, playing on their self-titled album. Not long after that recording, lead vocalist Robert Fleishman left the group, and Strum brought in Mark Slaughter to replace him, as he had come to know him from another band he was producing at the time. Both featured on the second Vinnie Vincent Invasion album “All Systems Go”, which had some commercial success. In August 1988 it was announced that the band had disbanded. In an interview with Circus magazine in late 1988, Mark Slaughter stated that the split was amicable, quoted as saying "When we first joined the Invasion, we were told that it would be a group situation, but it gradually changed to the point where we were all sidemen. Vinnie wants to be a guitar hero, we want to be a band." Slaughter also explained that Strum had been fired by Vincent, and Slaughter had the choice to stay, but chose to leave the band and go with Strum.
Dana Strum believed that despite having similar modes of thought, he and Slaughter were "two distinctly different animals". However, their differences worked to their advantage, and after securing a deal (which rumour suggests Vinnie Vincent Invasion's record company, Chrysalis Records, took the $4 million contract away from Vinnie Vincent for exceeding his credit line with the label, and transferred the contract to former members Slaughter and Strum), they wrote songs, often penning lyrics on top of Domino's Pizza boxes at 3 a.m., and held formal auditions for their new band, seeking individuals who shared their "one for all and all for one" philosophy, had no issues with substance abuse, and were "fan oriented". On this front, guitarist Tim Kelly joined after meeting Mark Slaughter at a barbecue, while drummer Blas Elias secured his spot after impressing the two in a videotaped audition and playing live in Los Angeles.
After forming the band in January 1989, all four members lived together in a small apartment working on songs with a drum machine and four-track, and then to a studio to lay down demos. According to Dana Strum, the band's songs were inspired by true-life experiences “either about something that we went through or something we both perceive a lot of people go through but can't get a chance to express for themselves."
With Strum and Slaughter on board to write and produce the album, the band recorded in several studios in May and June of 1989, eventually releasing the album titled “Stick It to Ya” in January of 1990.

There are so many things about this album that seem to line up like the proverbial ducks in a row, that on reflection 35 years after its release makes you realise why it had the popularity it did in certain pockets of the music universe, and why it probably doesn’t in the other places. Because when you listen to the album, you can pick up all the different bands of the era that Slaughter has chosen to represent in their music. And the vocals are the first thing. Mark Slaughter brings that same vocal technique with him that made “All Systems Go” by the Vinnie Vincent Invasion so interesting, the higher pitched range with the sore throat style made famous by Tom Keifer and Joe Elliott. There is a lot of that here. And yet, you also have a song like “She Wants More”, which could have been taken directly from a Motley Crue album, and vocals that almost mimic Vince Neil in his heyday. The opening track of the album “Eye to Eye” travels down a similar yet not precise road, as does the follow up “Burnin’ Bridges”. There is a great attitude about the vocals and music on this track. So the difference in the lead vocals on the tracks on the album is an interesting addition throughout. At times it almost sounds like there are two different vocalists on the album, something that I definitely checked just in case I was about to make a serious blunder in this review. But no, Mark Slaughter is the lead on all tracks here.
Then musically... well, it’s almost a who’s who of the era of hair metal and hard rock. I hear Whitesnake in the music, I hear Motley Crue in the music, I hear Cinderella and Bon Jovi and Def Leppard in the music. All of the bands of that era are represented in the music that Slaughter offer up here on their debut album. “Gave Me Your Heart” could have jumped straight off a Bon Jovi or Motley Crue album
None of this could have been a coincidence or occurred by accident. All of this had to be a coordinated effort to create a sound on the songs and the album as a whole that was directed like this. Having come from the dissolution of the Vinnie Vincent Invasion, you would have expected their overall sound to remain similar to that, and it does. But those other aspects throughout the album also become apparent and obvious the more you listen to the album. It sounds like it is designed to bring in the fans of that era and genre of music. And for me it obviously worked, because it is a creation of that era, and all of the band I have mentioned that seemed to be tied up to the makeup of this album are bands that I enjoy.
So, you can read into this what you like, but my intention is not to suggest this album is just trying to reproduce another band’s sound to replicate that success. It is to provide an indication of the sound the band had gone for. And I really enjoy it, for reasons which I guess are obvious. The lyrics aren’t groundbreaking, they won’t imbibe you with a sense of wonderment. It is still 1990, and that time hasn’t changed. Blas Elias on drums does a great job of emphasising the songs throughout. Solid and hard, he keeps the country moving. Tim Kelly on guitar performs admirably alongside Slaughter. The band sounds great overall.
The songs themselves are varied as to the genre they are produced. The soft rock ballad makes its ungainly appearance halfway through the album, with “Fly to the Angels” and “You Are the One” both fitting the bill for those kinds of songs if that is what floats your boat. The best songs hold the energy throughout, including the final track on the album “Loaded Gun” which completes this collection on the right footing.

It is quite possible that I would never have listened to this album if it hadn’t been for my first trip to Bali in July of 1991. It was on that trip that I purchased about a hundred cassette tapes, all for miniscule pricing, as was the way of the world in those years. It gave me the opportunity to get a lot of albums that Imay never have experienced because the price was too high to pay to take a chance on music I was unfamiliar with. At the Bali price of about 50 cents per cassette in 1991, I could take the chance on an album being rubbish. Some of them were. This one... was not. And so I listened to it, and eventually it found its way back into my box of cassettes, and just never resurfaced. Mainly because cassettes were the last form of music I would look for when wanting to listen to an album. And that’s the way it stayed.
Until a couple of months ago, when I began to look into what albums had anniversaries coming up for this next season of my podcast (or in this case, the beginning of a new podcast). And up popped “Stick It to Ya”. And I thought ‘wow... how many years has it been since I listened to this album?’ And one of the reasons I began this music podcasting of mine was to rediscover old albums that I had forgotten about This was most definitely one of those. So, I found it on my streaming service and played it... and I was immediately entranced. Not from its absolute awesomeness, and not because I had always thought it was an amazing album. But I did think two things. One, this sounds like a whole lot of bands from that era, all mixed into one album. And two, that I cannot believe that I haven’t listened to this album for so long. So much so that I got on eBay to see if I could find a copy of the album, and did so in five minutes, and bought it on the spot. A few days later it arrived in the mail, and as I compose this episode for you, I have just finished listening to my CD copy again on my stereo in the Metal Cavern. Buying CDs and albums is a much easier process in this day and age. And I have really enjoyed having this album again, and listening to this album again. I have literally never listened to anything from Slaughter apart from this album, and even that was 33 years apart between listens. It has led me to the conclusion that I should seek out more albums and give them a go.
This album won’t change your world, and for those that didn’t live through the era, perhaps it won’t be the novelty that I have found it over the past week. But as an album I have now rediscovered through this process, it again has proven the worth of this podcast to me for my own benefit. Perhaps it has also done this for you. It isn’t going to rate with me as one of the greatest albums ever released, but for the fun it offers me as a fan of the genre and the era it is worth revisiting.
The band made their live debut on May 4, 1990, opening for Kiss on the ‘Hot In The Shade’ Tour in Texas, on the day when this album received a gold record, signifying 500,000 copies sold. “Stick It To Ya” became the band's most commercially successful album thanks to heavy airplay on MTV and was certified Platinum three months later. The album peaked at number 18 and remained on the Billboard 200 album chart for six months. Not bad for a band that only came to pass because Vinnie Vincent couldn’t stick to a budget.