Slaughter

In September of 1988 vocalist Mark Allen Slaughter and bassist Dana Strum, both ex of Vinnie Vincent Invasion, got together to form a classic "hair Glam band" completed by Tim Kelly (guitar) and Blas Elias (drums). In April 1990 their 'Crysalis' released million selling debut Stick It To Ya was released to a resounding 18 US charting position by featuring the tonsil shaking vocals of Slaughter himself fronting a formulaic but professional and commercial sound, helped greatly by their tour support for Kiss.

The follow-up The Wild Life emerged in 1992 to an 8 US/64 UK But despite its charting spots, it still failed in the long term with the soon-after advent of the grunge movement slipping under the radar as the music of youth choice, rendering Slaughter's style out-of-date. The issues were compounded by Kelly's legal problems due to drug offenses. The independently released Fear No Evil surfaced in 1995 to little interest.

Now on the infamous 'C.M.C.' label, a record label known as the "old age home" for many should-be heavy metal retirees, and with MTV long abandoning the sound that gave Slaughter their start, Slaughter was resigned to release their Revolution (1997) with a tougher sound but somehow managing to maintain their basic hard rock style.

Eternal Live (1998) relied heavily on their past material while Back To Reality (1999; now without the services of Kelly who had recently died and was replaced with Jeff Blondo), saw them attempt a come-back of sorts to moderate success in the USA. but nothing like it could have been 10 years earlier; clearly they were victims of the changing times.

Since then, Slaughter has not recorded but has appeared live most notably at the 2001 Voices of Metal tour featuring Vince Neil of Motley Crue, Ratt and Vixen.

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Footnote: Not related to the Canadian death metal band by the same name.