While listening to
\nBack To Reality<\/i>, the latest disc from Slaughter, for the
\ntenth time today, I got to thinking that this was probably the
\nperfect title for the disc. After all, the band was coming off of
\nthe tragic death of guitarist Tim Kelly and the tour which showed
\nthe band’s resilience hiring guitarist Jeff Blando.<\/p>\n
But now, the accolades were gone, and the band had to settle in
\nand prove that they could rock as hard as they did in their glory
\ndays.
\nBack To Reality<\/i> proves not only that Blando is more than a
\nsuitable replacement for Kelly, but that the band has lost very
\nlittle of the magic they’ve carried throughout their career.<\/p>\n
Their style has changed little from the days of
\nStick It To Ya<\/i>, though they don’t gravitate towards the
\nballad that much these days. Sure, there are the gentler numbers,
\nlike “Love Is Forever,” which is a very pretty song that has more
\nthan a little bite to it, and the instrumental “Silence Of Ba” is
\nan incredible piece of work that I wish they had expanded on for a
\nlot longer than this track lasts.<\/p>\n
But when it comes time to let shred, the band – Blando,
\nvocalist\/guitarist Mark Slaughter, bassist Dana Strum and drummer
\nBlas Elias – still know how to lay down the groove and lock the
\nlistener in for the duration. While the album gets off to a weak
\nstart with “Killin Time,” the band quickly bounces back with tracks
\nlike “All Fired Up,” “Dangerous,” “Bad Groove” and “Trailer Park
\nBoogie”.<\/p>\n
And anyone who wrote Slaughter off as being a lightweight metal
\nband from the ’80s needs to sit down and let this disc overtake
\nyou. Hey,
\nI<\/i> wasn’t that fond of Slaughter in their glory days (never
\nmind the fact I have all but two of their albums in my collection),
\nbut the band has constantly found ways to impress me, and
\nBack To Reality<\/i> is no exception.<\/p>\n
While you can gleam some of the band’s magic on just one listen,<\/p>\n
Back To Reality<\/i> is the kind of disc that begs for repeat
\nperformances. It is with multiple listens that this album shows
\nboth its absolute power and absolute beauty, and the disc is strong
\nenough that it holds up to near constant play without getting
\ntired-sounding.<\/p>\n
Slaughter even does the right thing regarding bonus tracks – it
\nstarts almost immediately after the last song, “Nothin’ Left to
\nLose,” fades into nothingness, and you don’t have to wade through
\n50 tracks of silence. It’s a bizarre little ditty they slapped onto
\nthe end of this disc, but it’s kind of fun to listen to.<\/p>\n
If metal is truly making a comeback, I have no doubt that
\nSlaughter is going to be leading the charge into the future.
\nBack To Reality<\/i> is a disc that proves to both the band and
\nthe listener that reality can indeed be a pretty thing to
\nbehold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7429],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39261","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-slaughter","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39261"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}