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two years pass...
I saw Slaughter in 1991. They dedicated "Fly to the Angels" to the men and women who defended our country in the Persian Gulf.
They also did that thing of substituting "Saddam Hussein" for "Chairman Mao" in their cover of "Revolution".
― pplains
that was such an amazing era for the overlap of pop-metal/hard rock with displays of patriotism that would embarrass lee greenwood.
― omar little, Thursday, 30 November 2023 18:32 (four months ago) link
very interesting band to me (I'm pretty into this kinda music) - the lead track on The Wild Life is really a good encapsulation of how they're a band with some interesting ideas and impulses but there's also no way in hell they're even thinking about trying to anything other than Crue played straight. feel like Sunset Strip aesthetic politics are a whole thing worth talking about -- like Crue took MASSIVE shit for their makeup early on, lots of homophobic mistrust on the scene, people lumping them in with the sleaze trend that was big there then (Mau Maus, Joneses, all bands Axl was absolutely taking notes about) but their sound was hard to deny, I think a guy like Slaughter is hearing this and thinking "I want a normal version of this." and they're real capable musicians, the songs aren't good and the vocal approach, it's exactly what you think, laughable then and now, but listen past that at all the weird shit on The Wild Life. So many bizarre tiny moments across the first two tracks it makes me dizzy, I'll catalog them:
1. sure ok we open on a church bell and some sfx but then there's this guitar through a phase pedal with some high feedback behind it, fuzz & interference and the guitar's playing a disciplined repetitive figure, this could easily be a Helden track but then the hair metal kicks in HARD and it's like somebody spliced two tapes together wrong
2. it does its mid tempo Crue thing for a while, the vocal harmonies on the chorus are sweet as hell, this was probably really powerful live, the bassist is ACTIVE, very nice touch
3. and then the bottom drops out! more sfx, chimes, a Roland harpsichord, some lyric about opening your mind - like, it's just a weird bridge, bands do weird bridges, but hair metal band kinda don't and this is super odd. bizarre. and then!!
4. two guitar solos and the first one is WILD, long EVH "here I come" note but then this lurching scale that -- like, this is what alternative rock bands do with their solos. it's artsy shit! the second solo is more proper Sunset but the first one (or was that just the intro to the solo?) has left its mark, and then it collapses into the squelch synth sound that has marked transitions in the mid section of the song
5. on the repeat chorus they really lock into the groove, by this point hopefully you've figured out a way to ignore the vocals, it's hard, they're a lot but the band is practically CHOOGLING -- really in a pocket, or what counts as a pocket in this kind of music. bassist LOCKING into his busy figure in the fadeout.
then we hear tires squealing and motors roaring and we have what sounds pretty hair metal until this bassist persuades the band this is a new wave tune. popping quarter notes snapped to the grid, more woozy guitar chiming in, very poppy chorus, these are people who have misunderstood whitesnake for the greater good. the guitar solo is also pretty bonkers on this track.
anyhow that's the first two tracks of their second album. having to learn to be ok with the vox/lyrics isn't really the best use of one's listening time but shit, I listened to thrash before this and death metal after, I can get there when it's worth it. good band.
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Friday, 1 December 2023 02:52 (four months ago) link
Listening to this now and yeah, it's kind of fascinatingly weird. I'm also getting hung up on just how blatantly the singer's imitating Dio on the line "you reach for the sky".
I like it when hair metal bands get arty and weird. Remember when BulletBoys covered Tom Waits's "Hang On St. Christopher"? And released it as a single from their second album?