Slaughter is an American glam metal band from Las Vegas. The band was formed by singer and rhythm guitarist Mark Slaughter and bassist Dana Strum. The band had the most success in the early 1990’s.

Intro (Edit)

Slaughter is an American glam metal band from Las Vegas. The band was formed by singer and rhythm guitarist Mark Slaughter and bassist Dana Strum. The band had the most success in the early 1990’s.

The band formed in Las Vegas in 1988, at the height of the glam metal’s reign on MTV. The band didn’t achieve success until the end of the era, around 1990. They were in the spotlight for a brief time before the grunge movement happened.

To finish out the line-up for the band, Mark Slaughter and Dana Strum recruited lead guitarist Tim Kelly and drummer Blas Elias.

During May and June of 1989 the band was recording their debut album, Stick It To Ya. It was released in January of 1990 by Chrysalis Records. The album has sold over 2 million copies and was nominated for best metal album of the year in 1991.

The album had three hit singles. ‘Fly To The Angels’, a power ballad that peaked at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The other two songs were ‘Up All Night’ and ‘Spend My Life’, which peaked at number 27 and 39 respecively.

While on tour supporting their debut album, the band released a live EP called, Stick It Live. The EP was released in 1990 by Chrysalis Records. The album was certified Gold.

Then the band was contacted by Orion Pictures to record a song for the upcoming movie, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. They recorded the song ‘Shout It Out’ and the song was accompanied by a music video. The song and video both received heavy airplay on the radio and MTV.

After constant touring, the band released their next album, The Wild Life, in April of 1992. The album spawned the hit songs, ‘The Wild Life’, ‘Days Gone By’ and ‘Real Love.’ The album debuted at number 8 on the charts and then soon went Platinum.

With the success of the first two albums, the band wanted to tour and get back into the studio to keep the momentum going. Unfortunately that wouldn’t be the case for the band. In 1993, Tim Kelly and the bands tour manager, at the time, were arrested for drug trafficking. During this time, it was not known if Kelly would be able to perform with the band again.

Then to add to the problems, Dana Strum was involved in a dirt bike accident. He suffered multiple broken bones, which included a left wrist and two fingers on the hand he plays bass with.

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History (Edit)

In November of 1993, the band started a recording schedule while Strum was going through rehabilitative therapy for his hand and Kelly was meeting with attorneys.

For the first time in a while, the band played a gig together on New Years Eve in 1993. They debuted some new material from their forthcoming album, Fear No Evil. The album, Fear No Evil, was completed in February of 1994.

During this time, the band found out that they were being dropped from their label in a massive ‘cleaning house’ to bring in more room for new bands to be signed.

After this, the band signed with CMC Records, who wanted to bring hard rock / metal back to the public. The bands first album with CMC Records was the long awaited album, ‘Fear No Evil’. The album didn’t have much success in the United States, but the album did well in Japan. During this time, guitarist Dave Marshall was called to fill in for Kelly at certain points for the tour.

After an extensive touring schedule, the band recorded their next album, Revolution. The album had more of a psychedelic sound than their typical hard rock / metal sound. This album was widely ignored by critics.

On February 5, 1998, Tim Kelly was killed in a car accident in the Arizona desert. While this was a major tragedy for the band, they, once again, were commited to continue on as a band.

In 1998, the band hired Jeff Blando to replace Kelly.

In 1998, the band released another live album called, Eternal Live. This was their first full-length live album though. Eternal Live was recorded in the summer of 1997, during two gigs, one in Mexico and one in Las Vegas. This was the last album to feature guitarist Tim Kelly.

In 1999, the band released the album, Back To Reality. The album was the fifth studio album from the band and the first to feature new guitarist, Jeff Blando.

In 2003, Capital Records re-mastered and re-released the bands first two albums, Stick It To Ya, and The Wild Life.

In April of 2004, the band released a DVD called, Then And Now. The DVD features 12 songs and 50 rare photos of the band.

Since the early 2000’s, the band has continued to tour with other bands from the 1980’s and early 1990’s glam metal scene. They’ve toured with bands such as Poison, Cinderella, Dokken, Skid Row, Ratt and more.

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