(Deko Entertainment)
Fourth studio album by the Vegas hard rockers originally released in 1997, with the original lineup of singer Mark Slaughter, Dana Strum on bass, Blas Elias on drums, and guitarist Tim Kelly before his death in1998. Now this is a different album for Slaughter; at the time many of their peers had broken up, some influenced by the trends of the time (grunge, alternative) and tried to adapt changing their sound and style.
As did Slaughter with some success depending on your taste by showing their musical diversity and chops. It’s clearly evident they went in a new direction just by the psychedelic artwork, logo change, and band photography. Lead off track “American Pie” epitomizes those changes with its fuzzy guitars, flat drums, laid back arrangement, and Beatles harmonies. And two artsy Middle Eastern flavored instrumentals, “Guck” and “Ad-Majorem-Dei-Gloriam”, add to the album aesthetic.
Slide guitar on the moody slower “Heaven It Cries”, Doobie Brothers funky groovy guitars on “Can We Find A Way”, keyboard-based ballad “Hard To Say Goodbye” (also Beatles-esque), and “Heat Of The Moment” also shows writing experimentation. “You’re My Everything” an upbeat feel guitar light rocker that could have fit on the excellent heavy and varied previous album Fear No Evil and is most connected to the debut album Stick To Ya or The Wild Life.
Mark Slaughter also sounds great on this song, his mid-range is not recognized and appreciated enough. Speaking of said hit albums, “Tongue N Groove”, “Stuck On You” are the two hard rockers within their familiar fun glam metal songwriting.
The Deko reissue (first time on vinyl) includes some album credits on the vinyl jacket without the song lyrics and further credits on the cassette/CD at the time on CMC. The vinyl is a neat looking blue marble, and the mastering for the record sounds great.
Rating: 8.0
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