Slaughter - Mass Slaughter: The Best of Slaughter

GREAT CD

I am a huge SLAUGHTER fan, and this CD rocks. From the 1st song all the way to the last song (live versions). Bands out there just don't make music like this anymore. August 6, 2007

Thank you Dad!!

I really have to give my dad props for my discovery of all 80's metal bands. And this Slaughter cd is one of those discs that my dad came home from Coconuts with. But anyway I truly was amazed with this list of songs and the power each one delievers. This cd is a great one and if you are a fan of the 80's metal genre including Dokken, Tesla, and Queensryche I dont see why you wont think this is one of the best cds on the planet!!

And by the way: do the world and all of us a favor and keep on rockin!
Hopefully this music will keep being past down the
the generations like what happend to me. October 22, 2006

The worst of the worst

I definitely have a soft-spot for 80s AOR rock. I'll always be able to dig RATT, Poison, the Crue, Warrant, etc, no matter what anyone says about them. I draw the line at Slaughter, however. They have got to be the worst, most horrific, bottom of the barrel, band of the genre. Weak, weak, corporate pap that caused the genre to be so watered down, Nirvana's emergence and rise to popularity was seen as rocks saving grace. Generic hair metal not suitable for soccer mom. Sick cats being thrown onto vats of boiling acid, over the sound of a thousand finger nails scratching a blackboard, would be preferable to vocalist Mark Slaughter. Only masochists need apply. November 2, 2005

Includes everything from their prime

There isn't a single new song on this greatest hits collection and it only covers two studio albums (and a live record), but it does include everything that a fair-weather fan would ever need. You will find sixteen studio tracks here (not including two live cuts), which means an average of eight songs per studio album. While that might have a few saying Slaughter had no business doing a greatest hits collection at that point of their career, I'll make two statements in their defense.

First being that Slaughter was not on a major label anymore at the time this came out, they had since moved on to CMC International. That meant they were never going to release anything else for the label and the record company had to cash in while they could since Slaughter was still a very viable name commercially. It was either release it back then while the band was still hot or sit on it for ten years and finally put it out when nobody would care anymore. Is that the band's fault?

My second point is that "Mass Slaughter" is one of the few collections in which you won't find anybody complaining about songs being left off. Unless you religiously listen to the albums cover to cover and love every single song, everything that really matters is right here in one place. There is really nothing to complain about with song selection here.

For the record, the albums represented here are: "Stick it to ya," from 1990, "Stick It Live" (live ep from the first tour in 1990) and "The Wild Life," from 1992. While it seems odd to include live versions of two songs that are already here in their original studio versions, it's nice to at least represent "Stick It Live." These are tracks seventeen and eighteen.

To me, the best songs are 'Fly to the angels', 'Streets of broken hearts' and 'Days gone by' for slower tracks. 'Up all night' and 'Burning bridges' are two of my favorite rock tracks from this cd. Everybody else has their own favorites.

If you are a new listener and feel like exploring the music a little more, you might follow this purchase with a later day Slaughter compilation titled "Then and Now" which compiles a fair amount of music that they recorded for a smaller label in the years after "Mass Slaughter" came out. Normally, "Stick it to ya" or "The Wild Life" might be recommended to a casual fan, but if you decide to purchase this, keep in mind that all of the best material from those albums are right here. It doesn't get any better if you are merely a casual fan looking for a taste.

But if you already are (or become) a real diehard, by all means pick those original albums up. In fact, most diehards will skip this release here due to the lack of exclusive or hard-to-find material. Including the Slaughter song 'Shout it out', which is only found on the movie soundtrack, "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" would have been a nice touch. Instead, it means a fan has to hunt down that soundtrack to get that song. That is a minor annoyance, only minor because it wasn't their best song. 'Shout it out' is mainly something a completist would be after.

These songs stand the test of time fairly well, compared to a lot of music from Slaughter's era. This is some of the prime music from the early 90's pop-metal scene. You can put on this cd, let it run and won't often need to stop to skip over a track. This was Slaughter at their best, take it or leave it. They didn't have a reputation for being dangerous or menacing, like a Motley Crue or Guns N' Roses, but they didn't need to be, nor did they pretend to be. Fact is, a lot of these songs may be squeaky clean with a fairly slick production, but their music does sound good on the radio or a stereo. This group was talented at writing songs with some serious hooks, strong choruses and catchy melodies. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, by any means.

As of this writing, their most recent studio album ("Back to Reality") was issued back in 1999. Further albums after this hits collection (from 1995 and on) did continue along the same path, and had their share of moments (refer to "Then and Now"), but here the band was clearly at their peak. This material from "Mass Slaughter" is what started the fuss for Slaughter and made them into a household name, albeit for a short period of time, in the early 90's.

March 11, 2005

A Must Have for All Slaughter fans

Slaughter's first greatest hits album, "Mass Slaughter: The Best Of Slaughter" is a must have for all Slaughter fans. This album contains material from the Slaughter albums "Stick It To Ya" and "The Wild Life", and the live versions of "Up All Night" and "Fly To The Angels" that appeared on the Slaughter five song live EP "Stick It Live" also appear on here. "Stick It To Ya" and "The Wild Life" were both great Slaughter albums, and I can think of nothing better than an album with about an hour of great Slaughter music. All of Slaughter's songs are great, but my personal favorite is "Up All Night". Other good songs on this album are "You Are The One", "Real Love", "Mad About You", "The Wild Life", "Spend My Life", "Eye to Eye", and several other great Slaughter songs. Also, when you listen to this album, if you have heard both "Stick It To Ya" and "The Wild Life", you will notice that the studio version of "Up All Night", "Days Gone By", and "Fly To The Angels" all appear as edited versions on this album. Unfortunately for Slaughter, their popularity only lasted for a while. But their name still remains in the spotlight, and with "Mass Slaughter" and the other two Slaughter greatest hits albums "Then and Now" and "Extended Versions"( which was greatest hits material from Slaughter's live classic "Eternal Live") Slaughter will now hopefully release a greatest hits album with songs from all of their albums, including some songs with Jeff Blando, who joined Slaughter after the untimely death of Tim Kelly. Rest in peace, Tim. We all miss you, and still, after fifteen years, SLAUGHTER LIVES ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! December 26, 2004

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