TS: Slaughter vs Lynch Mob

Fastway, meanwhile, had Fast Eddie Clark, ex of Motorhead, and one truly fantastic single ("Say What You Will"), thus they win..

Slaughter

The Wild Life

Originally released: 1992

At its best, Slaughter fills the same niche today that garage bands filled in the mid-Sixties – a speedy and loud but pretty and danceable combo with psychedelic pretensions and fashionable haircuts, imitative hacks from the git-go but perfect for suburban girls who need to break free of the seventh-grade grind. And shaking loose from that junior-high jungle is what Slaughter harmonizes about: When you get down to it, the band's 1990 MTV smash "Up All Night" was about a really wild slumber party. Pumping up pomp-gone-bubblegum drama with antsy falsetto choruses, traffic-jam honking, grandfather-clock chimes, calls and responses and little kiddies singing "America the Beautiful," "Up All Night" packed as much offhand joy into its four minutes as any guitar-rock single this decade.

The Wild Life has a couple of aural extravaganzas that don't work so well – these guys paid too much attention to Queen's classical orchestration, and when they get heavy and bombastic, they're just klutzy metal clods. But when they keep it short and simple – which is usually – they'll make you stomp your hands and clap your feet. The rhythm section takes Led Zep funk and strips it down so it's all platinum hook – no art. Mark Slaughter sounds sweet even when he's trying to sound nasty.

They do power ballads, too, of course. "Days Gone By" is a real throatlumper. The seven-minute strum epic "Times They Change" actually manages to work in sound bites about domestic violence and the gulf war without being insufferable, and "Old Man" is a friendly hillbilly choogle. But this album's high points are its happy weekend-celebration shout-alongs: "Out for Love" (which drops heartache and cute clatter into its boot dance like classic Slade), "Dance for Me Baby" (imagine the Bay City Rollers with David Lee Roth doing cameo asides), "Shake This Place" (about staying up all night, then all the next day, too!).

The Wild Life has more filler than Def Leppard's new album, but Slaughter's empathy for its audience makes Adrenalize's nonstop hooks seem clinical. The title cut, on which our protagonist and her girlfriends gather to watch the city lights just like they did in "Up All Night," sums up this band's philosophy: "You'll feel like an animal that's been uncaged." A time-proven rock & roll notion: As soon as three o'clock rolls around, you finally lay your burden down. School's out for summer. (RS 633)

CHUCK EDDY

Oh no they didn't. They came nowhere close to rocking.

masterpieces like " up all night"

You should be dipped in spicey goo and fed to pirhanas.

And yes they're back:

Frontiers Records is excited to announce the worldwide release of the Lynch Mob come-back studio album entitled "Smoke and Mirrors," to be released on September 18 in Europe and October 13 in the USA.

After 17 long years, singer Oni Logan and guitar wizard George Lynch found their way back together and again show their amazing abilities in some killer new hard rock songs.

"I would say this new record, 'Smoke and Mirrors,' is the record we should have put out as a follow up to 'Wicked Sensation'...better late then never I guess," said Lynch.

Lynch Mob was formed by Lynch, one of the few genuine guitar heroes of substance to emerge from the Los Angeles scene, after Dokken split up in 1989. The band's first album, "Wicked Sensation," went on to sell over 500,000 units in the US and featured the talents of singer Oni Logan, Anthony Esposito on bass, and another former Dokken member, Mick Brown, on drums. After a tour in support of Queensryche, Logan opted out, with Robert Mason taking his place on the follow up self-titled release. Lynch and Brown eventually returned to Dokken, releasing two studio albums until he left again in late 1997, putting together a several new incarnations of Lynch Mob and exploring new sounds with different projects.

However, Logan and Lynch found themselves again in a studio in the summer of '07. "We weren't sure what was going to happen," Lynch said, "but as soon as I heard what Oni was coming up with just off the top of his head, I knew the old chemistry was still there. So we spent many months writing. The first batch of songs had almost a Southern rock feel to them and there was quite a bit of acoustic and slide work on those. They also had a genuine '70s vibe. These first songs had elements reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac, Zeppelin, Black Crowes, Stones, and it was all very bluesy. We lived with those songs for a while then went in and did a second round of collaboration. We had tightened up as a band after touring over the summer and we consciously wrote the newer material with the 'Wicked Sensation' record in mind. So we updated the earlier songs a little and wrote a few more 'adventurous' tracks and went in to start recording."

Joining the new line-up are bassist Marco Mendoza (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy) and drummer Scott Coogan (Brides of Destruction, Ace Frehley). More than a band, this team is guaranteed to create one of the most explosive shows you can ever experience and shines big time on the brand new recording, which is set to bring back Lynch Mob on the map of the most exciting hard rock bands around! "Marco Mendoza is a gift from heaven," Lynch said. "How they figured out how to stuff all that talent and goodness into one person I'll never know. They must have made a mistake at the factory! Then there's Scott Coogan on drums....baby of the band. He's very solid, very 'Bonhamesque.'"

The "Smoke and Mirrors" track listing includes: "21st Century Man," "Smoke and Mirrors," "Lucky Man," "My Kind of Healer," "Time Keepers," "Revolution Hero," "Let the Music Be Your Master," "The Fascist," "Where Do You Sleep at Night?," "Madly Backwards," "We Will Remain," "Before I Close My Eyes," and "Mansions in the Sky" (Bonus Track).

Lynch Mob are ready to embark on a world tour in the fall 2009 to follow up on the successful performance at the Rocklahoma 2008 and to promote "Smoke and Mirrors." "We have been expecting to go out in a support situation with a bigger act in the fall of '09 to coincide with the release of 'Smoke and Mirrors' and were also expecting to visit Europe, as well," Lynch said. "It's been way too long since I've played Europe and we need to tour there extensively...last time Lynch Mob toured Europe was with Queensryche and I think that was 1991!"