Encouraged by their continued success as a touring unit, Slaughter reorganized following the tragic death of guitarist
Tim Kelly with
Back to Reality, which introduces new guitarist Jeff Blando. Regardless, it's still the same old Slaughter, albeit a touch heavier than they were in their hit-making prime -- they're catering to hard rock radio rather than power-ballad-hungry Top 40 programmers (which actually serves them well). Still, it's knowing their audience that's kept Slaughter around this long, and that audience wants straight-ahead, melodic, meat-and-potatoes hard rock. So even if most of the music on
Back to Reality will sound somewhat rote and by the numbers to listeners who have no appetite for '80s-style pop-metal in 1999, it simply wouldn't pay for the band to take any chances or alter their sound -- and, actually, as
Back to Reality proves, they're still pretty good at it, delivering decent songs and convincing performances demonstrating that they aren't just phoning it in. There's nothing earth-shattering here, but the level of quality is pleasantly surprising, and certainly not that far below their commercial heyday. ~ Steve Huey