Style: hard rock, heavy metal
Label: Capitol
Year: 1988
Home: n/a
Members: Mark Slaughter ~ vocals
Vinnie Vincent ~ guitar/b. vocals
Dana Strum ~ bass/b. vocals
Bobby Rock ~ drums
Additional: Jeff Scott Soto ~ b. vocals
Before Mark Slaughter fronted Slaughter, he fronted the Vinnie Vincent Invasion. I didn't know that before hearing this album & researching it. The guy has a super set of pipes & shows a bit of range on the album with 3 distinct voices. That really impressed me. Yet, for every moment I was impressed by him I was also turned off. At times his vocal phrase phrasing & use of echo, or chorus, makes him far too much of a Robert Plant imitator for my tastes. Other times his vocals were distracting or just plain annoying. I wanted him to reign it in more often than not, while other times I loved hearing the variety & wanted more of it. On the other hand, I might be laying blame at Slaughter's feet when the problem is really iffy songs that he was just trying not to be embarrassed by. Let me be clear. The songs are iffy. That doesn't mean they're bad. They're iffy for one huge reason: they are badly imitative. On multiple occasions I thought I was hearing a Jimmy Page riff. I do not listen to a solo album by the former guitarist of Kiss to hear Led Zeppelin. Need I say more? I'm 100% sure the riff on the opener "Ashes To Ashes" is pretty close to a famed Zep riff. Slaughter's singing "Baby, baby, yeah" with vocal effects just drives it into the Led Zeppelin imitation territory far too much for my tastes. "Heavy Pettin'" also sounds like a riff I've heard by Zep, & I almost found myself singing the other more famous song. This is not a good sign. The ethereal acoustic guitar part of "Ashes To Ashes" might be Zep, but I do have to give Vinnie kudos for nailing it perfectly. But, still, he's nailing a sound another band is known for. Though, its not all Zep Mach II. "Dirty Rhythm" reminded me of AC/DC, & the opening guitar part of "Love Kills" has an all too heavy '70's prog flavor. Essentially, who is Vinnie Vincent? A Jimmy Page imitator? I think not. I really like Vinnie's work with Kiss. I felt he was a good choice for their changing sound. Even when the songs were iffy, Vinnie shined through with great wild riffs. Thus, the few parts of All Systems Go that I enjoyed were the moments when Vinnie stopped being someone else & was himself. "Let Freedom Rock" & "Burn" had backing vocals that dominated in a bad way, but Vinnie makes up for it with some quirky almost violent guitar playing that would make Steve Vai blush. I love Vai, so that's a huge compliment. This is what I want to hear. "Ashes To Ashes", when not being imitative, has a guitar solo that is insane. It goes through about 8 distinct styles &/or sounds &/or techniques, including sounding like a violin, that might be found on a Spinal Tap album. I just wish it hadn't taken 3 minutes to get to that point playing riffs by another band. I would recommend this album to guitar fans & anyone who likes Mark Slaughter. It has weak parts, but the sheer force of the players is worth hearing. For anyone else, you might or might not like it. For me, I've heard enough wannabe Zep bands, not to mention writing the biography of a Zep tribute band singer, so I've had my Zep quota. One last note. I never ever need to hear ever again another musician doing an instrumental version of the "Star Spangled Banner". I don't care if you're Hendrix or Chris Squire. Its cool when singers do it, usually, as its a vocal challenge or a vocal embarrassment, but on a guitar or bass its not exactly anything that can't be done. Holding a note on a guitar is not impressive. Jumping an octave or whatever to the next note is also not impressive. Please stop, please.
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