The album was originally released in 1994 during a turbulent time for hard rock. #Slik toxik fullIrrelevant is the third release and second full length album by Canadian hard rock band Slik Toxik. Perris Records has released what they’ve dubbed the 20 Something Anniversary re-issue of Slik Toxik’s Irrelevant album. As a songwriting team they showed immediate promise, but it was with the subsequent addition of bassist Pat Howarth and drummer Neal Busby that the band coalesced into a potent creative force. They had all played together previously in various combinations but it was at this time Nick brought them all together as a unit. Slik Toxik formed in October of 1988 by singer/songwriter Nick Walsh, lyricist Dave Mercel and guitarists Rob Bruce and Kevin Gale. We will post an unreleased vintage song from that performance in its entirety soon. Walsh: “This video has footage of the very first ever Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven appearance of Slik Toxik with drummer: Alex Munro. In this segment we see the television crew club hopping with A&R men describing the role they play in the signing of an artist. Check out the official Slik Toxik Facebook page for updates here.The clip below, posted by former Slik Toxik frontman Nick Walsh (Famous Underground), is a news item about A&R for a record company from what is to believed as a CBC broadcast circa 1989-90. Irrelevant (20 Something Anniversary Re-Issue) tracklist: A fine way to cap off a welcome throwback. The space has been filled with the 1989 demo version of the band’s runaway hit from Doin’ The Nasty, ‘White Lies / Black Truth’. This calls for a vinyl LP version, in case anyone at Perris Records is reading.ĭie-hard Slik Toxik fans should note the cover of the Sex Pistols hit ‘EMI’ has been removed from the tracklist. Repeated listens in the here and now made me realize that (a) the connection between my ears and brain wasn’t fully formed, and (b) the album is laid out – by accident or design? – in a brilliant Side A / Side B format, six songs a side. One complaint I had about Irrelevant was the track sequence, as I originally felt the album started to lag half way through. Dark and evil, the band as a whole serves up what comes off as some kind of swamp grunge anthem at the outset, changing its face half way through to become a thundering Black Sabbath-metal monster that, quite frankly, nobody would have ever expected the Toronto prettyboys of a few years earlier to pull off. Gotta say, though, that 20 years on it’s ‘Voodoo’ that stands out as being Slik Toxik’s finest moment bar none. Less surprising was the drive towards Alice In Chains territory with ‘Dive’ and ‘Drained’ given the times, the latter being the weakest song on Irrelevant. The bigger shock, however, turned out to be tracks like the introspective ballad ‘Liquid Calm’, the smokey bar blues of ‘Blue Monday’, and the acoustic led south bent ‘Mother Machine’. On the one hand Slik Toxik went from being cock rock to a nailgun-carrying metal band, quite unexpectedly bashing people over the head with ‘Twentysomething’, ‘I Wanna Gun’, ‘Kill The Pain’, ‘Fashioned After None’ and ‘Just Fade Away’. Looking back on said review in the wake of Perris Records opting to release a 20th Anniversary edition of the record, two things are readily apparent: I knew what I was talking about even as a wide-eyed newbie to the music biz, and Slik Toxik were way ahead of their time.Īnd thanks to the internet age I’m not restricted to a tiny column in trying to explain why Irrelevant works, units sold in the past be damned.Īs stated in my original review (photo below), Irrelevant was a diverse platter that deftly avoided being a scene-sucking travesty with regards to their roots (that’s what I tried to say, at any rate). Irrelevant failed to make the same impact its predecessor had, and ultimately turned out to be Slik Toxik’s swansong. It was a darker and dirtier record compared to their official debut, Doin’ The Nasty, written and released at a time when hair metal / cock rock bands were well into taking a beating from the grunge scene takeover. Twenty years ago I wrote a review for Slik Toxik’s second full length album, Irrelevant.
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