1109. Skid Row / Subhuman Race. 1995. 3/5

The first half of the 1990’s decade took such a significant turn from the way it started until the time it bloated that it is no surprise that so many bands who had begun their internship in the 1980’s had been either destroyed or dissolved or had had complete facelifts by the time 1995 came around. The intense change in the genre that flooded the music world, and the speed that occurred at, meant that so many bands were left floundering in its wake. And, even while living through that time, it was hard to accept what occurred to so many bands that you loved. Some of them broke up through the pressure of trying to compete with the new wave of grunge and then what followed, destroyed by a phenomenon where record companies suddenly wanted bands to ‘write an album like that Nirvana band, they seem to be popular!’ And when they found that they couldn’t, that they were unable to break out of their hair metal glam roots, they were dropped by those record companies like a stone. Those that gave it a crack found themselves being accused by their fans of selling out and were dropped by them like a stone. And there were those bands that made some necessary adjustments to their music tone and found themselves in purgatory.
Skid Row had been riding the crest of a wave since their arrival around 1988, jumping on the coattails of Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Ratt and Motley Crue, and finding an audience that was all about their hair metal sound with a bit of attitude. Their debut album brought them to prominence, before their sophomore effort blew people away with a heavier sound, songs that covered the gamut of emotions of heavy metal and drew in an even wider fan base. Their five track EP “B-Side Ourselves” kept that wave going as their touring schedule extended throughout the early years of the decade. All around them during this, the music world turned on a screw in a six month period, and by the time Skid Row’s touring schedule was over, heavy metal and hair metal and hard rock had suddenly transformed into a whole new beast. Indeed, with the tour to support the “Slave to the Grind” album finishing in Australia in February 1993, the manager Doc McGhee actually suggested to the band that they take an extended break, to wait for the grunge movement to fade away. While that suggestion wasn’t such a bad move, for Skid Row the problem was that following on from grunge came the alternative wave and the industrial wave, neither of which suited Skid Row’s sound either.
In retrospect, the band’s response to this when looking to write and record a new album perhaps had merit but, in many ways, backfired spectacularly. The band parted ways with Michael Wagener who had produced the band’s first two multi-million selling albums, and someone who was familiar with the band and their style and their eccentricities. In his place, they hired Bob Rock, who had a list as long as your arm of albums he had produced or engineering for big bands including Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, The Cult and of course Metallica. Here was someone who knew the industry and knew music trends. He had just come off producing the self-titled 1994 grunge-alt era albums of both The Cult and Motley Crue, and would soon begin on Metallica’s next album, which would be released in 1996 and titled “Load”. So if anyone could keep Skid Row on their current crest of a wave, it HAD to be Bob Rock. Right?

Skid Row’s debut self-titled album had opened with bright and breezy tracks, great riffs and excellent vocals which entertained you from the outset. Their sophomore album “Slave to the Grind” had begun with tuned down heavy riffing and hard drumming and spitting vocals that had your head banging from the start and dragged you delightedly into the album. In both cases, the opening tracks to the album were instrumental in getting you hooked. “Subhuman Race” did neither of these things, and it is perhaps the most damning judgement on the album from the very beginning.
Many may argue that this simply isn’t true. Many reviews at the time suggested that this was Skid Row’s heaviest offering to that point in time. I believe it is fair to say they were confusing heavy for what it was being compared to in the music scene at the time. “My Enemy” opens with a riff and drum beat that plays as though it is in that heavy range and perhaps it is, just in a slightly Pantera way. This is designed straight for the fan base of 1995, the sound is designed to reel in those changes in music of the time and channelling it straight into their quad boxes. The guitar solo is the dead giveaway, immediately heralding the arrival of Skid Row the alt-metal group, a transformation that has been brought to bear by the times and perhaps even the direction of the new producer. “Firesign” follows, and sounds similar to a Queensryche-written and performed song of the era. Given that that band was also in the throes of abandoning all of their ties to their 80’s metal roots it probably isn’t too much of a surprise that it sounds that way. It’s a washed-out alt-rock song offering very little to grab a hold of. No identifiable riffs with a hook, whining vocals and a squalling solo that doesn’t improve the song in any way. “Bonehead” finds a far better tempo, faster throughout and Snake’s solo is back to its best here, more in keeping of the band’s history that its present place in time. The opportunity does seem there for Seb to really unload on his vocals here and really give the song a kick, but he chooses not to. The pace of that song seems more natural for the band, which is surprising given the immediate fallback position of slow mid tempo for “Beat Yourself Blind”, where Seb does actually employ some of those high scream vocals he can provide but in a seemingly less helpful or enjoyable way. Definitely could have been utilised in the previous song and improved both songs.
“Eileen” channels the alt-rock grunge dreary vocal-pulling over a flavourless guitar melody backed by Affuso’s wilting drum beat. This is as difficult a song to listen to as there is on this album. It is completely and utterly anchored to this era of music and not in a good way. Five and a half minutes of Seb’s agonising vocals over an unenjoyable music base. If you had put a little more oomph in the guitar riff, you might almost have heard similarities to Bob Rock’s next album, Metallica’s “Load”. As it fades off to die somewhere in extreme agony, the album moves into “Remains to be Seen” where the same vocal technique is being used again, an agonising stretching out along the plane of the track. And then, somewhere about halfway into the track, the guitars kick in and give us a half decent solo section that helps to raise the profile of the song, which gives it a better conclusion than its beginning.
BUT THEN FINALLY! The band rediscovers its mojo. Not lyrically particularly, but at least musically we have a bit of a rise in tempo, and bit more power in the music, and Bach is almost singing normally rather than whining through the track. The title track “Subhuman Race” mightn’t be classic Skid Row but in the context of this album this is almost genius level music.
How much more can be said about this album at this point of the episode? Trying to find any positive aspects about “Subhuman Race” has been problematic for all of the thirty years since its release, and that isn’t proving to be any easier here. “Frozen” wants to be a Soundgarden song with the opening riff mimicking any number of their songs. Overall, the song sounds great, but it is the vague similarities across the songs here that are looking to replicate the era’s sound that can be a little difficult to come to terms with. Also, write more lyrics and don’t just repeat the same lines over and over again! “Into Another” suddenly reverts back to clear guitars and clean harmony vocals to express its lyrics in the most appealing way to attract that section of the audience that enjoy heartfelt songs such as this. “I Remember You” this isn’t, but it sounds like it wants to be 1995’s version of it. “Face Against My Soul” comes across as one of the heaviest tracks on the album, driven by Affuso’s frenetic drumbeat and again far better guitar solos to feast on, while Bach’s vocals are at their least annoying, at least until the last minute of the song when he ramps that up in overdrive. And “Medicine Jar” sits in the same areas musically which gives the album a little run of reasonable material.
“Breakin’ Down” acts as not the power ballad here as such, but the alt-metal ballad. It has all of the usual hallmarks that the power metal ballad has, but in an alternative music fashion. Bach’s soaring vocal range is more muted than would have been the case in a previous era, the guitar solo is less flowery and whiney while still leaving you in no doubt as to the style of the song, and it just brings no emotion except a touch of boredom to the table for the listener. Then comes the album closer, “Iron Will”. This is co-written by all members of the band except for Bach, and depending on how you want to read them, it could almost be about the dissention that surrounded the group at the time, Bach against the band. It most definitely isn’t, by the way, but as the last song the band did together with these five in the band, it could easily have been their epitaph.

It’s amazing how many metal bands released albums in or around the years 1990 and 1991 to high acclaim and praise, and then didn’t release another until 1994 or 1995 with an almost completely revamped sound that met wide panning and criticism. That period killed a lot of bands and changed others forever. Most of you listening to this podcast would have examples of your own. For me, Skid Row is at the top of that list. In 1992 they looked like a band that only had a future that was blazing bright and true, to carry the torch that came from those first two albums into their next and following albums on a never-ending rise. How wrong some thoughts can be.
While there can never be just one person to blame for such a fall from grace or a change in musical direction, to me one of the people heavily involved is producer Bob Rock. This is not a direct criticism of his work and his abilities, there are far too many great albums out there that have his name attached to them to do that. But in this era of 1994 to 1996, Rock was the producer of albums such as Motley Crue’s self-titled album with John Corabi on vocals, The Cult’s self-titled album, Metallica’s “Load” and then “Reload”, and of course this album. What do they have in common? An almost 270 degrees turn in genre and style of the music written and recorded on the album. And I’m sure there are people out there that will back themselves and say that they LOVE those albums. That’s a personal choice, one which I choose to simply smile sadly and knowingly at, and move on. My point here is simply that Rock was at the helm of albums by four bands who had had mega stardom in 1990, and then saw a career change in their very next album, of which he was producer. Coincidence? You be the judge.
The band themselves probably tell the real story. In an interview in 2004, Rachel Bolan said "That record was a nightmare. Internally the band had fallen apart but we were forced to go in and do another record and it was a nightmare with the recording, writing and producing. We worked with someone we had not worked with before after being so successful with Michael and we were used to the way he did things. I am not slighting Bob at all, he is a genius producer but it was bad timing. I did not have the greatest time, it was nobody's fault, it was just the way things were. Also the record absolutely sucks." Seb Bach even went as far as to call “Subhuman Race” Skid Row’s “St Anger”. That is a damning assessment indeed. Since the tour to promote the album, Skid Row, in their many forms, have never played any songs live again from this album, while Bach in his solo tours has occasionally brought one or two out for memory sake.
I bought this album soon after its release, one of few that I did purchase in the black hole year of 1995. And it didn’t help my mood in any shape or form. I was excited. I love those first two albums, and adored the EP as well. At a time when I was looking for something amazing to grab a hold onto, this is what I thought would be that life preserver. And I got shit. Absolute abomination rubbish. I hated every part of this album when I listened to it. Where was LITERALLY EVERYTHING that I loved about the “Slave to the Grind” album?! None of it appears here, not a single skerrick. I could not believe this was the same band that had released that album. This was generic boring crap, like someone had decided to take the ‘most popular’ parts of every big selling album from the past two years, and then tried to write an album out of it. This is like a rubbish AI version of a grunge slash alt-rock album of the era, and it fails on every level. I remember being so disappointed, so angry, that this is what they had produced. And it very quickly found itself on the CD shelves with almost no possibility of parole.
Flash forward thirty freaking years, and here I am again, putting myself through the torture of listening to this album. I have had the displeasure of doing this since those fateful days explained here. I reviewed this for my blog about ten years ago, and was convinced at one point about 15 years ago that I should give this another go because an acquaintance couldn’t believe I didn’t like the album. They were proven wrong at that time too. So I have done my due diligence here people. I have now listened to this album eight times over the last four days, mostly through gritted teeth. And no matter how many times I listen to it, I just cannot take anything positive out of it. It is a travesty of music, and a massive down point in the band’s career. And seriously – I can’t be wrong, because even the BAND THEMSELVES can’t listen to the album! That to me is final nail in the coffin.
While the writing appeared to be on the wall while this album was in the process of being created, Skid Row finally parted with lead singer Sebastian Bach at the end of 1996, reputedly after Bach had organised the band to support Kiss on their Makeup Reunion tour, which the rest of the band then cancelled because they felt they were too big to support any band. Bach left an expletive ridden message on Dave Sabo’s answering machine suggesting the opposite, and he was fired soon afterwards. While this was obviously the final straw for the band and their lead singer, and something that had been building for some time, it is ridiculous to note that in 1999, On Kiss’s ‘first’ Final World Tour, they were supported by... yep, you guessed it... Skid Row. Since then, while both Skid Row and Seb Bach have worked consistently, neither has gotten close to the success they had together prior to this album being released. In the long run, that is perhaps the saddest indictment on “Subhuman Race” than anything else I may have mentioned here.