1184. Skid Row / The Gang's All Here. 2022. 4/5

If you are as old as me, and were at that perfect age for when Skid Row first hit the music scene, and for a period of about six years stole the limelight and looked as though they had the world at their feet, then you have probably been waiting around for 25 years to see if they could ever regain those feet that appeared to come out from under them in the late 1990’s, with the somewhat acrimonious split with lead singer Sebastian Bach and drummer Rob Affuso.
In the years since, there has been a litany of lead singers and drummers who have populated the band, while the released work of the band has dried up to a trickle. Only two full albums, “Thickskin” and “Revolutions Per Minute”, were released in the years between 1996 and 2022, with another couple of EPs that tried to keep the flame alive beyond that.
Former Dragonforce lead vocalist ZP Theart had been with the band since 2016, and the talk of a new full length album began once again. However, despite the fact that Theart had a terrific voice, there always seemed to be a delay on just what was occurring with the band during this time. It was intimated that the personalities didn’t quite mix as well as they would have hoped, while it can be said that perhaps his vocals didn’t match the music either.
At the start of 2022 the band announced that Theart had moved on, and almost immediately they announced the recruitment of Erik Gronwall as his replacement. Little known outside of his native Sweden, Gronwall had won Swedish Idol in 2009, and gone on to a successful solo career as a result, and also joined the band H.E.A.T, with whom he recorded four albums.
At some stage Gronwall came on Skid Row’s radar, with many fans tagging them on social media about his vocals and how much they would suit Skid Row. There is little doubt that his range and voice do sound remarkably like original vocalist Seb Bach’s, but the band backed Theart despite this. Eventually though, the planets aligned, and the band decided to go with Gronwall, not only as their new lead singer, but to front the band on their first new album in 16 years.

If there was any real doubt as to why the band recruited Gronwall as their lead vocalist, the opening tracks to the album lay that to rest. From the opening strains of “Hell or High Water”, the similarity in the vocals between he and Bach is significant. “Hell of High Water” could almost have been dragged off the debut album such is its similarity across the board. The follow up title track of “The Gang’s All Here” ramps up the attitude, and utilises the best Skid Row has to offer – good backing vocals, nice guitars, and a happy feeling to the song. “Not Dead Yet” continues on in that vein, while “Time Bomb” has its moment but feels a little cliched amongst the first tracks.
“Resurrected” has that great attitude that the band’s best music has always contained, great guitar, terrific singalong lyrics and backup vocals that support Gronwall’s posing and pointed performance. It’s one of my favourites from the album. “Nowhere Fast” jumps between the mid-tempo range that modern Skid Row has adapted to, while also throwing in a bit of hard biting slow tempo drums to emphasise the chorus. “When the Lights Come On” changes things up again, visualising the kind of hair metal songs the band released on their debut all those years ago, focused on the same sort of subject matter and song highlights that they provided back in the day. This is one of the songs where Gronwall really sounds like the band’s first vocalist, in some places the resemblance is uncanny. And then there is the crowd chanting favourite “Tear it Down”, where you can imagine the crowd fist pumping and chanting along with the vocals in tandem with the band.
“October’s Song” is a long winded power ballad that for me is probably one that will sit well with the hard core fan base, but for my tastes doesn’t hit the mark. To be honest it doesn’t even work in a way of promoting the band on radio or those types of institutions, because at just over seven minutes in length it is too long. And really, if you are going to write this kind of song, make it four minutes maximum and get it over and done with. It’s not a mood killer, but it outstays its welcome well before the final chords are struck. “World on Fire” on the other hand fights back hard and sharp, and finishes off the album in the same way it started, with a fresh take on a band’s original sound and songwriting.

As I said in the opening, Skid Row came along at the exact right time of my life. All of those youth anthems that they wrote were aimed at my generation, and they were great years to be out there and listening to music and going to live gigs. I tried really hard to get into “Subhuman Race” but it just didn’t gel with me, and despite this and the changing of the guard, I still gave every Skid Row release a go and hoped it would be the one that rediscovered their mojo.
This is the one that has finally done it. Whether or not you want to call Erik Gronwall a Bach clone, it really doesn’t matter, because his vocals fit the band and the music they have written, and the band fits his voice. Some of the songs seem to be inspired by those early classics, without trying to replicate them. Maybe that’s just Erik’s voice, or maybe it was something that the band tried to achieve. Either way, what Skid Row does succeed with on this album is restoring the pieces to their correct order, and in many ways making them a listenable commodity once again.
I got this album on its release. Enough excitement had been built up with the initial selection of songs to whet the appetite, and I guess I was hopeful that everything would come together in a way that allowed this album to be as enjoyable as it could be. It isn’t about trying to make it sound like they did 30 years ago, it is about harnessing those memories and providing an output for them in the modern day. In all of those ways, the band has succeeded. I wouldn’t compare it to those first two albums, rather I would listen to it with the sound of those albums in mind, and allow that to swing the mood into this new era.

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.

1099. Skid Row / Slave to the Grind. 1991. 4.5/5

Back in the deep and distant past when I still had more vinyl than CD’s, I was a big fan of Skid Row’s debut album, and having then seen them on their subsequent world tour I had pondered what their next album would be like. We had been given a sneak preview at their 1990 Sydney gig with the playing of a new song “Get the Fuck Out” (only the second time they’d played it live), which augured well to my ears. When I then came across a pre-release copy of Slave to the Grind while in Bali in 1991 and first played it on my cassette Walkman that afternoon, I can honestly say that I never expected to hear what I heard.

How do you go from the happy-go-lucky feel of Skid Row to the crunching monster that is Slave to the Grind? There was attitude on the debut, but it was the attitude of teenagers taunting adults from a safe distance and then running away laughing. That’s not what is thrown at you on this album. The attitude here is from a confident adult who isn’t afraid to stand their ground and be seen for what they are saying. That attitude on the first album is increased tenfold here on the sophomore effort.
From the first time I put on the album I was transfixed. I had expected something similar to what the band had produced with Skid Row, but I was very much mistaken. The opening scream at the start of “Monkey Business” was just the beginning. But it is that guttural guitar riff and rolling drum beat opening on the title track “Slave to the Grind” that topped it all off and really gets you in. Fast and heavy, and that chunking guitar riff that blows the speakers apart. This was no hair metal band singing about the youth going wild or wanting to remember you, this was a bonafide heavy metal band exploding onto the scene with a presence and heaviness that could not have been predicted.
Some songs may have a similar structure and sound - “Psycho Love” and “Creepshow” I can still confuse before I start singing the lyrics and realise which song it actually is – but the mixture throughout is one of the strengths. The album doesn’t go hard for the duration, nor does it let you stop and wallow in the slower and more reflective moments for long enough to stop the album’s momentum. Every outstanding aspect of the band shines through in the songs and track list as it is set out.

The songs and music written for this album are just brilliant. Heavy riffs perfectly woven by Dave Sabo and Scotti Hill and driven by the hard hitting rhythm of Rob Affuso on drums and the added huge bottom end from Rachel Bolan on bass. Bolan and Sabo were again the main songwriters for the album and their growth over the previous two years is obvious in the songs they have collaborated on.
But the star attraction of the album is still the amazing vocals of Sebastian Bach. He is what makes this album so brilliant, because his versatility and range and ability to stretch from the heaviest vocal track to the highest rock ballad without compromising his harmony and pitch is pure gold. The vocal especially in “Living on a Chain Gang” is just superb. It drives that song to new heights, while the supporting vocals underneath perfectly offset Seb’s tangents. And then his performance in those angry tracks such as “Get the Fuck Out” and “Riot Act” shows great strength and purpose.
Even the hard rock ballads they produce are difficult to dislike, as Seb’s vocals roll like oozing honey out of the speakers at you. This is especially true of “Quicksand Jesus” and “In a Darkened Room”, two songs that I would usually have trouble enjoy but have no qualms about while listening to Seb singing them, while his vocal on the closing track “Wasted Time” is reminiscent of that on “I Remember You” from the first album, but with a greater authority and maturity than that song. Superb.

This should have been the springboard to a massive future for Skid Row as a band. Having come in with a hair metal confidence they had progressed to a real heavy metal attitude with this release, and set themselves up to become as big as they could possibly be. And then it went pear shaped. Whether it was the tension within the band or just the fact that music went through such an enormous upheaval with grunge and then hardcore changing the landscape, Skid Row never again produced anything like this album. For me it was one of the great tragedies of the 1990’s.

Best songs: “Slave to the Grind”, “Get the Fuck Out”, “Livin’ on a Chain Gang”, “Riot Act”.

Rating:  “A hungry politician is the wolf that's at the door.”  4.5/5

685. Skid Row / Skid Row. 1989. 4.5/5

Back at the end of the 1980's, when heavy metal bands were beginning to break through to some mainstream recognition, and hard rock and hair metal bands were about to face some stiff competition from a new genre of music called grunge, there came a band and their debut album that crossed the genres and took the music scene by storm, selling hundreds of thousands of units purchased by teeny-boppers and headbangers alike. It was something that had been pioneered by Guns N' Roses with their debut “Appetite for Destruction” a couple of years before, and this album and band looked to be on the same trajectory.
And as yet another debut album comes up for review here on this podcast, we again delve into how the band formed and traversed the path from start up gig to recording that first album. In the case of Skid Row, it was initially formed back in 1986 in New Jersey, when guitarist Dave Sabo met bassist Rachel Bolan in a local guitar store where Sabo worked. As they shared musical influences - Sabo from Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, while Bolan’s roots were in The Ramones – their styles complemented each other, with Kiss and Van Halen being shared loves, and they began rehearsing in Bolan's parents' garage. Guitarist Scotti Hill was drafted in and came from Bolan's previous club band, and Sabo picked up drummer Rob Affuso.
What became the band’s biggest influence on their early success was the connection with the band Bon Jovi. As was brought up on the previous episode of this podcast that relates the story of Bon Jovi’s debut album, Sabo was a childhood friend of Jon Bon Jovi and they had agreed if one of them succeeded in the music business, that they would look to help the other out. That initially came from being able to support Bon Jovi on their “Slippery When Wet” tour in 1987, at which time they caught the attention of Bon Jovi’s manager Doc McGhee. It was he who suggested that they replace their lead singer, as he lacked the drive of the rest of the group. When they did indeed follow through with this, they then had to find another front man who could fulfil their requirements. It was then at a wedding reception that Jon Bon Jovi’s parents attended that a band played with a lead singer who seemed to be a possibility. His name was Sebastian Bach. He was invited to meet with the band, and while some doubts and tensions remained, both sides agreed to come together.
After completing the lineup, the group then signed with Richie Sambora's and Bon Jovi's publishing company Underground, unknowingly giving them the majority of the group's royalties. How this occurred goodness knows, but it did cause a lot of friction for some years. Eventually negotiating some years later returned the royalties for their work, though not retrospectively, so the Bon Jovi element made a fair amount of money on Skid Row’s success.
With the band set, they entered the studio to record their album, a move that went smoothly apparently firstly through the fact the band made a pact to stay dry during the recording sessions, and secondly because they had been playing the songs for some time, and knew exactly how they wanted them put down on vinyl.

This album comes out rocking hard from the start. The hard guitar riff of "Big Guns" makes for a big statement start to the album, simple, hard hitting and a great opening track, that extends swiftly into the fast paced "Sweet Little Sister". “Sweet Little Sister” is dripping with the attitude of the lyrics perfectly attuned to Seb’s vocals, but for me the star element is still Rob Affuso’s drums, a song that I still cannot help but air drum along to even today. Don’t get me wrong, his drumming is brilliant throughout this whole album, but they just stand out proud on this song. One thing Skid Row have done well here through Sabo and Bolan’s terrific songwriting are repeatable and singable choruses, ones that everyone knows and can sing along to. The rhythm section on all of these songs is magnificent. Each song has its own timing and beat, which (while you are singling along) you can't help but find yourself banging away on the desk or table or knees in time. Affuso's drumming is clean and clinical and lends itself to this kind of air drumming. I find this especially so in the aforementioned “Sweet Little Sister”, but also tracks such as "Rattlesnake Shake" and of course "Youth Gone Wild". All are great songs to drum along to.
"Can't Stand the Heartache" is a mid-tempo song that transitions between the heavier and lighter songs beautifully, led by the chorused vocals throughout. "Piece of Me" ramps up the attitude of the guitars and the vocals once again, Seb once again belligerently singing what he knows the band’s fans are thinking and want to both hear and say themselves. The same happens in songs such as "Here I Am" and "Makin' a Mess", both have the same vibe and attitude and are great heavy songs with Snake and Scotti’s guitars ripping through the speakers as Seb's spitting lyrics wail over the top. The middle of the album takes all of the collective building in drive and power and unleashes the best of all in the songs “Rattlesnake Shake” and the forever youth of 1989 anthem of “Youth Gone Wild”. By the time the band reached Australian shores they had already outgrown the local clubs and pubs circuit, but I still imagine just how these must have sounded in those smaller venues of the time, sweat dripping off the walls from the energy dispensed by both band and crowd. They still pack such a punch today. The closing song "Midnight" is also particularly awesome, a slashing conclusion that perhaps gives a real insight as to what was to come on the band's follow up album a couple of years later.
The main winners on the album for the band in regards to radio play and singles sold are the two power ballads, "18 and Life" and "I Remember You", which dominated the airwaves during their release. Now as most of you who read my reviews are aware, I am no lover of power ballads. They invoke themselves to becoming a part of the hair metal and power metal genres, but unless they can bring something worthwhile to the table I believe all they do is suck the momentum and life out of an album at an inopportune time, and can damage said album irreparably. On Skid Row however, that is not (totally) the case. Both of these songs are driven dramatically by Seb Bach's amazing vocals, in such a way that you can't help but like the songs, and also sing along. "18 and Life" is not really a ballad in the sense of the word or in the way it is written anyway, but it is drafted into that category by many. It fits in nicely with the whole flow of the album, and the energy and passion brought through in Seb’s vocals help it rise well and truly above the pack when it comes to any discussion of the ballad. "I Remember You" is certainly a power ballad, but again it is performed so well vocally that it doesn't feel like a ballad. Bach's efforts on this song are sensational, and help to offset any sense of imbalance with the rest of the album.

I can totally understand if kids, or adults I guess in 2024 put this album on and just want to tear shreds off it. It is most definitely tied to its era, when hair metal like the bands such as Ratt and L.A Guns and W.A.S.P. were at their peak. Could a teenager in 2024 really get this? I was 19 when this was released, and it was one of those albums that really spoke to what my youth and to what my future may be, and as a result it will always be a part of my makeup. It could turn misery to joyousness in 40 minutes just by listening to it, and albums like that are very special. Too bad if you might sneer at a 54 year old jumping around the lounge room, singing "Youth Gone Wild" at the top of his lungs to his own kids. These songs still have this same meaning to me now, as much as Alice Cooper's "School's Out" and "Department of Youth" still do. While those that didn't grow up with this album might not be able to understand what it is that I find so wonderfully brilliant about it, I can assure you that for me, and others like me, that it is still one of the best albums of our youth, and invokes the same joy today as it did all those years ago.
This was an amazing album when it was released, alongside other well performed hair metal albums of 1989 such as Motley Crue's “Dr Feelgood” and Alice Cooper's “Trash”. But even though “Skid Row” was a debut album from the band, it more than holds it own against these established acts. The music is energetic and bouncy, the guitars squealing in all of the right places, and Sebastian Bach's high energy vocals make every song sound exciting. As it turns out, I saw all three of those bands, touring on all three of those albums, in a period of just eight days in early 1990, and they were three of the best gigs you could imagine.
I got this album on the recommendation of two unusual people, the sister of one of my best friends and the girlfriend of another of my best friends, who both said I should get this album and listen to it, I would like it. And I did. And I BLOODY well enjoyed it! More than that. It went into high spin rotation on all of my devices for… I don’t know how long. A long time, long before I saw them in concert and long after as well. Because these became the anthems of my life, and became moreso than I would ever have imagined. As I said, I saw them on this tour, their first tour of Australia. And they played the whole album because it was all they had to play, and added in some cover songs they loved, and even played a brand new song “Get the Fuck Out” that they had never played live before, that eventually appeared on their following album. And it was outstanding in every respect. I was standing side by side with my best friends from school, friends who all still remain my best friends today, our arms linked around shoulders, jumping up and down singing “Youth Gone Wild” along with the band. It is one of the strongest and still most heartfelt moments of my life. All the more because we are all still together as friends 30-odd years later. It was an amazing gig, and the album spoke to us. It’s OUR album. I might be 54 years old as I do this episode, but whenever this album is on, I’m still 19, and every song is of my generation. All of it sends me back to 1989. And no one can ever take it from us.
As much as the band as a whole are terrific here, and even better on the follow up, the thing that makes this such a terrific album is Seb Bach’s amazing vocal chords, the attitude and energy he puts into all of that, that really takes these above average songs and makes them the superstar elements that they have. The band needed Seb to take them to this level, and Seb needed this band to do the same.
For me, this is still one of the greats. Yes, it is all because of the memories it invokes, of where I was in life when I got this album, and of how the album and songs speak to the generation of the time. And that’s me. No matter how old I get, I will always be the age I got this album whenever I listen to it.
And we will forever stand and will not fall, we are forever one and one for all. We are still the youth gone wild.

157. Skid Row / B-Side Ourselves [EP]. 1992. 4/5.

Most people will know the backstory to Skid Row leading up to 1992. The eponymous debut album that stormed the worlds charts including the singles charts with their hair metal anthems. Then the remarkable sophomore album that went to a new kind of heavy, the brilliant “Slave to the Grind”, and the tour that followed. The band seemed to be on top of the world and could do little wrong, even in the age of the Seattle sound that was popularising the music scene.
15 months after the release of that album came this EP. Was it to keep more material out there in front of the fans? Was it to help fill a gap in a recording schedule or a touring schedule? Or was it a cash grab from the record company to strike while the iron was hot. I can’t say that I know the answer to that. Four of the five songs had been released as B-sides to the singles releases by the band, with only “Little Wing” being an unreleased song at that period.
My memory of the time was that I read an article somewhere that said that the five songs – all cover versions of other bands songs – were chosen for a reason. My memory of this article was that each member of the band chose a song for the band to cover, and that they were then recorded during the sessions for “Slave to the Grind” to be used for the B-sides, and that they were then pulled together for this release. Memory tells me that Rachel Bolan’s choice was the Ramones track, and Seb Bach’s was the Judas Priest track. But in trying to confirm that information for this podcast episode, I haven’t been able to find that out anywhere. Now, it may well have been an article in the now defunct Australia metal magazine Hot Metal, or it could have been somewhere else. So it may well be complete rubbish – but I offer it here on the off chance that my memory is indeed correct, and this is actually a solid piece of information.

Wildly different opinions are thrown around about the worth or otherwise of this EP. There are many people out there who hold it with great disdain. I’ve never really understood that. Perhaps those teenagers who came in to Skid Row through the hair metal radio friendly anthems couldn’t get the band playing covers of songs from bands they just had no idea of. Possibly. Others probably felt that the versions of the songs they played didn’t hold up against the originals. Possibly.
Personally, I think they did great versions of these songs that were faithful to the original, but also added their own style to it, and that to me is the best way of doing a cover song.
Trying to do justice to a Ramones song is going to be tough not matter what genre of music you play. Taking on “Psycho Therapy” was a good choice, and it is a rollicking version that stays true to the Ramones version while sounding like a Skid Row song. Rachel Bolan actually sings the lead vocal on this track, and sounds like he’s having a great time doing it.
On the other hand, the band’s version here of “C’mon and Love Me” is simply the best version of this song I’ve ever heard. Yes, it strips the original Kiss version by some distance. And that might sound like sacrilege, but this is brilliant. Sebastian Bach’s vocals here are perfect for the song. He doesn’t try to be Paul Stanley, he moulds it to his own vocal chords, and it is perfect. The band is also on point in this song. It’s a pearler.
We then have a live version of Judas Priest’s “Delivering the Goods”, which not only is a great idea to retain the vibrancy and energy of the track, it also has Rob Halford on duelling vocals. This was recorded at a time when Halford had either left Judas Priest or was on what he wanted to call a hiatus from the band, so it was an interesting situation for that reason. It’s another great version here.
For me, it was somewhat surprising how good the version the band does of Rush’s “What You’re Doing”. There’s nothing easy about covering Rush songs, and this is very much a Skid Row-ified version, putting a bit of the Slave to the Grind attitude in it to create the version that suits the band rather than duplicate the original. Personally I think it is a great version, even if the original still remains the bees knees.
Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” is the final song of the five track EP, and again shows the Skid Row sounding version of the song while retaining the feel of the original. Can you ever hope to cover a Hendrix song and be better than the original? No, but this does sound like Slave to the Grind era as well (think “In a Darkened Room” and you’ll know what I’m talking about).

Having come off the brilliance of the “Slave to the Grind” album, I bought this in the first days of its release, and played it to death for weeks and weeks. It was “C’mon and Love Me” that had me hooked, but when you have an EP that runs about 18 minutes you just let it keep going around and around, until you hear the songs in your sleep. In many ways it reminded me of when I first got Metallica’s "Garage Days Re-revisited" - reviewed just a few episodes ago here on this podcast – and I often wondered whether or not Skid Row was looking to produce the same sort of excitement that that EP had produced. There is no comparison of course, but it did provide a look at another side of the band, as to where their influences had come from. And as influences go, the Ramones, Kiss, Judas Priest, Rush and Jimi Hendrix are a pretty handy quintet to draw from.
I still love this EP. Playing it again over the past couple of weeks has been great, a short and sharp burst between other albums I am reviewing for this podcast that never failed to lift the atmosphere wherever I had it on. And because it doesn’t overstay its welcome, much like the aforementioned “Garage Days”, I still pull it off the shelves regularly and happily listen to it. And it fits because it is only 5 songs long, not like other bands who release full length albums of cover songs that sometimes just overdo it.
Sadly it was the last truly great thing the band released. Tensions rose when recording the next album “Subhuman Race”, and Seb Bach and the band separated after that tour. Sometimes you wish they had just been a little more love left to give.