To be honest, I could write a carbon copy of my review for Mötley Crüe’s self titled album from 1994 here, because the story of both bands is pretty much word for word. Two bands with previous albums that were at the top of the tree, Dr. Feelgood for Mötley Crüe and Slave to the Grind for Skid Row. Huge tours following these albums had their popularity at an all time high. A long break between their next albums (for varying reasons) also incorporated a huge change in the music scene with grunge becoming hugely popular and thus influencing the direction that all music, but especially metal, was then recorded. The result was a change in style that so disillusioned fans that these bands found themselves fighting battles on all fronts, and barely winning any of them. Oh, and not to mention that the producer of both of these albums was Bob Rock who along with influencing the sound of these two albums was also helming Metallica’s charge to alt-rock on Load and Reload.
Is this too long a bow to pull? I don’t think so. Though Mötley Crüe had forsaken Vince Neil for John Corabi which at least gave them a semblance of reason for the change in musical direction, Skid Row could only use the excuse that the tensions in the band were already pulling them apart. Could it be that they were still trying to find their identity in the music market? Their debut had been a pure hair metal release, while their sophomore album was morphing closer to heavy metal. Here it has been suggested that they wrote and performed a heavier version of that. If they have made a progression, it isn’t to that.
As to the album itself, are there many redeeming features? What amuses me is when people say, as suggested above, that this is the heaviest album Skid Row had released to this point. C’mon, really? Just because you slow down the tempo a little and drop the gauge a tad to make it sound as though it’s a heavier sound doesn’t make it a heavier album. And what really ties it back to the time is the similar rhythm running through every song. The tempo of the album barely changes, such that you could pretty much put a drum machine on and a bass rhythm just hollowing up and down the fretboard in time and that would suffice for the whole album. Which to me is the point. This album sounds like it is an attempt to compromise between what the band had done in the past, and where the music scene was heading to following the remnants of the grunge era. By doing so it is neither one or the other, and for me it suffers because of it.
There are some good songs here, but none that you are ever going to label as great. “Bonehead” is as close to the old Skid Row as you are going to come, though it really needed the Seb Bach screaming vocal over the top within the song to really bring the best out of it. Strangely enough he then does this on “Beat Yourself Blind” and it just sounds forced. “My Enemy” and “Firesign” are fine after you have listened to them about twenty times. “Remains to be Seen” has its moments. “Subhuman Race” finds much of the old vibe for a brief moment in time and produces the best song of the album.
To conclude, this is just an average album from a band that up until this point had excited me thoroughly. Like a lot of albums from metal bands I loved from the 70’s and 80’s that were released through the 1990’s this one is too off-track to get a lot of enjoyment from. The divorce with Sebastian Bach after the tour left both without their main vehicle to go forward and it feels like they have both been looking for it since.
Best songs: “Bonehead”, “Subhuman Race”, “Remains to be Seen”
Rating: “Brothers hear my story, but don't you take no pity out on me”. 3/5
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