REVIEWS:
I like to think of Skid Row as the bridge between 80s metal and grunge. Elements of both can be found in the band's three major studio albums - their riffs and lyrics are very much on the very dark, bleak, hopeless, tormented, violent, whatever side and there's very little good time party attitude anywhere to be found. At the forefront is the stunning, accomplished singer and frontman Sebastian Bach, who lived life pretty much as dangerous as the band's music was - the Skids also had an impressive guitar tagteam in main songwriter Dave "The Snake" Sabo and Rob Affuso. Bassist Rachel Bolan was also prominent in the songwriting department.
Their first album had all the anthemic and radio-ready cuts but still had hints of their trademark sound showcased fully on Slave To The Grind. Their third album Subhuman Race was surprisingly even more brutal and had more of a grunge-like sound (reminiscent a little of Soundgarden) but still maintained their power. Bitter fights between Bach and the rest of the band, however, ultimately broke them up shortly after.
--Nick Karn
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Skid Row's debut album presents the band as a promising radio-friendly pop metal act, but it's rather unfair to judge them as that for this release. Looking back on their entire career, it's hard to believe they had a huge hit single in such a soaring, beautiful summertime ballad in "I Remember You", which is about as far away from the material on the brutal negativity of Slave To The Grind and Subhuman Race as you can get - and interestingly enough, it's the best song on the entire album, with relaxing acoustic verses and a triumphant arena chorus that showcases Sebastian Bach's vocal range as well as any song on this one. "18 And Life" is the other ballad, another huge hit which is more representative of the more introspective stuff the band would do later that features quite profound 'wasted youth' lyrics, coming to a climax in the bridge - '...and he sure blew a child away' is an astonishingly emotional line. The music video is just about as attention-grabbing, far removed from the cheese of other 80s metal acts at the time.
Out of the rockers, "Youth Gone Wild" is a really powerful sing along anthem and one of the catchiest, entertaining songs in their catalog with a great riff and chorus, "Sweet Little Sister" is effectively fast-paced, "Can't Stand The Heartache" is one of their uncharacteristically poppier songs, "Rattlesnake Shake" outdoes the Motley Crue track of the same name released that year, and the closing "Midnight/Tornado" takes a really dramatic turn in the second chorus with an amazing high note from Bach and an aggressive, crunching riff at the end. The other tracks are decent - not really spectacular, but the best material is quite good for a debut album.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Skid Row's sophomore effort Slave To The Grind is a much heavier album than their debut - never mind that it wasn't nearly as successful and there ain't any anthemic 80s style songs or summertime ballads to be found here. It pretty much all wallows in negativity, darkness and total attitude in its' entirety. Of course, that's also the reason it's not quite an excellent or near classic effort as some metal fans proclaim it to be, as the negativity and lack of variation of the mood is definitely too much for the average listener to take, myself included. However, it's their quintessential set of songs here with no noticeable fillers or weak songs, unlike a few songs on the last album's sometimes overly commercial sound.
"Monkey Business" is a good riff driven opener that lets the listener know they're in for a more intense release this time around, and "Slave To The Grind" delivers on it, chugging along on a powerful fast riff with typically harsh lyrics and something of a Soundgarden vibe to it. "The Threat" is also a nice kick in the head, as is the rebellious, attitude-laden "Get The Fuck Out" (great chorus), which was replaced on some versions by a different song, "Beggar's Day" on the clean version - I wouldn't know which one is better, though. "Mudkicker" and "Riot Act" are more typical aggressive Skid Row tracks near the end of the album that keep the flow going, with convincing riffs, hooks and vocals.
It's the ballads, though, which are the most memorable tracks here - but be warned, they're not your ordinary generic ones. Sebastian Bach sings these songs with so much hopeless, despairing emotion in his voice as if he's alone in the corner with nowhere to go and nothing in life to rely on, and he didn't even write the lyrics. Needless to say, I'm very amazed at the passion and overall talent he puts forth in his vocal performance on "Quicksand Jesus" (my current favorite on the album with a 'sinking' refrain of 'quicksand jesus, I'm so far away without you...'), "In A Darkened Room" (which totally feels like a 'darkened room' ballad with perfect playing and vocals for the mood) and the unsettling, incredibly emotional closer "Wasted Time". A similar ballad feel occurs in "Psycho Love", which starts out as a rocker but goes off into an atmospheric dark section.
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COMMENTS
Agree an 8 is fair for this one. Not NEARLY as commercial as the first album. Come to think of it, this one's not commercial at all! The three ballads are the key to the album. Total emotional devastation. Especially "Wasted Time", one of the best metal ballads I have ever heard. The bridges (you said you'd never let me down...) are especially effective. Some of the rockers like the title track and "Mudkicker" are quite notable themselves, but the ballads are the meat of this one.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
The idea behind this release isn't really a bad one, but there's no real reason to listen to it or own it other than completism, and as a result, it is one of the most frequent really cheap bargain bin releases you can find. Basically, this EP consists of five cover songs, each one selected by a different member of the band, and while it's certainly got their typical energy during its' really brief 18 minute running time, the performances themselves, with one small exception, are really nothing to write home about. The Ramones cover "Psycho Therapy" is definitely energetic pop punk, but I'd personally rather go to the source for that. It also goes without saying I could do without this version of Kiss' "Come On And Love Me" (typical Paul Stanley garbage), and a live rendition of Judas Priest's "Delivering The Goods" fails to really generate much excitement, despite guest vox from Rob Halford himself.
Finally, while the intensity is blistering on Rush's "What You're Doing", I really can't figure out why they picked one of the least memorable and dull tracks out of that band's great catalog to cover, and it doesn't come out any better than the original. So what's the saving grace here? The most well known classic, naturally - their take on "Little Wing", which stays quite faithful to the Hendrix original, capturing the magical and colorful atmosphere about as well as any mortal band can do it, and while it's hardly better than the original, it is given a Skid Row stamp in Bach's vocals and the guitar soloing, so that counts for something. I guess since it's so cheap nowadays, this wouldn't be the worst buy in the world, but there's hardly any point in doing so. And where that album title came from, I don't really know.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
After a four year gap between albums (not including B-Side Ourselves), Skid Row's third outing puts the riffs and vocals, which are even heavier and psychotic respectively than before, more in the listener's face. The guitar sound has more of a distinct grunge tone and Sebastian Bach does a few weird things with his vocals here, so as a result Subhuman Race takes the most getting used to out of any album in the band's catalog. I didn't like this one too much on the first couple of listens or so, but then the hooks (which are arguably the band's best without having to rely on commercial pop metal) and complete brutal power of these songs started to sink in, and the first half of the album in particular is quite an excellent and hard-hitting side.
The album opens up with "My Enemy", which has a pulverizing riff and immediately makes certain that this isn't gonna be a light album, especially in the chorus of 'you can be my enemy, and I don't care'. "Firesign", meanwhile, has probably Skid Row's best chorus hook and lyrics, and the overall sound / vocal performance almost predate the more recent Metallica stuff. "Bonehead" is a crushing short punk-styled number that lives up to its' title, and "Beat Yourself Blind" may be my favorite track in their entire catalog, with a truly remarkable chorus scream by Bach and a killer riff. "Eileen" is a dark ballad-style song that borders on insanity, with the line, 'Eileen's calling me, to sit awhile and talk to trees...' defining the mood of the song, which unexpectedly ends with a brutal crunching riff and a vocal wail of 'I know.... that she knows....' "Remains To Be Seen" follows as one of the more intense numbers here, also featuring a rather strange chorus, and the title track ends the first half as an awesome, fast early Soundgarden-ish romper.
The second half, however, falls off somewhat, which is why this album isn't quite up to the level of Slave To The Grind. It's still not bad at all though, as "Frozen" and "Into Another" have pretty good choruses and are fairly memorable tunes. "Face Against My Soul" and "Medicine Jar" are just OK songs, and the ballad "Breakin' Down" has a lot of emotion in the lyrics but it just doesn't really come through in the song - it's just too slow, not very catchy and maybe a little dull. The closing "Ironwill" is a heavy hitter reminiscent of the best first half songs though, and does manage to end Skid Row's swan song on a fairly positive note.
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released by Sebastian Bach & Friends
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Technically, this isn't a Skid Row album, but it might as well be, since this effort is partly a studio, but mostly live, effort from the voice of the band, Sebastian Bach, and a different backing band, most notably featuring Jimmy Flemion of The Frogs fame. The studio songs don't differ from the Skids' sound too much - in fact, they seemingly pick up where that band left off on their final effort Subhuman Race with their ripping Soundgarden-esque sound, most notably the Pantera-esque grind of "Done Bleeding" and the downtuned, threatening riff of "Counterpunch". Rounding out the enjoyable 'studio portion' here are the acoustic Flemion contribution "Superstar, Superjerk, Supertears", the heavy hitting anthemic opener "(I'll Never Turn My Back On) Rock 'N Roll", and the punk-flavored "Blasphemer".
The studio songs, as worthwhile as they are to have, though, are only part of the story, as for the remaining ten live performances (not including the acoustic interlude "The Most Powerful Man In The World") are concert renditions of old Skid Row tunes performed in front of a live Tokyo, Japan concert audience, and they are the real reason to own this album. Bach's phenomenal high-range screaming/wailing is in full force throughout and most of the songs are just as good if not better than the studio Skid Row counterparts, with the exception of "Slave To The Grind" and "Riot Act", which are sped up just a little too much for my liking, and the sound quality is poor on those songs to boot.
There's really no arguing with the nicely done remaining live songs, though, with the highlights being the pounding rebellion anthem "Youth Gone Wild" to close the show, the flowing emotion of the ballad "In A Darkened Room", the extended wailing intro of the riveting "18 & Life", and the pulverizing "Beat Yourself Blind" (my personal favorite Skid tune). There's also a stripped down, mostly acoustic version of "I Remember You", a couple more heavy hitting Slave To The Grind songs in "Mudkicker" and "Monkey Business" (appropriately coupled with a cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla"), as well as an extended bass solo section in "Frozen". In all, a solid effort that proves who the real leader of Skid Row is, and certainly essential for any fan of the band.
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COMMENTS
The hole album kicks ass The 1st 5 songs are a cross Between Slave to The Grind & Subhuman Race The Live Set Kicks ass I. Like The Comic Book.
The Structure of The Album is kind of a reverse of Kiss ALIVE 2.
Live Album 5 Studio Songs but in Reverse.
Rock "n" Roll is The Star to The Studio Stuff The Most Powerful Man in The World is won of the Better Last Hard Men Songs Bach Got to Rip his Throat Loose On Songs He helped Wright Like In a Darken Room & Slave to The Grind. Youth Gone Wild Should all way's Crank's the Top Ten And is a Song I listen to Before I head into The Cadge.
Scale From 1- 10 I Give it a 9 1/2
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