Skid Row ~ Revolutions Per Minute (album review) ... If I die now it'll be too late, as I've heard this album!

Style: hard rock, heavy metal, industrial, punk, country
Label: SPV/Steamhammer

Year: 2006
Home: n/a 

Members: Johnny Solinger ~ vocals
Scotti Hill, Dave "The Snake" Sabo ~ guitars/b. vocals
Rachel Bolan ~ bass/vocals
Dave Gara ~ drums/b. vocals

Additional: Rachel Hagen ~ b. vocals
"Jelly Roll" Johnson ~ harmonica

In honor of the death of Johnny Solinger I reviewed his debut album with Skid Row, Thickskin. I criticized it for its heavy alt-rock & post-grunge style, but also confessed I liked his singing & it wasn't a bad album once the shock wore off. I also said 2000's alt-rock is not my thing. Part of that is because after graduating college in 2001 I spent 4 years abroad starting in 2002, so I was largely out of the music scene & a total jazz junkie for those years. I confess I went to college with Death Cab For Cutie, but they were the band that played in a friend's garage for $5 a show & I didn't see them as anything special when I came back to the States. Meh. While bands like Creed were also meh. Is there even new music from the 2000's? I can't think of any, other than bands that already existed. Yet, I've been listening to Thickskin after publishing my review & it just gets better with age. Outside of the one clunker in the unnecessary update of "I Remember You", called "I Remember You Too", there's just enough metal to offset the alt-rock & Solinger is great, not to mention he's not trying to be Baz. So, I decided to check out his next album with Skid Row, Revolutions Per Minute. First, these guys need help on album titles. Just sayin'. Thickskin is called by many critics their worst album. I simply call it anything but Skid Row. Forget its Skid Row & its great, though a bit imitative & lacking a its own sound. Compare it to Skid Row & you will run away in fear, thus in the review I renamed the band as Not Skid Row. Revolutions Per Minute doesn't rate much better when I looked at reviews of it. So, I'm approaching this album seeing it as Not Skid Row. That's the band. Skid Row is a hair band with hints of metal & a powerhouse singer & eternal wild boy named Sebastian Bach,. who deserve all the accolades. Not Skid Row is an alt-rock band with hints of metal featuring ruff & gutsy vocalist Johnny Solinger, who are under-rated. So, how does Not Skid Row do on their ... second ... outing? Oh my god! Oh my god! I don't mean that as in, this is freakin' amazin', but as in, God take me now & erase my memory of these last moments of my life, please! Before I detail this disaster, I want to mention I blame bassist Rachel Bolan. On the previous albums him & guitarist Dave "The Snake" Sabo are the primary songwriters, so much of the crafting of the sound I put on their shoulders. I don't know what happened, but this is all him, outside of the cover of the Alarm's "Strength". That is the only track worth hearing, actually. Sabo has 2 tracks, versus his normal most of the album, while bassist Scotti Hill turns him his normal single contribution. Solinger has no writing credits. So, this is all on Bolan & I'd like to know more about him, to understand this train wreck. That is, if I have time before God grants me peace. I highly recommend he never be allowed to work alone again & use the name Skid Row at the same time. God, have mercy on his soul, or the Devil have fun! Seeing how fans hated the new alt-rock sound of Thickskin, this album feels like Bolan made a list of trending music styles & decided to hit them all to win back old fans & bring in new ones. Yet, Thickskin failed because it re-invented the band, so the key now is not to re-invent the band yet again. Maybe the re-invention musically failed, but you've now re-invented the band as an alt-rock group, so stick with that sound. Develop it out. Make it your own. Show the old fans this isn't just a cash grab. Show the new fans that Skid Row is more than a has-been '80's band. Of course, advice in hindsight is useless, but how did anyone think this new direction was good? On Thickskin the band should have gone with their metal roots, versus going to post-grunge which nobody wanted, & I think that would have kept old fans. Bolan obviously felt that way in hindsight as the metal returns on this new album. Yet instead of just turning back to the clock to Slave To The Grind he has to re-invent the band again & take things in another direction. Instead of giving old fans what they want, he's still giving them nothing familiar while aiming for new fans by tapping into new styles. Its obvious he has no clue who his fan base is or what they went, as he re-invents the band not just once, but three times on this album! This album has 3 distinct personalities! No joke. If you're a fan of one style, you might not like the other styles so you're not going to become a fan. While if you're an old fan, this is even farther from the Skid Row that you know, so you're probably done with the band completely or turning to Baz's solo albums. First, there's industrial music, with Solinger wasting his vocal talents by screaming & sounding at times like Marilyn Manson. Its metal, but not the metal Skid Row fans were likely looking for, & other bands are doing this style of music better. Most of the album takes a more slamming punk approach. I was reminded at times of Duff McKagan's solo stuff, even lyrically with "Another Dick In The System". This is not a compliment. I don't think the old fans were looking for their band to become post-grunge & then a punk band. I'm 100% sure they weren't looking for that. Then there is the 3 country songs in "When God Can't Wait", "You Lie" & "You Lie (The Cornfed Mix)." These songs include acoustic guitars, steel slide guitar, stereotypical twangy vocals & even harmonica. If that isn't bad enough, they transition into a punk-country or alt-country flavor. So, technically this album has 4 styles! So, Not Skid Row has now decided to become a light weight Marilyn Manson & the Old 97's! My head is dizzy trying to write this. My ears have fallen off. I'm still waiting on you, God, where are you? As I wrote in my previous review, I do have to give the guys credit for adopting numerous styles with amazing accuracy, but now that they've shown off, its time to put the toys away & grow up. Wow, I know Solinger has done some country music, but do that with your non-Skid Row albums. Did they see Skid Row, I mean Not Skid Row, as the newest country band? Or, is this planning a slow re-invention as punk-country band soon to be touring with Wilco? Is this a joke, like when Danger Danger ended their second album with a rap song they later disowned? Yet, I have more to say in these final minutes of life, before my suffering ends, hopefully it ends. Solinger is a great singer. Yet, many of these songs sound like they were written for Bach, or another singer, or a collection of singers. He's all over the place with styles & special effects, like the band has no clue what to do with him or is pretending they still have Baz, or just not Solinger. He was great with the alt-rock on Thickskin, but sounds totally wrong for the punk rock. He puts his heart into it, no questions asked, but his personality is completely snuffed out. You wouldn't know who this is if your life depended on it. As for what he is singing, I can honestly say I don't remember Skid Row, or Not Skid Row, being this angry. For example, the opener "Disease" with "I think I've had enough / I've felt your disease" or "Pulling My Heart Out From Under Me" has "I've tied myself to the railroad tracks / you've refused my point of view", while "Strength" has "Give me strength / give me something to live for / I need it now ... someone give me a telephone call / I need to hear a human sound / someone open a door / I need to get out of this place." I don't think there's anything happy on this album. No, there is actually, in one really bad satire that should have been left as a B-side or outtake. I'm speaking of "White Trash", with the lines: "I'm not human / I'm special / I want to be white trash / & sit around on my fat ass / so many hours in the day / to piss my life away." What were they thinking? Oh, that's right, they weren't. As St. Peter is hopefully dialing up my number now, I will say in closing, I feel sorry for anyone who bought this catastrophe & I feel sorry for Skid Row fans or Not Skid Row fans looking for more of the same of Thickskin. I'm also sorry for new drummer Dave Gara. Its nice he got a big gig, but this is embarrassing. I recommend Thickskin, even more after this personality crisis. As for this, I not just highly don't recommend it, but I've decided this is Not Skid Row, but actually a third band named Not Not Skid Row with their country band counterpart called Skid Row On The Range. R.I.P. Skid Row & Not Skid Row. It was nice knowing you. I'm so sorry, Johnny, that this is your legacy. Rest in peace.

Skid Row ~ Thickskin (album review) ... In memory of Johnny Solinger worth a listen!

Style: alternative, hard rock, post-grunge
Label: Skid Row Records
Year: 2003
Home: n/a

Members: Johnny Solinger ~ vocals
Scotti Hill, Dave "The Snake" Sabo ~ guitars/b. vocals 
Rachel Bolan ~ bass/b. vocals
Phil Varone ~ drums

Today I saw the news over my morning coffee that vocalist Johnny Solinger passed away from liver failure at 55. My ex-girlfriend died at 33 from the same thing, thanks to an alcohol problem, so I am empathetic. While not a household name, for about 16 years he fronted Skid Row, replacing iconic bad boy & vocalist Sebastian Bach. Solinger toured extensively with the band & did 4 studio albums, before going solo. I've seen solo Bach twice in concert. Skid Row came to town once in recent years, but I think I'm like many people who see a Bach-less Skid Row as not so alluring & one step from a tribute band. Its not helped by the fact that Solinger was replaced by famed vocalist Tony Harnell of TNT & more recently by ZP Threat of Dragonforce. No dis on either of those guys & their desire to have a steady paycheck with a known band. I have tons of albums with Tony & I've seen ZP twice with the force, but Skid Row for many of us is Bach. Their lack of post-Bach hits partially verifies that in our mind, as they never found a commercial life beyond him. His solo career hasn't exactly sent the world kicking & screaming, so some would say they need each other. This leads to the obvious question: Is the Solinger era of Skid Row getting a bad rap? Many bands have made great music after losing an iconic members & even after the chart hits vanished. Deep Purple & Journey come to mind. In honor of Solinger I decided today to listen to his debut with the boys, Thickskin. There are 3 factors that weigh heavy going into this album: a new singer, a reunited band with a changed membership & a changed musical scene. Starting from the last point, when this was released in 2003 the rock scene Skid Row had been a part of was dead & buried, & musically had given way to grunge, alternative & the mainstreaming of heavy metal via industrial. A majority of the band's peers were reinventing their sound to keep a foot in the game. Much of that output has been deliberately forgotten, by the bands & fans. The reinvented bands may have played as well as ever, but they wore the new styles like a skinny man wears a XXL suit - it doesn't fit right not matter what you do to it. Skid Row had no special foresight & joined the pack of chameleons. It is easily forgotten that underneath the commercial gloss Skid Row were much heavier than many of their peers. Bach called them heavy metal in his autobio. Their Slave To The Grind rocks likes a beast. So, for those who were shocked by hearing the band rock hard on Thickskin, I wonder if they heard anything beyond the hits? Yet, Slave To The Grind is the harder rocking album. Though their roots were in metal they actually choose to go in a different direction, thus Thickskin becomes the band's alt-rock & post-grunge album. I wonder what would have happened had they stuck to the metal? Though the opening track "New Generation" might start with a pounding rhythm that hints at the past, once Solinger's synthesized vocals come in it is obvious this is not what you might be expecting from Skid Row. What is really scary is how much of the album immediately brought to mind alt-rock & post-grunge bands of the early 2000's, aka my college days. If I didn't know better I'd say this was some of those bands, with hints of things like Soundgarden thrown into the mix. Yet, while this is a rolling in-your-face album I can't help but wonder where Skid Row went. If I played this album & asked you to guess the band, you'd likely have no clue. It makes me sad, as maybe the band never found a distinct sound after all the years, or they jettisoned their distinctive sound for some reason, or they lost their sound with the change in membership. Whatever the answer, when I turn to Skid Row, I want Skid Row, not Staind, Creed or Silverchair. I do have to give kudos to the guys for making an enjoyable album, which is worth hearing, but I'm personally not a fan of this style so I'm pushed away a bit. Its hard to get over the shock that this isn't an unreleased Creed album. Its a bit too on the nose musically. Even when they do mix things up, as its not really exactly like Creed, it still isn't the Skid Row I know. Did Bach have that much of an influence on their sound? Or, were they desperate to not sound like they did after after their scene died? Related to the second point I mentioned above, they've brought in drummer Phil Varone from Saigon Kick & Solinger, who had been kicking around with his band Solinger. Have their additions had so much of an effect that Skid Row is essentially a new musical entity? Doing a little digging on wiki, all 12 songs on Thickskin were written by bassist Rachel Bolan & guitarist Dave "The Snake" Sabo, with guitarist Scotti Hill contributing to 2. Solinger has only a writing credit for "Mouth Of Voodoo." Varone has none. Outside songwriters are credited on 4. Outside of the influence of the producer, Bolan & Sabo are steering this ship. Comparison is required. On the previous Subhuman Race Bolan & Sabo are each credited with 12 of the 13 songs, with Hill on 6. So, the pair are the dominating writing partnership in the past, too. Now comes the clincher in contributions from Bach & previous drummer Dave Affuso. Affuso has 4, while Bach has the same. To go back further, Slave To The Grind have Bolon on all 11 with Sabo on 8, Hill on 2. Affuso gets 1 & Bach has 2. Lastly, their self-titled debut with 11 songs has Bolan on 10, Sabo with 9, Hill has 1. Affuso has 1, Bach also has 1 ("I Remember You") & original vocalist Matt Fallon has 1. So, the departed members have, on the books at least, the least effect on the sound. The band didn't lose either a lyricist nor composer, while they also didn't bring in someone to fill those roles. I do have to give the band kudos for not relying on outside songwriters, which is pretty impressive in a world where labels often force them on bands. Thus, this new sounding Skid Row is due to the same team that crafted the earlier hit albums. I'm likely belaboring the point, but the musical change is so different its shocking & so authentic alt-rock that its really scary. I would love to hear Bach do "Lamb", which is the one track I could hear as a outtake from Slave To The Grind. The third & final variable of the equation is Solinger. Solinger is no Bach. Not even close. That's not a dis, as he's just a very different singer. He's actually a perfect fit for the new sound, as instead of acrobatics he's got a guiness, grit & fierceness that Bach didn't. Its like Freddie Mercury vs Paul Rodgers, night & day, Phil Collins vs Ray Wilson. I actually like his voice a lot. He sounds absolutely at home with the music, too. Once the huge shock of the music wore off I liked his voice even more, & even the whole album. On repeated listens it got better. Except for ... cause there's always an exception ... the new alt-rock version of "I Remember You", called " I Remember You Two". Why? Did they include this to show Solinger could cover the hits? If so, then changing the arrangement isn't showing he can do it, but showing maybe he can't. Also, to re-arrange this classic anthem feels like if a tribute band covered it. Let's pretend this track doesn't exist. To conclude, I feel like this is a good album, & the band shouldn't be judged as harshly as they were/are ... but it should not be considered a Skid Row album. This is not Skid Row in any way, shape or form. If they had called themselves something else I think it would have been a lot better for them. Not to mention anyone who didn't like the old Skid Row likely wasn't going to pick up the new album, even if there is a new sound. For example, I don't like what Bon Jovi has done since Crush, which means if their next album is an awesome industrial rock tour-de-force I'm likely not listening as I've tuned them out. Yet, if Jon Bon Jovi went solo I might listen. Though, for the record I do really like their 2020 hit "Limitless." Calling themselves Skid Row was not attracting new fans, & this new sound certainly was pushing away old fans. Now, if they had gone more metal, then I think they would have kept the older fans, though they might not have brought in anyone new. So, seeing this as Not Skid Row, while I'm not really into the alt-rock currents, there's a lot of variety & heavy metal parts here that balance the other parts. The songs are memorable & enjoyable. I would highly recommend taking Not Skid Row for a ride. So, going back to where I started this morning, R.I.P. Johnny. Sorry for coming to your party late. In my world, you're with Krishna now.

Skid Row ~ 40 Seasons: The Best Of... (hits comp) (album review) ... Slave to the metal!

Style: glam metal, heavy metal, hard rock, 80's rock, hair metal
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1998
Home: New Jersey

Members: Sebastian Bach ~ lead vocals
Scotti Hill ~ guitars
Dave "The Snake" Sabo ~ guitars/b. vocals
Rachel Bolan ~ bass/ b. vocals
Rob Affuso ~ drums

 

Everyone knows Skid Row & their pretty boy blond frontman Sebastian Bach. While everyone can probably name & maybe hum a bit of their 3 big hits: "Youth Gone Wild", "18 & Live" & "I Remember You". But, what we tend to forget is that these all came off of the same debut album (Skid Row) with nothing of consequence coming from the following 3 albums before their breakup not quite a decade later. So this is an album of 16 hits with 13 of them unknown. So, one can't help but wonder if this is really a collection of hits or a way to make more money for the band? Further, everyone knows Skid Row as a glam band, but their second album Slave To The Grind was actually the first heavy metal album to hit #1 & listening to this album one is made aware that Skid Row is indeed a heavy metal band with their glam debut almost a mistake. This is almost two bands - the glam & the metal. If you've forgotten anything after their hits, or didn't know, it's almost a jarring listen. Though, considering their debut came out in 1989 & glam would soon be killed by grunge, it's not surprising the direction they went. Though, even Bach's wild vocals change so the third album sounds nothing like Skid Row of before. Suddenly the falsetto screaming vanishes, but so does the music that would propel it. The band of Subhuman Race, the last album before the break-up, shows a growing band not afraid to experiment with fairly interesting & unexpected results that show much more development beyond their debut than many bands show. If Bach hadn't been fired & the band split who knows where they might have gone musically. They did reunite in 1999, sans Bach, but the current band is just a blip on the nostalgia circuit. This is not so much a hits package as a career retrospective of the pre-reformation Bach era. It's a great overview of the Skid Row legacy. The stuff is all great & it's a shame it didn't fair better on the charts. If you don't already own a Skid Row album having already listened to this album twice tonight I can honestly say you've got a blaring gap in your collection. This really should be 13 hits & 3 songs we don't remember.