Out Now
Words by Jimmy Glinster
Now, before you all get your testies in a tangle about it not being Skid Row because Sebastian isn’t in the band, just shut the fuck up, because The Gang’s All Here! Well, a version of it anyway, so let’s not judge before we listen. I sure as hell won’t because only God shall jud… I’ll shut the fuck up now.
Hell On High Water takes no time to get rocking, and whoever the fuck the new guy is, he starts wailing shortly after. And low and behold, the motherfucker can belt out a tune! Ok, so apparently his name is Erik Gronwall and he won Swedish Idol back in 2009 and has then fronted a couple of bands that apparently did pretty well … I’ve never heard of them, though. Anyway, I digress, that song rocked!
Title track, The Gangs All Here again doesn’t take very long to get rocking and the chorus very quickly lets us know The Gangs All Here. Dave “The Snake” Sabo and/or Scotti Hill rip in with some craving solos as the song continues to rock my socks off. Big track, bit of an anthem actually.
The band have already proven that they are Not Dead Yet, and the track of the same name takes no time to get again to the point and rock the fuck out. It’s straight-up hard rock, or hair metal, or whatever you want to call it. And much better than anything else I’ve heard from the other bands that were around at the time of in the inception of the band. Big choruses and massive guitar solos!
Time Bomb is a bit of a slower track, with an initially very pretty and then super corny chorus. I’m a ticking time bomb, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, boom … lol. Anyway, it’s not a bad track but the whole tick, tick, boom thing has just been done way too many times. On that note … tick, tick, boom!
Resurrected gets back into the hard rock again, so much so that we hear some gang vocals poke through in the choruses. It’s a more modern rock sound with a touch of bounce and groove throughout the riffs and rhythms. Add a solo or two, and you’ve got yourself another rocking tune.
The intro riff to Nowhere Fast is crushingly heavy and not something you’d generally expect from a “hard rock” band. I thought for a minute that there is a female guest vocal on the track, but it could just be Erik showing off his range.
A very high-pitched squeal at the beginning of When the Lights Come On confirms that the “guest female vocal” on the previous track was just Erik showing off his range. The man has some serious lungs on him, and possibly a vice clamped on his nuts. Another hard rocking tune!
I’m not sure how many times I can say this album rocks, but this album rocks, it rocks hard!
Tear It Down proves this point once more before the band hit’s us with a ballad titled October’s Song. It’s no November Rain, but it’s not a bad ballad. It’s just a ballad, and every good rock album has a ballad. And this is a good rock album, and that was the ballad.
The finishing track, World On Fire, is not a cover of the recent Slash & Myles Kennedy track of the same name. It rocks almost as hard, though, and Erik demands as much attention with his commanding vocals as Myles does with his. The band rocks hard on this one too, with a stack of killer riffs one after another and a carving guitar solo. For a moment the chorus sounds a lot like Land of Confusion by Genesis, but luckily it recovers pretty quickly from that little hiccup.
This album rocks, it rocks hard! Fuck the haters, Skid Row is back in full force! The Gangs All Here, so get in it or get the fuck out!
Skid Row will tour Australia this December!
TOUR DATES
Wednesday, December 7: The Gov, Adelaide
Friday, December 9: The Triffid, Brisbane
Saturday, December 10: Manning Bar, Sydney
Sunday, December 11: 170 Russell, Melbourne
Tickets on sale now from
sbttix.com/skidrowau
