Skid Row – ‘The Gang’s All Here’ review

It’s amazing how, to people of a certain age and musical bent, Skid Row’s first two albums, the self-titled debut from 1989 and the brutal yet still very commercial follow up, ‘Slave to the Grind’ from 1991 still resonate and represent that whole era of hard rock and metal-round-the-edges era of music that shows like ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Peacemaker’ still revel in today.

From the early to mid-80s, until Kurt Cobain and his miserable band of miserable men killed the genre, hard rock bands like Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Aerosmith and Def Leppard ruled the airwaves with their brand of MTV friendly choruses and permed hair – Skid Row were a massive part of that without being the pretty boys that I can imagine the record label really wanted them to be. The buzz around them was massive – I can still remember the excitement for Bon Jovi’s Milton Keynes show in 1989 which featured Europe as special guests and Vixen (remember them?) but it was the UK debut of Skid Row that caused most excitement amongst the tens of thousands of concert goers that day.

Then grunge came and changed everything.

All the hard rock bands of the day were forced to lurch to the left to accommodate the navel-gazing and self loathing that grunge made de rigueur. Some bands disappeared over night, others, like Def Leppard released albums like ‘Slang’, trying their best to chase a sound whilst remaining true to the core of what they were. Skid Row released the very industrial-meets punk ‘Subhuman Race’ but there was no real market for these ‘pretty-boy hair metal bands’ who were seen as relics of a decadent decade . Skid Row, like many of their peers and colleagues, began to suffer. Lead singer and media talisman Sebastian Bach left. So did drummer Rob Affuso. Different singers have come and gone in the years since, albums have been released by the core founding members Dave Sabo, Rachel Bolan and Scotti Hill but the fire, spark and very essence of what made Skid Row great has always eluded them. Until now.

The elephant in the room, with new album, ‘The Gang’s All Here’ is that feeling that the band have consciously attempted to take themselves back to that core sound of the first two albums after years of consciously attempting NOT to do that! Have they made their very own tribute album to themselves? Is it a calculated move? One designed to re-capture the hearts and minds of a whole demographic of fans who are stuck in that time period? If they were capable of writing a selection of songs like the ones on offer on ‘The Gang’s All Here’, why haven’t they decided to do it before? Why now? The obvious answer is that the band have never been able to get their hands on a singer like Erik Grönwall before!

I’ll say now, as much as I’ve been a fan of Skid Row from their debut album in 1989 I’ve been a bigger fan of Swedish rock band H.E.A.T. who have released seven studio albums since their self-titled debut album back in 2008. Grönwall came onboard after winning Sweden’s ‘Idol’ reality show in 2012 for H.E.A.T.’s third album ‘Address the Nation’ and the band went from strength to strength. Health issues caused Grönwall to step away from the band in 2020, then the pandemic happened and then, all of a sudden, like some sort of Cinderella, rags-to-riches story, he announced he was joining Skid Row earlier this year!

It’s fair to say Erik Grönwall is a fantastic singer with the power and range of some of the greatest singers the hard rock genre has ever seen. Comparable to that of someone, like, say Sebastian Bach! Yes, whilst not being a complete copy of Bach’s vocal style, Grönwall’s voice and the way he sings on ‘The Gang’s All Here’ is different to how he sang in H.E.A.T. It’s grittier, there’s a growl and the style is definitely Bach-adjacent – which works fantastically for those us us who are still in love with those first two albums.

Album opener, ‘Hell or High Water’ explodes out of the traps with a sound and structure somewhere between the debut album and a second album track like ‘Monkey Business’. Gang vocals and a huge chorus propel the song forward and in your mind it could be 1991 again. Similarly, the title track, with its massive baseline and guitars wailing away all over the place hits the same vibe. A kind of Twisted Sister ‘we’re not gonna take it’ attitude and a searing guitar solo works beautifully on this track and there’s even a mention of ‘tricky little Vicky’, last seen in 1989 on the debut album track, ‘Rattlesnake Shake’.

Elsewhere you will find nods to those first two albums spread across most of the tracks, with a little bit of the grunge and punk of ‘Subhuman Race’ thrown in for good measure. ‘Nowhere Fast’ comes across as a cross between Metallica’s ‘Ride the Lighting’ and the type of Grunge-meets-Punk of the aforementioned ‘Subhuman Race’ album. ‘When the Lights Come On’ possesses a bass-driven opening similar to debut album track ‘Piece of Me’ as bassist Rachel Bolan gets a customary moment in the spotlight before a dirty laugh from Grönwall introduces the drums and the guitars. This track, about finding a late night, post-gig party, is perhaps the most Bach-sounding moment on the album for the band’s new singer and I love the way it reaches a climax with an earth-shattering scream from him too.

‘Not Yet Dead’, a sub 3 minute Punk rock song is replete with frenetic guitars and a dirty, growling vocal delivery. Dig below the surface and you’ll find the kind of defiant, middle-finger attitude that Sabo, Bolan and Hill have always had a penchant for writing. Those sentiments are also echoed on tracks like ‘Tear It Down’ and ‘Resurrected’. The former is a big, dumb (in the nicest sense of the word) anthem dripping in ‘no-one can tell me what to do attitude’. There’s a genius in the simplicity of this song and kudos to a group of guys pushing 60 for still wanting to channel their inner ‘Youth Gone Wild’. ‘Resurrected’, meanwhile comes across as a ready made concert opener. There’s a defiant growl in Grönwall’s vocals and a fierce, fiery vibe on the chorus. ‘We’re back where we should be, we’re resurrected’ he sings, as the band work hard to reclaim the ground lost over the years.

If you are looking for a ballad, you won’t find another ‘I Remember You’ or anything in that MTV style range. Instead you get ‘October’s Song’, a post 7 minute opus with more than a hint of tracks like ‘In a Darkened Room’ or ‘Quicksand Jesus’ about it. ‘What do we do when the light that we shine fades away?’ Grönwall asks, potentially going all meta as the band ponder ageing and fame alongside the very nature of existence itself. Guitar histrionics aplenty here as well as huge vocals and a dark, brooding structure which will make this track many people’s favourite on the album but for me it’s ‘Time Bomb’ that is the stand out track. A heavy, bottom-ended, Black Sabbath style grind, a clever guitar riff and then a more melodic chorus all combine on ‘Time Bomb’ to ensure that this awesome track will remain a pivotal part of the Skid Row’s live set for years to come.

‘The Gang’s All Here’ is a tremendous piece of work. It treads a fine line between being more than just a nod to a bygone era of Rock and something original and new but Skid Row succeed in pulling that off. In Erik Grönwall they have finally found a singer worthy of doing the songs on those first two albums some justice: those songs, rightly or wrongly, are the songs that form the strongest part of their legacy and they are the songs the fans will pay to hear. A UK tour begins in Wolverhampton on October 18th and runs for almost a month, criss-crossing the country. You’ll kick yourself if you don’t make it to one of the those dates and see this revitalised band as they pull out the big guns once again.

Tracklist: 1. Hell or High Water 2. The Gang’s All Here 3. Not Dead Yet 4. Time Bomb 5. Resurrected 6. Nowhere Fast 7. When the Lights Come on 8. Tear it Down 9. October’s Song 10. World on Fire Record Label: earMUSIC Release Date: October 14th Buy ‘The Gang’s All Here’ now