Opening with a kick-ass rocker Sebastian, I guess, is hoping that his new record will surpass the wonderful new Skid Row record featuring Erik Gronwell on vocals. I mean I can think of few ex-singers who spend as much time talking about their old band than Sebastian. From personal experience I’ve interviewed him a number of times over the years and twice there’s been a ban on talking ‘Skid Row’ and on both occasions he mentioned the topic multiple times within minutes.
This album to me though is a tale of two halves…
The opener ‘Everybody Bleeds’ is fast, frenetic and decent enough, but it’s not the explosion I anticipated. And whilst ‘Freedom’ that follows is more laid back and had some ‘on point’ vocals again it’s not a spectacular song I’m hearing just decent filler. Don’t get me wrong musically the mix is great, the guitar on ‘Freedom’ is stellar and the bass and drums kick some ass and Seb sounds wonderful but so far it’s just not got the songs for me.
Three songs in the first slow number hits in ‘(Hold On) To The Dream’ which bursts into flame as expected after the first verse is OK but again not house-rocking. There’s lots of great vocals and screams and a nice drive but the hook bypasses me completely. It’s the story of the album so far. Nice songs, brilliant musicianship and stellar vocals but nothing to grab you by the throat and make you think “I have to hear this live!” in that first salvo…
‘What Do I Got To Lose’ that follows has a nice groove and hits that trademark Skid Row sound, it’s another nice song; and ‘Hard Darkness’ that follows has a similarly cool groove but is far more like it, a nice build to a great chorus, and interestingly I’d love to hear this one at double speed as I reckon amped up this could be the song of the album.
‘Future of Youth’ is similarly groove laden and is one that I hope gets a live airing – it’s a great song that grabbed me on the first play and has a more modern rock sound. ‘Vendetta’ is another winner, and I’m starting to think that the second half of this record is way better than the rather prosaic opening. There’s a lot of passion here and a crushing riff that you’d kill for.
‘F.U.’ as you might expect doesn’t spare the horses and that pent up aggression and a huge riff and uber cool solo might just make it my favourite here and similarly ‘Crucify Me’ sounds great. Late on we get two of the songs that I think makes this a great release. It’s almost as if Seb played too safe early on and you can appreciate that a decade between releases.
The final two songs are also pretty cool. ‘About to Break’ is bombastic and great fun and sounds like the music of a man twenty years younger, it’s a wonderful shot in the arm, melding as it does the old and the new and sounding pretty contemporary with some killer guitar. Closer ‘To Live Again’ is the big ballad that just fails to nail it. It’s a great song, maybe not teh huge closer you might have been waiting for but nothing shabby, and hey I know Seb has a real connection with the cover art, being by his Dad and all, but it is one of the worst album covers I’ve seen in years. That doesn’t diminish the fact that there’s a lot of this I’d love to hear live.
8.00 / 10.00