Album Review: Skid Row - "The Gang's All Here"

 

It's safe to say that since their last full album, 2006's Revolution Per Minute, things have gone into a bit of a tailspin for Skid Row. Put it this way, while some bands’ previous efforts on here can be linked to via a previous review, this one was covered in the Garbage Days Revisited column. Since then, the group embarked on a run of EP's designed to form some kind of half-realised concept album when played back to back (the ill-advised United World Rebellion which they promptly abandoned halfway through) and have gone through no less than four lead singers (Johnny Solinger making way for Tony Harnell who was then replaced by ZP Theart who was succeeded by current incumbent Erik Gronwall a couple of years ago). So the omens going in here weren't exactly good but a few have been hailing The Gang's All Here as a return to form for ver Row so let's take a look inside shall we...

Well, the sound is most definitely identifiable as Skid Row with the big shouty choruses and flashbomb riffs of Hell Or High Water definitely tapping back into those first two albums that did so well for 'em. The trouble is that it just kind of all feels a bit predictable to these ears I'm afraid. One of the things I liked about the two albums the group did with Johnny Solinger was that it felt like there were a few attempts in there to try and at least try and move the sound forward a bit but here it just sounds like the group are clinging frantically to their early years security blanket - Not Dead is basically Riot Act with slightly different words and Time Bomb is essentially a slowed down version of Piece Of Me. It's all competent enough and they still talk a good fight on the likes of Youth Gone Wild soundalike Resurrected or the breakneck closer World On Fire but it’s a bit lacking in moments that leap out and grab you by the throat or indeed anything to dispel the depressing feeling that you've heard all of this done better three decades ago. It's only the sinister seven minute slightly gothy epic October Song which really shows any sign of innovation here.

It'd easy to say that this could all be solved by bringing the old singer Bach (ahaha, see wot I did there?) but I'm not sure that's necessarily the problem, it's more that these songs sound so formulaic that it probably wouldn't make a difference who was singing them, they’d still sound like they were B-side quality. Skid Row could really do with taking a few tips from their contemporaries like L.A. Guns (Checkered Past) or Circus Of Power (Four), both albums which owed enough nods to their past to keep the fans happy but also bore the mark of bands moving their sound forward and trying a few new tricks which are sadly absent here. I'm sure that The Gang's All Here will go down well with the group’s hardcore fanbase but to these ears it kind of feels more like a resigned shrug to the fact that all this band have left to offer is half-decent retreads of their glory years stuff. All told, it’s just a bit boring really, which is surely something that a Skid Row album should never be.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌓🌓🌓🌓🌓🌓🌑🌑🌑🌑 (6/10)