Nite Songs

  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 ...

  "I'm countin' on a future, forgettin' 'bout the past/'Cos knowing you're not honest, well I guessed it couldn't last..."  - Skid Row - You Lie Skid Row were probably one of the first hair metal bands I got into as a kid. I still remember hearing 18 & Life  on Top of the Pops as an 11-year-old and it just sounded incredibly dangerous mixed in with all the PWL stuff that was clogging up the charts at that time. I still love that song to this day and that guitar solo that cuts in midway through from Snake Sabo is an absolute killer. Looking back at ver Row's original run 30 years on though, I have to be honest and say that while they were a band who definitely had their moments ( Youth Gone Wild , Monkey Business , Slave To The Grind ), similar to G'n'R once they’d broken big and got complacent, there was just something a bit too brash and cocky about them that kind of stopped me from being a mega-fan. Sure, they sounded like bad-ass...