ALBUM REVIEW ~ SKID ROW ~ 'THE GANG'S ALL HERE'

I'm music magazine, skid row, the gang's all here, nick raskulinecz, snake sabo, scotti hill, rachel bolan, rob hammersmith, erik gronwall, youth gone wild, tear it down, time bomb

There’s this unassailable spirit that good rock music brings out in all of us. When the guitar intro starts and the drums kick in, that rambunctious inner teenager we keep tightly wound up during office hours grabs the controls and takes over. In making a new album, Skid Row unleashed their teen selves thirty-three years after “18 and Life,” to create music that unlocks this spirit in their fans.

The Gang’s All Here was released on October 14th and is comprised of ten new songs that came straight from the inner rebel at the heart of Skid Row. Producer Nick Raskulinecz pushed guitarists Snake Sabo and Sotti Hill, bassist Rachel Bolan, and drummer Rob Hammersmith to dive back into the headspace they were in when they wrote their first studio album, Self-Titled (1989). The years shook off like dust and audiences are left with music that feels as timeless as it feels necessary, melodies that provide a space for our collective rebellious streak and our need to get loud. “I wound up feeling the same as when we wrote “18 and Life” and “Youth Gone Wild,”” says Bolen. It was a headspace the band had to jump back into before they could create a new album that still captured their iconic sound and themes.

But reentering their teenage minds wasn’t enough. To cook up something new that still sounded familiar, the gang needed to bring back the original recipe, Sabo and Bolan sitting down together and writing the music. In the beginning, it was the joint songwriting of these two rock gods that created the five time platnum self-titled album and two time platinum album, Slave to the Grind. Hill knew that letting Sabo and Bolan work their magic ensured that audiences would get something authentic. “The best stuff is what they do together, just the two of them,” he says. The result is music that tackles current issues, like in “World’s On Fire,” while still keeping grittiness at the forefront of the album, like in “Tear It Down.” In “The Gang’s All Here,” Sabo combines the same guitar riffing skills that have inspired and infuriated would-be rockstars around the world with Bolan’s punk influences that, having grown up in the heyday of pop punk, first drew me to the band in my early teens. With the original recipe on the table, it was time to shift the focus toward the singer.

It’s become common practice in the rock community to bring back a band with most of the original members, but with the addition of a new singer. Whether by necessity as with Queen or by choice as with Mötley Crüe during the Corabi days, a familiar face is asked to play the frontman for a tour or two and sing on a few albums. If the new frontman is a well-known singer prior to joining the reintroduction of a legendary group, it’s also become fairly common for that well-known singer to throw in their own personal flair, again as in Queen, who brought Adam Lambert into the fold for joint tours beginning in 2011. But this whole rigmarole of introducing a new singer followed by fans debating what they like or don’t like about them doesn’t seem to have a place in Skid Row. The fans are well aware of the vocal carousel that’s been spinning since Sebastian Bach’s exit from the band in 1996. Because of this, Skid Row has had the benefit of hosting a cast of icons, from Johnny Solinger, who went on to pursue a solo career in the country genre before his passing in 2021, to ZP Theart of DragonForce. So seeing a new frontman on stage is nothing new for life-long fans, but unlike his predecessors, their newest singer brings something notably different to the ensemble. Unlike Theart or Tony Harnell of TNT, Erik Grönwall, only 34, grew up listening to Skid Row and has a reverence for the band’s legacy. Having performed the role of Galileo Figaro in the Queen musical, We Will Rock You, at the historic Oscarsteartern in Stockholm, won Swedish Idol in 2009, formed H.E.A.T in 2012, and received a Grammy nomination in the Best Musical Theater Album category for his role in Jesus Christ Superstar, Grönwall had already made a name for himself in the European circuit and the theater world prior to joining the group. But out of respect for the band, he took on the massive task of imitating the vocalization and delivery that OG fans would recognize. “We wanted him to really draw on his influences— Skid Row just happens to be one of them— but mainly just let go and do what he does best,” Bolan says. The iconic snarling voice followed by unobtainable high swells are most apparent on the album’s titular song, making this single in particular sound like it could’ve been a lost hit from ‘89. He perfectly walks the line between impression and authenticity so that his delivery is less of a caricature and more of an homage to the band’s long history and the attitude that has always been front and center in their music. Similarly to Harnell and particularly Theart, he does throw in his own personal flair, but on the whole, his vocal delivery is a highly convincing tribute to the band’s early years. Grönwall says his approach was “a good balance between the old school stuff and the way I sing.” He went on to say, “I just had so much fun recording this album because I really enjoy singing this kind of music.” His clear appreciation for the style and material can be heard throughout the album and it translates into material that’s just fun to listen to.

Bolan perfectly encapsulates the album by saying, “You can fight to these songs. Drink to them. Strip to them. All the bases are covered.” The gang have made yet another masterpiece that die-hard fans and new listeners are already responding positively to. On October 24th, they performed a sold-out show in London and are currently rounding out their European tour, making stops in Germany, Switzerland, and France. Audiences are connecting with Grönwall’s reverence for the group, but on a deeper level, they’re enjoying how the new album awakens that inner rebel in us all, no matter how old or how young, and the many ways that rebel manifests itself. Whether Skid Row is the band you fight to, drink to, or dance to, this album is sure to please.

I’m Music Magazine Photographer/Writer Kayleigh Rongey