SKID ROW – The Gang’s All Here

Finally a new Skid Row album, and a very good album: The gang's all here, ladies and gentlemen. 
After Sebastian Bach, let's be honest, the band really struggled to deliver, in terms of quality and quantity. I liked “Thickskin”, way less “Revolutions Per Minute” and the two EPs “United World Rebellion” which left me with too many questions. Finally we have a proper Skid row album and yes, a new singer: Erik Grönwall, former H.E.A.T. singer, who delivered a great performance. 

The gang's all here features 10 songs for 41 minutes and it's all old-school Hard Rock, just like the very good singles released "Time Bomb", "Tear it down" and especially the very inspired title track, for sure one of my favourites of the album. Talking about favourites I definitely put in my personal list the opener "Hell or high water" which could be a song taken from the "Slave to the grind" period and with a spot-on vocal performance (reminding me a bit of a young Sebastian) and for sure the energetic and with a killer chorus, "Time Bomb", maybe my favourite of the entire album, you can find it in my personal "Best of 2022" Spotify Playlist.

One of the distinctive signs of the band was the power ballads, and maybe Skid row are one of the best bands ever from this point of view with masterpieces like "18 and life", "I remember you", "Wasted time" and "In a darkened room". In this album we find only one, "October's song" and it's a different type, 7 minutes long, with a very good chorus but also with very heavy parts (and great guitar solos by Snake Sabo and Scotti Hill). Definitely a very good one but maybe not the one I was expecting)

The production of the album is killer and the band sounds fresh, even if they've been on the road for something like 35 years now (time flies and we are all getting old). The gang's all here is not a masterpiece but it's their best album from "Subhuman race", I think we can be happy. I am.

Rating 70/100

Top tracks: Hell or high water, The gang's all here, Time Bomb.