Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Skid Row - Slave to the Grind (1991)

There really is no other era of Skid Row other than Sebastian Bach-era Skid Row is there?  The shit that got put out by the band post-Subhuman Race really bears no resemblance to any of their first three records.  The fact is, Bach was the icing on the cake for a bunch of sleazy cock-rockers with a penchant for making hard-hitting and punchy hard-rock and metal.  For all of Hill and Sabo's efforts on guitar their riffs, licks and leads hardly surpassed average and it was usually Bach's full frontal attack vocals that drove the band forwards.  On their sophomore I would suggest that he (again) more than carries his fair share of the workload, taking some solid enough songs and elevating them that extra mile to make them memorable.

Whilst Slave To The Grind is notably a step down from the quality of the debut album it still retains some of that youthful exuberance albeit it does sometimes direct this into goofy tracks such as the cringey Quicksand Jesus (one of the few tracks that the guitars save Bach) which is poorly written and obviously lacks finesse.  Similarly, Get The Fuck Out screams G n' R wannabees with the emphasis on shock overriding any real focus on album composition.

Single fodders such as In A Darkened Room and Wasted Time haven't aged well in all honesty and are only minorly less of a cringe-fest than the aforementioned Quicksand Jesus, however the one consistent element that in the main makes things more palatable is Bach's pipes.  Yes, the guitars maintain a nice hi-tempo where appropriate and also can cause those melancholic moments to linger a little while longer with their bluesy tone on the slower numbers and Bolan's bass is a virtual ever present plonk and rumble across the record, it is Bach's performance that stays with you.  On tracks like Living on a Chain Gang he utterly delivers, driving the energy forwards across one of the best tracks on the album.

Rob Affuso's drums sound a bit lost in all honesty.  There's a flatness to them that makes them sound like they weren't washed in the same energetic detergent that the rest of the instruments were.  This isn't to say his performance is bad, it just takes a proper sift into the record to kind of pick them up.  For all of my praise of Bach, one thing that occurred to me today was how rushed his vocals can sound on some tracks here.  This gives a sense often of wantonness in terms of the delivery, like he knows how good he is and doesn't really care how well the delivery fits in with everything else.

Fifteen year old me would probably have this album rated higher than a three but then again that's the gift/curse of growing old - you hear things through different ears in all honesty.  When I set aside the nostalgia and really listen, the album doesn't come alive in quite the same way that it used to.