{"id":29401,"date":"2013-05-02T06:34:32","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T11:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=29401"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:35:47","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:35:47","slug":"skid-row-united-world-rebellion-chapter-one-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/skid-row-united-world-rebellion-chapter-one-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Skid Row | United World Rebellion–Chapter One<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SkidThere are plenty of people out there who think Skid Row should have come to a screeching halt when Sebastian Bach stopped doing the rattlesnake shake and left the band. And based on the subpar caliber of Thickskin<\/em> and Revolutions Per Minute<\/em> (both enjoyable enough in their own right but hardly classics), those people could make a strong case. But instead of hanging up their big guns and fading into the oblivion of \u201880s nostalgia, the band has soldiered on with Johnny Solinger at the vocal helm. <\/p>\n

While legions of fans have turned away because they can\u2019t stand the heartache of watching this once-great band reduced to a shadow of its former self, other fans have kept the faith despite Skid Row\u2019s reinvention. But despite their loyalty\u2014or perhaps because of it\u2014those steadfast believers are holding onto the hope that the band will one day return to form. The loss of Sebastian is not insurmountable\u2014Solinger may not be Bach caliber, but he\u2019s not exactly makin\u2019 a mess of things either\u2014but the songwriting needs sharpening.<\/p>\n

United World Rebellion–Chapter One<\/em> is the first in a series of planned EPs. After tolerating the band\u2019s prior experiments with modern rock and punk-metal, fans are eager to see if Skid Row has finally returned to their heavy roots, if they can still tear it up like a midnight tornado. And when the first song, \u201cKings of Demolition,\u201d comes slamming out of the speakers, those fans will thrust their fists skyward and scream thanks to the gods of metal, for this is by far the best hard rock anthem the band has released since Bach bade the microphone goodbye. It\u2019s a big, ballsy, bad-ass head-banger with raging rhythms and smoking choruses and in your face attitude. You\u2019ll be praying to Quicksand Jesus that the whole EP is this good.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the band is unable to capitalize on this early momentum. They blow their load early and while they manage to get it up on a couple other tracks, they\u2019re just not as good as that terrific opener. \u201cLet\u2019s Go\u201d keeps things rocking and is actually a pretty solid tune, but the next song is dullness personified as Skid Row try to recapture their balladic glory with \u201cThis is Killing Me,\u201d which is probably what you\u2019ll be thinking as the song plays. \u201cGet Up\u201d is also a really good song\u2026for Egypt Central or Pop Evil. In other words, it\u2019s a modern hard rock track with lots of low end muscle, a head-stomper of a chorus, and tough guy gang vocals. A cool track for sure\u2026but it ain\u2019t Skid Row. The EP closes with \u201cStitches,\u201d which is so utterly forgettable that it will require an iron will not to read the band the riot act.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, the youth gone wild would have cut their wrists and waded through shark-infested waters if that\u2019s what it took to get the latest Skid Row album. But the youth gone wild are now the middle-agers gone bald and the Skid Row glory days are long gone. Granted, this latest effort has one great song and two good ones, so it\u2019s not all just wasted time, but with the exception of \u201cKings of Demolition,\u201d there is nothing here that compares to their pinnacle. Hopefully the band can put all this subpar monkey business behind them and the next chapter in the Skid Row saga will be more interesting.<\/p>\n

Genre: Hard Rock, Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nJohnny Solinger (vocals)
\nDave \u201cSnake\u201d Sabo (guitar)
\nScotti Hill (guitar)
\nRachel Bolan (bass)
\nRob Hammersmith (drums)<\/p>\n

Track Listing
\n1. Kings of Demolition
\n2. Let\u2019s Go
\n3. This is Killing Me
\n4. Get Up
\n5. Stitches<\/p>\n

Label: Megaforce Records<\/p>\n

Webpage: www.skidrow.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen – Senior Columnist — There are plenty of people out there who think Skid Row should have come to a screeching halt when Sebastian Bach stopped doing the rattlesnake shake and left […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[336,1103,2267,334,3283,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-29401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd","9":"tag-hard-rock","10":"tag-metal","11":"tag-review","12":"tag-sebastian-bach","13":"tag-skid-row"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}