Review SKID ROW ‘The Gang’s All Here’

That the new record from Skid Row is a great album comes as a surprise and was yet predictable. The band, which created a timeless classic with ‘Slave to the Grind’, has also been quite successful over the past few years. ‘Revolutions per Minute’ and the two ‘United World Revolution’ EPs contain great songs and are real energizers.

Also live Skid Row were always a reliable choice, of which the author of these lines could convince himself in 2013 in Amsterdam and 2019 at the Rock Hard Festival. The question that was still present, is how the band would cope with the replacement at the microphone. After, ZP Theart had left, the band had to find a good replacement. The choice fell on Eric Grönwall, who made a name for himself with H.E.A.T. and fits perfectly to Skid Row.

With ‘The Gang’s All Here’ Skid Row has now the long-awaited new full-length album at the start and what the guys have put on record has class. After listening to it several times, I would even go that far and say that ‘The Gang’s All Here’ is the best Skid Row album since ‘Slave to the Grind’. And whoever thought that the band’s success is forever linked to the name of Sebastian Bach will be proven wrong these days.

Skid Row rock in high class with ten songs that made it onto the album.

With the smashing opener ‘Hell or High Water’, the vibe comes up immediately. Hard guitars, good melodies and Grönwall’s rocking voice give the song the expected punch. Such a start into an album inspires and since the following title track spreads the same vibe it is quickly apparent that Skid Row have found their way back to old vigor.

The thumping ‘Time Bomb’ fits into the context of the record just as well here as rocking ‘When the Lights Come Down’. The thrilling ‘Tear It Down’ exudes pure energy and also the balladic ‘October’s Song’, with its melancholic atmosphere, fits excellently. With a bang called ‘World on Fire’ Skid Row end an album that is one of the highlights of the year. The quintet shows what they are capable of and while some fellow veterans present only average material these days, it is Skid Row who continue to hold up the flag of the rock revolution; and they do it in an authentic way.