The Gang’s All Here
GRÖNWALL AND THE GANG
BY: MARSWORTH
The Jersey-based rock band, Skid Row, has finally released their 6th studio album entitled The Gang’s All Here, blessing speakers around the world this past Saturday, October 15, 2022, via earMUSIC. Although, changing their image more than once over the course of their 33-year long journey, they’re still known to be the band to kick ass and take names with every track they produce. Behind Bolan’s lyrics, Grönwall’s vocals, and the vibration of Hammersmith’s drum beats, Skid Row has taken their time to put their heart and soul into this 10-track roller coaster. Even after 14 years of silence since Revolutions per Minute, the band makes it known that they’ve still got what it takes to truly “Tear It Down”.
Skid Row is:
Erik Grönwall: Lead vocals
Scotti Hill: Rhythm/ Lead guitar and backing vocals
Dave “The Snake” Sabo: Lead/ Rhythm guitar and backing vocals Rachel Bolan: Bass and backing vocals
Rob Hammersmith: Drums and backing vocals
The brutal demands of Bach’s ghost lingers within the lines of each of the 10 tracks that lay here. Grönwall confidently takes the nostalgia by the throat and fires through each tune as if he’s been with Bolan, Hill, and Sabo since day one! I can see it now: each member pouring his soul into every note while throwing a head of hair into the air and simultaneously never missing a beat. The Gang’s All Here throws it all back to 1991’s, #1 hit in America, Slave to the Grind. “Hell or High Water” is a successor of the band’s lead single, “Monkey Business”, on their first #1 album, which flows directly into the title track’s recall of a “…tricky little Vicky…” that was caught on the 1989 record Skid Row. Every lyric unlocks a memory that makes it even more of a challenge for Grönwall to break down the walls within the aging band; however, I have never seen anyone quite like Grönwall be willing to rise to the occasion on every track, carving through the commotion with his ever-so Bach-like roar.
That being said, Grönwall has talent which isn’t being totally used in the most advantageous ways for the band’s direction. The most repetitive and boring lyrics had come out of this album which is incredibly disappointing knowing that Skid Row is one of the most masterful songwriters to come out of the scene. A little under half of the 4 minute track “Time Bomb” is seriously just the word “..tick…” repeated. It can’t be the same guys that wrote, “Paranoid delusions they haunt you / Where’s my friend I used to know? / He’s all alone, he’s buried deep within / A carcass searching for a soul.” But who knows, maybe the old fella’s will concoct more of a hurdle for the young singer to endure next time.
Coming to a well-timed screeching halt with “October’s Song”, the listener is able to obtain a clear mind as well as access the ability to kick down a damn door while “World on Fire” blasts through the speakers. The intesnity driven into this track is not only fueled from Slave to the Grind, but also the anger in which we hold as a race, watching our world burn by our own hands. The band leaves you with an elevated heart rate, energy in your veins, and a sense of the world being in the palm of your hand, because it truly is. Get ready because… The Gang’s All Here.
MARSWORTH SAYS: 6/10
TRACK LIST:
- Hell or High Water
- The Gang’s All Here
- Not Dead Yet
- Time Bomb
- Resurrected
- Nowhere Fast
- When the Lights Come On
- Tear It Down
- October’s Song
- World on Fire