Heavy Metal Music With Skid Row Albums

With five full featured studio Skid Row albums, this heavy metal American band has tasted sweet success in the late 1980s up to the early 1990s. Formed in Toms River, New Jersey the band has sold over 20 million copies of their album. One of the most admirable things that the band achieved is that it took them just three or so years to come out with their first album. This is something that most bands do not experience.

It was Rachel Bolan and Dave “The Snake” Sabo who got the band started. There have been some band member changes throughout the years, the most notable was the departure of Sebastian Bach. It happened when Bach wanted the band to open for KISS, however, the rest of the group did not want it. They had a falling out resulting to Bach’s departure. The current line up of the band includes: Johnny Solinger, Scotti Hill, Rob Hammersmith and of course, the two founders.

They had a bleak moment with their relationship with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. The band signed over their publishing rights to the two, at that time Bon Jovi was looking for new acts to sign up for their new publishing company, Underground Music Company. The band was left with little percentage of their publishing rights. However, some of it was returned to them later on.

On January 24, 1989 the band released their debut album simply titled, ‘Skid Row’. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has already recognized it as a five-time platinum record holder. The album reached the no. 6 ranking in the Billboard 200. At around this time that demand for Skid Row merch started to gain some ground.

Their next album was titled ‘Slave to the Grind’. It was released on June 11, 1991 and can be thought of as one of their most successful albums as it was able to reach the number 1 spot of the Billboard 200. It was also a change in the band’s musical style as the album featured deeper toned sound as well as lyrics that tackled the social situations and problems of the period.

On March 28, 1995 the third of the Skid Row albums was released. Titled ‘Subhuman Race’, the album was memorable because it was the last album that included Sebastian Bach before his departure from the group. The album was also notable for the slight change of their sound from heavy metal to more of alternative metal.

About a decade since ‘Subhuman Race’ was released, their next album, ‘Thickskin’, was launched. This time it featured the voice of Johnny Solinger, the band’s new lead vocalist. However, another member had also left. It was Phil Varone.

‘Revolutions per Minute’ is the latest of their albums and it was released on October 24, 2006. The album received negative reviews from the music critics. It reunited the band with Michael Wagener who produced their second album, ‘Slave to the Grind’, which was about 15 years to that day.

While it takes them a few years to come up with the next album, it is safe to say that we can expect more Skid Row albums in coming years. The band’s fame has not diminished, as proved by the demand for their band merch and studio albums.