It’s a foregone conclusion that Skid Row will never repeat the success of Slave To The Grind. Sure, you can blame that on Sabo, Hill and Bolan opting to de-Bach themselves, but the fact of the matter is that said album was a moment in the BAND’s history, when egos and planets aligned to create an untouchable piece of magic. Look no further that Subhuman Race to see what happens when a band is band in name only. Skid Row’s last effort, Thickskin, with new voice Johnny Solinger was hit and miss and pretty much did nothing other than offer us a silly punk version of ‘I Remember You’. New outing Revolutions Per Minute is better than its predecessor, but it’s still a far cry from the Skid Row that gave us ‘Piece Of Me’, ‘Here I Am’, ‘Monkey Business’, ‘Slave To The Grind’ and ‘Quicksand Jesus’. Oddly enough, this has nothing to do with the fact that Solinger has taken Sebastian Bach’s place. In fact, Solinger’s voice is the most interesting thing about the album in that he sounds both like a present day Baz (see Bach’s Frameshift II performance as a reference) and like a guy with his own identity, singing his balls off with his middle finger in the air. Musically, however, the band has hit a wall. Lead-off track ‘Disease’ and ‘Another Dick In The System’ are reminiscent of Slave To The Grind, which is a plus, but then things unravel in a big way. For starters, there are no less than three Jackyl-type (!!!) redneck punk tracks to be had (‘When God Can’t Wait’, ‘White Trash’ and the countri-fried ‘You Lie’), each one more disturbing than the last. Tracks ‘Shut Up Baby, I Love You’, Let It Ride’ and ‘Strength’ sound like lost material from Toronto-bar-band-gone-semi-pro Sven Gali and their 1992 self-titled debut, which ain’t a bad thing if you liked Sven Gali but are way below expectation from a band with Skid Row’s early track record for killer A+ songwriting. And if you’re looking for an ‘18 And Life’ or ‘Wasted Time’ forget it, those days are done. More’s the pity, ‘cuz even one big dumb balls-out rock tune would have been nice.