New album

Skid Row legend Sebastian Bach wants to know more

The aesthetics are 80s, as is the sound: on his fifth solo album "Child Within The Man", Sebastian Bach doesn't even try to appear forcedly modern.

(Bild: Reigning Phoenix Music, Jim Louvau, Krone KREATIV)

A full ten years after his last studio album, the former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach is now soaring to career-high heights on his new solo album "Child Within The Man". The result is a hard rock nostalgia parade with a contemporary production.

In the late 80s, the world was a diametrically different place. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet Union looked promising for a peaceful and united Europe, the unemployment rate in Central Europe was more than manageable and if you absolutely had to complain in public, then it happened face to face at the regulars' table and not behind a peripheral anonymity on social media. Musically, not everything was better, but a lot was different. Before Kurt Cobain ushered in a trend reversal towards openness and vulnerability with his oversized flannel sweater, blond hair and early rock feminism, the dominant electric guitar sector was dominated by wild hairspray hairstyles, openly flaunted (and often toxic) masculinity and unofficial competitions to see which singer from which hair metal or glam rock band could elevate their timbre to higher spheres.

Success and separation
Alongside Guns N' Roses mastermind Axl Rose, it was mainly a young lad called Sebastian Bierk who shone, using the legendary German classical composer for his artist pseudonym early on. With Sebastian Bach as "narrow-gauge Axl Rose" (which of course was and is nonsense), the working-class band Skid Row was the heavy metal version of the Gunners for the eponymous debut album (1989) and the follow-up "Slave To The Grind" (1991). Not least thanks to Bach, who helped unforgotten songs such as "18 And Life", "Youth Gone Wild", "Monkey Business" and "I Remember You" achieve legendary status. The very strong "Subhuman Race" (1995) fell victim to changing trends, Bach and his main band successfully fell out and have been going their separate ways for almost three decades - with varying degrees of success.

Skid Row have tried out countless singers over the years and have been touring temporarily with Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale since this year. The three haggard studio albums from the last 27 years have been below average to say the least and band bosses Dave "Snake" Sabo and Rachel Bolan are still doing well to focus on the Bach songs on tour. Bach also played such "30 Years Anniversary" shows solo, in between which he was also successful with his own albums, became a respected star on Broadway and achieved acting honors in "Gilmore Girls" and co. Various reality shows and his appearance on "The Masked Singer" last year were less praiseworthy. After his very strong last solo work "Give 'Em Hell", Bach let a whole decade pass before he felt the urge to make music again due to his many commitments.

Flicking through the phone book
The surprise effect on his fifth solo work "Child Within The Man" is admittedly manageable, as Bach's strengths are well known. His impressive, multi-pitched singing voice is exploited to the full, a completely revamped instrumental group serves the 56-year-old beauty with the brunette mane as a professional employee production and when - more than usual in these circles - it's time for a bit of name-dropping, the frontman leafs through his yellowed analog phone book and calls on creative friends for help. You can look forward to the guitar of John 5 (now with Mötley Crüe) on "Freedom", Billy Idol friend and guitarist Steve Stevens' axe on "F.U." or - after all, we're no longer in the macho 80s - lend an ear to the famous Orianthi playing on "Future Of Youth".

From the fiery promo photos to the thick composition trousers to the openly displayed homage to the good old days of rock music, everything on "Child Within The Man" screams of an embarrassing retro show, but anyone who judges in this way is making hasty judgments and giving the album too little time. Songs like the hard "(Hold On) To The Dream" or the edgy opener "Everybody Bleeds" would have caused stadium cheers 35 years ago and only attract so few people today because times and trends have fundamentally changed. Pseudo-cool hipsters may smile contemptuously at the power ballad "To Live Again" that closes the album, but the compositional quality and the open display of heart and soul command the utmost respect. Under the production of genre great "Elvis" Baskette, Bach and his entire band were in seclusion under one roof for a while for the first time in his life, and the basic idea certainly worked. You can feel the mutual juggling of ideas and the community at every second.

Are the stars aligned?
The fact that Bach has now mutated into a reality show figure in the USA does not do justice to his musical vita. An album like "Child Within The Man" wouldn't have been an "Appetite For Destruction" in the 80s either, but it could have easily stood up to some of the greats of the scene back then. Bach also has something for the heart visually. On the childlike cover artwork, he has combined two drawings by his late father David Bierk, who was already expertly immortalized on the old Skid Row albums. The title-giving "child in the man", which is indispensable in rock'n'roll, gives this work a freshness that genre colleagues have not been able to achieve for years (just listen to the new Mötley Crüe single ...). And who knows - maybe Bach and Skid Row will reunite in the fall of their career after all. The stars have never looked worse for it.