Fresh Metal
Skid Row - 40 Seasons: The Best Of Skid Row
(Warner)
To their credit, Skid Row were an admirable franchise, three records, three different sounds, Guns
N' Roses with less personality, but a greater commitment to metal. Judging from (now year old)
chats with both Rachel and Baz, I don't see a reunion anytime soon, although projects like this
tend to renew and reinvigourate. A bunch of good to almost great songs here, although folks
shouldn't be surprised to find the Subhuman Race stuff standing up better than the well-loved
anthems. Terse but meaningful liner notes by Rachel elucidate somewhat, and the vaults have
yielded a few gems to juice the gullet. Three remix versions, one demo version, one live, and two
previously unreleased compositions comprise a pretty good haul. Caution: the live track seems to
be chosen only for Rachel to succeed in boldy embarrassing Baz, who sings, swears and hollers like
a foolish schoolboy. Of the two newies, both are (surprise) tuff hair metal, Forever, from '88
ripe with melodic punk hook, and Fire In The Hole, just kinda snarly and unremarkable. A worthy,
well-picked introduction to a gypsies-in-leather bunch whose small catalogue can thence-by be
collected for under $50.
Rating 7.5
Dream Theater - Once In A Livetime
(Eastwest/Warner)
Proving once again their sense of humour and history, prog icons Dream Theater marble their vast
original compositions with nods to the classics. So we get snippets from Metallica, Pink Floyd and
Zeppelin, as well as the bombastic jam section from Skynyrd's 'Freebird'. Elsewhere, this looming
record (make or breaker?) samples bits of DT sideprojects Platypus and Liquid Tension Experiment,
while (planned) jamming and soloing feature extensively between band faves. Production-wise, Derek
Sherinian's Jon Lordian keyboards are prominent, as is the Paris crowd. All else gets a timid,
edged-off treatment from producer Kevin Shirley, although drummer Mike Portnoy bounds right in a
steals the show, overlapping prog acrobatics and groove to keep things moving briskly (see 'Lines
In The Sand'). A striking Storm Thorgerson cover (remember Anthrax?) tops off this huge, acedemic
pack of prog, songs that are somehow lighter in levity given the friendly crowd noise.
Rating 8
Various Artists - ECW Extreme Music
(CMC)
Cool and convoluted biz arrangement here between CMC, Concrete Management and Extreme Championship
Wrestling. But the really cool thing is that the record is a cornucopia of weirdness, with some of
the most interesting things on paper (Bruce Dickinson doing Scorpions' The Zoo, Motorhead doing
Enter Sandman and Kilgore doing Pantera's The Walk) fizzling flat in execution, while some of the
lighter renditions truly shine. Such comic moments include most of Pantera twanging their way
through ZZ Top's classic Heard It On The X, Muscadine's pompous Big Balls, and Monster Magnet's
air-tight Kick Out The Jams. Plus it's worth mentioning that 11 of 12 of these are exclusive
tracks. So even though this ain't the greatest example of stars being surprising, it's a rare
treat by simple definition.
Rating 6
Grip Inc. - Solidify
(Metal Blade)
Slowly over time dispensing with all forms of Slayerisms (Grip Inc. own probably six of the best
Slayer tracks in the '90s), Sorychta and crew have now fully arrived with a presentation and
persona distinctly theirs. And what we get is a cranky, Rammstein or Killing Joke or Mission of
metal, Grip Inc. pulling the best elements of leaden goth and putting them through their very
metal blender. Imagine that tingle you first felt with Ministry's Psalm 69. Well that's back,
within a uniquely metal format, those same apocalyptic bellows, that same forward trudge. Only
this time, the drama is created with bass and drum barrages, all laced with many middle eastern
flavours, or more accurately middle British flavours of a grimly vampiric nature. I can see that
whole Metallica, Paradise Lost, Moonspell, Entombed debate kicking up again (a third of this does
for Grip Inc. what Until It Sleeps did for Metallica), but such put-downs ignore the high
hoovering, groove-thick riffery all over this dramatic, well-assembled pageant of pounding (albeit
much of it come chorus time as a high number of verses, pour by on quiet liquid idle). Weird,
sorta like a Sepulturian hardcore version of Page Plant's unplugged Zep classics, sent
black-coat-flowing through the moors with Blixa and Nick Cave.
Rating 8