Skid Row - Slave to the Grind
Atlantic
Hair Metal
12 songs (47:41)
Release year: 1991
Skid Row, Atlantic Records
Reviewed by Koeppe
Archive review

This album follows a shift set years before with Guns n’ RosesAppetite for Destruction, one in which the excess and light-hearted hedonism of hair metal was discarded for something much harsher. In contrast to their self-titled debut, Slave to the Grind is explicitly heavier, but more importantly sleazier and grittier. Reading up on what others have said about this album, often the album gets trashed for being a “political album”. Rather than being a forced political gesture, though, Slave to the Grind is a thematization of economic uncertainty, but more importantly the lived uncertainties as the promises of Reaganomics came to fruition, not through everyone coming into prosperity but instead as an entire chunk of the youth population becoming surplus in the now global economic system.

The album begins with a bluesy clean-picked riff before Sebastian Bach blasts his way in with those pipes of his. And before I lavish praise on Bach, someone for whom I have nothing bad to say of, I want to make a point to commend Snake Sabo’s spectacular riffing throughout this album, really giving the album some traction to stand on. Monkey Business has to be one of the greatest opening tracks on an album; it rides the rails of Bach’s operatic vocals in all their perfectly produced glory, with him racing through the verse to get to the awesome chorus. Not to mention those emphatic grunts and snarls of his are just too good. This album stands out from other hair metal albums in that the drums are fully placed within the mix, only providing a simple rhythmic pace when it is called for because otherwise the drumming is full-tilt pounding away.

The title track, Slave to the Grind opens with an absolutely ripping riff before entering into some light chugging, keeping pace with the drumming. The spectacle of the 80s’ hedonistic hair metal established this free-spirited masculine subject who was comfortable enough to dabble in androgyny. Bach’s lyrics instead tackle the alienation of rebellious youth who have to assert themselves as their livelihoods are being threatened by larger structural shifts. The video of the album depicts this as early footage of a train station with suits scurrying to where they need to be jumps to footage of the band displaced and rampaging in a warehouse as forklifts drive by in the background. Gone is teased hair and flamboyant blouses replaced by stringy long hair, leather pants and t-shirts. In two years, Skid Row developed an intensity on tracks like this that simply blows away their debut and to which their later albums couldn’t match either for that matter.

Given that it’s an 80s hair metal album, it has its fair share of ballads: Quicksand Jesus, In a Darkened Room, Wasted Time. I would rank them in quality according to that order. I’m an elitist music snob and I absolutely love these tracks; they do seem more earnest than I Remember You and they already have points in my book for not being simple heartbroken lyrics. Once you embrace their tackiness (and you are listening to a hair metal album for christ’s sake), they are great tracks. Their merit truly stands on the quality of Bach’s vocals and whether he convinces the listener. Sabo provides a solo on each of them; Wasted Time’s being the best as it closes out the album, while In a Darkened Room has a solid riff embedded in it.

Beyond the first two tracks, the album continues its attempt at making the heaviest jams of any of its competition in the genre. Psycho Love and Get the Fuck Out keep it simple and straightforward; the vocal harmonies mirror the bounce of the riff and make for catchy and fun tracks. Psycho Love is topped off with a screeching and widdly solo. The lyrics of GTFO are absolutely hilarious and raunchy. You simply can’t beat lines like “standin’ to close what the fuck’s with you, you ain’t my old lady and you ain’t a tattoo” because there is always that guy at the bar and you always want to throw him the fuck out. Livin’ on a Chain Gang mirrors most closely the two opening tracks and it is amazing for that. The lyrics target the police, authority, and institutionalized religion, but it never comes off as forced or heavy-handed, because it’s all the shit that we hear on the news and always already know. And that chorus is absolutely spectacular in all of its catchy glory.

The song I didn’t mention are of lesser quality, but nothing that absolutely tanks the overall quality of the album. I do wish that I knew what the fuck the lyrics of Creepshow were describing with all that talk of strippers, sisters and transvestites. This is the album that I blast in my car on that first day of actual spring weather with the windows down. I’m a total fanboy and I love this album. If you haven’t given it a shot, you’re missing out, and even if you don’t like Sebastian Bach as much as I do, drop that score ten points and it is still worth checking out. One of the best albums to come out of that entire scene that really transcends the moment in which it was created, making it worth listening to over twenty years later.

Killing Songs :
Monkey Business, Slave to the Grind, Livin’ on a Chain Gang
Koeppe quoted 92 / 100
Other albums by Skid Row that we have reviewed:
Skid Row - Subhuman Race reviewed by Ben and quoted 90 / 100
Skid Row - Revolutions Per Minute reviewed by Mike and quoted 30 / 100
Skid Row - Skid Row reviewed by Ben and quoted 85 / 100
Skid Row - Thickskin reviewed by Mike and quoted 40 / 100
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