Skid Row - Subhuman Race

The most misunderstood album in the Skid Row catalog, and one that deserves a far more generous hearing than history has given it. Released on March 28, 1995 on Atlantic Records and produced by Bob Rock, Subhuman Race is the third and final studio album to feature vocalist Sebastian Bach and drummer Rob Affuso, recorded under considerable pressure in a music landscape that had shifted dramatically since the number one debut of Slave To The Grind.

Rather than retreating toward the glam metal comfort zone that had launched them or chasing grunge with cynical calculation, Skid Row did something more interesting and more honest. Bassist Rachel Bolan and guitarist Dave Sabo wrote material that pushed further into groove metal and alternative territory while retaining the band's core identity, absorbing the best elements of the era into a sound that felt genuinely theirs. The results earned real critical respect at the time, with Rolling Stone praising the album's fresh riffage, AllMusic calling it the band's strongest and most vicious record to date, and Q hailing it as an outright winner. "My Enemy" opens with grinding, down-tuned menace. The blistering title track is a logical and ferocious extension of Slave To The Grind's heaviest moments. "Bonehead" unleashes Bach's full range with breathless punk energy. "Quicksand Jesus"-style depth arrives in the haunting "Frozen" and "In a Darkened Room"-adjacent introspection of "Wasted Time." The band even supported the album opening for Van Halen on the Balance tour.

The internal tensions that made the album difficult to make and contributed to Bach's departure the following year are now well documented by all parties. But the songs themselves, and the performances within them, tell a different story, one of a band fighting hard for something real on what would prove to be their final chapter together. A vital and rewarding listen, thirty years on.