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Sebastian Bach is best known from the time he fronted
rock band Skid Row from the late 80's running all
the way through the 90's, the band sold well over
20-million albums worldwide in their time and were
one of the most successful rock bands at the time
up there with Guns N Roses, Iron Maiden, Metallica
and all the other great rock bands. In 1996 Sebastian
Bach was fired from Skid Row, the man then went
on to release his debut solo album 'Bring 'Em Bach
Alive!' during the end of 1999, since then Sebastian
Bach seemed to of disappeared from the music world
with only a few appearances over the past year or
so joining Axl Rose on stage for guest vocals during
some Guns N Roses festival shows.
It’s been eight years since Sebastian Bach
released his one and only solo album, but he’s
now back on the scene and ready to change that
with the release of his second solo album 'Angel
Down' the album is due for release on the 21st
July and I am pretty sure the news will please
the old skool style rock fans, the album is classic
as a solo album but technically it isn’t
as throughout the album Bach has members of his
touring band and a few other musicians playing
instruments on the album and if that isn’t
enough, Bach's best friend, Guns N Roses frontman
Axl Rose features on guest vocals on three songs
on the album including a cover of the classic
Aerosmith song 'Back In The Saddle'.
It seems like it’s the year for rock stars
who have been in successful bands over the past
ten years or so to dismantle from their band and
go solo, over the past 12 months we have had a
solo album from Chris Cornell who left Audioslave
to concentrate on his solo material, we have also
just had the debut solo album from Gavin Rossdale,
the former frontman from the now dysfunctional
British rock band Bush, but where Chris Cornell
and Gavin Rossdale have chosen the more laid back
boy band style rock sound Sebastian Bach has stayed
true to his roots by sticking to his angry rocking
style, but saying that he has thrown in some more
chilled out moments to mix things up a bit.
The album 'Angel Down' kicks off with the title
track, it starts with a real chilled musical instrumental
before branching off into a brutal assault of
raw shouty vocals, big chunky guitar riffs and
banging drum rolls, the song is really strong
sounding and a perfect opening for the album.
The opening bass line to 'You Dont Understand'
sounds like something from Iced Earth, but when
you read into the history of Bach's backing band
it’s easy to see why moments of Iced Earth
are clearly present as the bassist of his choice
Steve DiGiorgio has played bass in Iced Earth,
a band who seems to take on a new bass player
every year, he has also played for Testament and
many other bands in the past, the song runs well
and is a really enjoyable experience.
Most fans of Bach will know that the man loves
to cover other peoples songs, after releasing
a whole solo cover album, well for his second
solo album he has decided to cover Aerosmith’s
'Back In The Saddle' which was originally featured
on their album 'Rocks'. The best bit about the
cover is the fact that Guns N Roses frontman Axl
Rose pops up with guest vocals, it’s good
to hear best of friends Bach and Rose working
together and it’s even better to hear a
finished recorded song featuring Axl Rose especially
after what feels like a life time wait for the
forthcoming Guns N Roses album 'Chinese Democracy'
which still hasn’t seen the light of day.
The cover version is good and Axl's vocals really
shine.
If having Axl Roses help out wasn’t enough,
the man features on the next two songs, the first
'(Love Is) A Bitchslap' is a song that oozes with
attitude, the guitar solos come at you fast and
there are plenty on offer, the lyrics are full
of attitude with the chorus being such a catchy
moment of attitude with Rose singing "Don't
ask what the truth is and I won't tell you no
lies Cause love can be a BitchSlap, honey A bleedin'
heart in disguise". The second song 'Stuck
Inside' starts off with a really loud dirty guitar
riff, which is shortly followed by a scream from
Bach. The riffage throughout the song is incredible
and Rose's guest vocals are loud, raw and even
more full of attitude compared to the previous
two tracks.
The opening riffs of 'American Metalhead' remind
me of the Cancer Bats and sounds like Bach is
about to blast into 'Hail Destroyer', but then
Bach’s angry vocals come in shouting in
his old skool style, the guitar work from Mike
Chlasciak and Johnny Chromatic is never ending
and quite technical and big sounding.<
It wouldn’t be a rock album now without
the odd ballad thrown in would it? Well 'Angel
Down' features a couple of ballads the first being
'By Your Side', the song really shows off Bach's
vocals as he sings his heart out over the acoustic
guitar, I have always had a weak spot for acoustic
music, because it’s stripped down and really
gives the singer a chance to shine and show a
slight different vocal style and an overall different
song feel, Bach manages to conquer the style here.
'Angel Down' finishes with 'Fallin Into You'
a song that is so laid back and soothing with
progressive guitar harmonies, everything in this
song works ever so well and leaves me wanting
to hear more from Sebastian Bach.
Musically and vocally 'Angel Down' is a pretty
outstanding album, Bach’s vocals are as
good as they were say ten years ago and his backing
band are really talented musicians who know how
to pull off killer riffs time and time again and
create a good noise that is bound to get people
buzzing, the addition of Axl Rose is bound to
shock and excite many people for the reason that
some new studio tracks with Rose's vocals have
finally been released even if it’s not with
his own band Guns N Roses. There are many highlights
on 'Angel Down', most of the songs are of a high
quality with only a few fillers featuring on the
album, and who would of thought Sebastian Bach
would of ever dreamed of a come back and it turning
out this good? As I for sure wasn’t expecting
it, but am totally glad it’s here.
4/5
Review by Trigger |
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| Band
Members |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Angel Down
2. You Dont Understand
3. Back In The Saddle (Featuring AXL ROSE)
4. (Love Is) A Bitchslap (Featuring AXL ROSE)
5. Stuck Inside (Featuring AXL ROSE)
6. America Metalhead
7. Negative Light
8. Live & Die
9. By Your Side
10. Our Love Is A Lie
11. Take You Down With Me
12. Stabbin Daggers
13. You Bring Me Down
14. Falling Into You |
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Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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