When
Skid Row reunited without
Sebastian Bach in 2000 and hired
Johnny Solinger as their new lead singer, many longtime fans were understandably skeptical. Some were hostile to the very idea, arguing that a Skid Row reunion without
Bach would be like a
Led Zeppelin reunion without
Robert Plant, or a
Nirvana reunion without the late
Kurt Cobain -- in other words, they saw
Bach as irreplaceable and indispensable. Period. But
Thickskin, Skid Row's first studio album with the expressive
Solinger, is surprisingly good, although it should be stressed that this 2003 release is hardly a carbon copy of the band's Atlantic output of the late '80s and early- to mid-'90s. Instead, Skid Row updates their sound, offering a more modern approach (by early 2000s standards) that is obviously cognizant of alternative rock tastes. It isn't as dramatic a makeover as
Tommy Lee gave himself after leaving
Mötley Crüe and forming
Methods of Mayhem, but it certainly isn't a dose of hair band nostalgia, either. Those who expect the Skid Row of 2003 to sound exactly like the old
Bach-era Skid Row are bound to be disappointed; those who are open to a more alternative-friendly outlook will find a lot to like about this melodic yet hard-driving effort, which fuses elements of
Slave to the Grind and
Subhuman Race with an awareness of the sort of post-grunge sound one would expect from
the Foo Fighters,
Silverchair, Creed, or
Default. It's an appealing combination, although some diehard
Bach loyalists will inevitably insist that an alterna-rock version of Skid Row isn't really Skid Row. Regardless, this is a decent outing -- one that falls short of essential, but is still a respectable demonstration of the band's ability to revamp their sound and carry on without
Bach. ~ Alex Henderson