Sunday, November 18, 2007

Sebastian Bach's Angel Down

Coming into this, I was very skeptical. Sebastian Bach has done a lot lately that has made me question my love for him.

The anticipation for VH1's Super Group was almost too much for me to take when it first aired. I had heard countless rumors about Sebastian being a jerk, a diva, and a douchebag, so I was depending on this show to prove all the nay sayers wrong. No one could possibly be a bigger jerk than Ted Nugent...could they? Unfortunately, Sebastian fulfilled every word of those rumors. I hope and pray that it was bad editing on VH1's part that made him look so ridiculous, but it was one of the most heartbreaking moments in my life. Sounds silly, I know, but Skid Row and Sebastian Bach are my idols and one of my all-time favorite bands. It sucks to find out that your idols aren't as cool as you thought they would be.

Then Sebastian went on to do MTV's Celebrity Rap Superstar. Why don't you just put another knife in my heart and twist it around? I couldn't even bring myself to watch that show, not one single episode. Although I did hear that Sebastian actually did pretty well, for some reason, that was no consolation to me. I understand that he probably did all this for money and to promote his new album (and I'm sure it worked), but it still sucks.

All of this was foreshadowed by his first solo album, Bring'em Bach Alive. I stole a copy of it from a local college radio station a few years ago. As much as I hate to say it, I'm glad I didn't waste any money on it. It was terrible. Not only were his new songs bad, but he shoved quite a few Skid Row songs on the album. If I wanted to hear Skid Row, I'd throw one of their CD's in, but I wanted to hear new, solo Sebastian Bach. That's not what I got at all. The quality of the photos on the CD were terrible as well; it looked like the band put on costumes, ran outside in Sebastian's back yard, and had someone snap a picture of them with a disposable camera.


So needless to say, I wasn't expecting much from Angel Down.


Luckily, I happened to catch Sebastian on my local radio station last week. I think he was doing a radio tour to help promote the album. Thankfully, he came off sounding like the old Sebastian that I had enshrined in my head: funny, thoughtful, and charismatic. I was relieved. Maybe his new album wouldn't be so bad? They played "Love Is A Bitch Slap" and...it was actually really fucking good. Whew!

Then I found this website: http://spinner.aol.com/artists/new-releases-full-cds?defaultTab=3 and was able to listen to Angel Down in its entirety. Wow...Sebastian redeemed himself for all his wrong doing with this album; he blew me away.


I've only listened to it once, but it's fantastic. The music is heavy and dirty. Slave To The Grind resonates throughout the album, but Sebastian does a great job of making it his own. After hearing him sing on Super Group, I was a little worried about how his voice would sound on this album. Not to worry. His voice sounds just as youthful and strong on Angel Down as it did on Skid Row's debut album. There is also a guest appearance by none other than Axl Rose who lends his voice to a couple of the songs on the album, which is a nice added touch.


Sebastian has shown a lot of growth and maturity with Angel Down. It just goes to prove that the less he focuses on Skid Row, the better he sounds. I'm thankful he took his time and worked hard to put out a quality album.

Moral of the story: Never doubt your idols.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

i too picked up a copy of Baz's Bring em Bach alive when I worked at my college radio station. It did stink pretty bad. That was hysterical when you wrote that they went in his yard and took the pictures cause that's exactly what it looked like. I know about Sebastian's attitude but he's canadian and lives in Jersey so that makes for a real big pain in the ass! haha. What really blew me away with Baz is his performance in Jekyl and Hyde..it was amazing. I saw it like 3 times. Thanks for the review on Angel Down ...I wasn't sure about it, now it's on my list.