Skid Row – ‘B-Side Ourselves E.P.’ – Album Review

Skid Row were two albums in and after 1991’s ‘Slave to the Grind’ going #1, there were riding high. Little did they know that the rug was about to be pulled out from under them thanks to the likes of Nirvana. But that didn’t stop them from releasing material to keep the fans happy. They released an E.P. which was a collection of covers and a collection of B-Sides from previous singles. This an idea that today band’s like Halestorm do between albums…the only difference is the Halestorm covers are not B-Sides. Still glad they do it.

The album came out on September 22, 1992 almost 30 years ago. My version is not an original copy, but a re-issue released on October 17, 2017. This release is part of the Rhino Rocktober’s 2017 and is limited to 3,000 copies worldwide. It comes with original inner-sleeve and vinyl disc in charcoal black poly-lined inner whatever the hell that means. The vinyl is silver…or maybe gray…either way, it is nice…

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Kryst the Conqueror – ‘Deliver Us From Evil E.P.’ (1989) / ‘Soldiers of Light: The Complete Recordings’ (2019)- Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

You are probably wondering why I am reviewing two albums at once. I know, it is strange. Well, here is the thing. We are reviewing Kryst the Conqueror’s E.P. – ‘Deliver Us From Evil’, however, I don’t have that version of the album. I have the more recent release which is called ‘Soldiers of Light: The Complete Recordings’. This contains the E.P. ‘Deliver Us From Evil’ as well as all the songs from that recording session.

But first, let’s back up a little. Kryst the Conqueror (pronounced Christ) is a project from former members of the band The Misfits. It consists of Jerry Only (known as Mo the Great in The Misfits and as Mocavious Kryst for this band) and his brother Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein. The idea of the band was take fantasy and sci-fi imagery and mix it with religious themes and in this case Jesus was now a Conqueror and was going to deliver us from evil. Yikes!

The E.P. Cover

The band never officially had a lead singer. Jeff Scott Soto was brought in to record the songs to get a feel for the songs and how they would sound, but he was never intended to be the lead singer. In fact, on the E.P. he is not even credited. The lead singer is listed as Kryst the Conqueror. In fact, with all the songs he recorded, only 5 were ever released and that was the original 5 Song E.P. ‘Deliver Us From Evil’. From what I can gather, it was released as a fan club package to the Misfits Fan Club to make sure Jerry was keeping in touch with the fans. But the project never really had any staying power or amounted to anything much. I guess that isn’t totally true, although they never performed live, the band did stay together (at least Jerry & Doyle) until around 1995 when they reached an agreement with Glenn Danzig to reignite the Misfits and then they started touring under that name taking some of these songs and turning them in to Misfit songs.

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My Sunday Song – “I Remember You” by Skid Row

For My Sunday Song #94, “I Remember You” by Skid Row is the next power ballad on the list.  The song came out in November 1989 and by 1990 it was a huge success. It made it to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and ended up in being played at every high school’s prom according to Sebastian Bach in interview with SleazeRoxx.com.  Who doesn’t remember dancing to this song (well, I don’t because I had already graduated high school three years earlier).

What band wasn’t doing power ballads back in the day, so why is this one so special? Well, it is easy.  It is Sebastian Bach’s vocals.  He delivered such a powerful, heartfelt, emotional performance of the song written by fellow bandmates Rachel Bolan and Dave Sabo.  Now, Scotti Hill also laid down a killer guitar in the middle of the song that could stand up with any of the time.  It was lethal combination.  If you saw them live and this song came on, your lighter would be flickering as you raised your arm high into the air with everyone else in the building.

The song’s lyrics reflect a sadness and regret for a long lost love.  A longing for the times together and Bach captures that essence perfectly.  Rob Affuso’s drumming is strong and underlines the song with a punch that helps lift the ballad to another level.  There is no denying this was one of the best power ballads to come out of the whole movement.  I find it just as good today as it was back then.

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