Sebastian Bach

Sebastian Bach

Angel Down

(MRV)

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Until Guns N’ Roses finally releases its long-awaited Chinese Democracy, Sebastian Bach’s Angel Down should fulfill any need you have for hair metal, said Jonathan Durbin in GQ. The Fabio-looking former frontman of Skid Row even asked his old pal Axl Rose for help on his first solo effort in eight years. Together, the two self-loving singers make a “rip-roarin’ rock album,” said Greg Burk in the Los Angeles Times. Rose matches Bach scream for scream on the Aerosmith cover “Back in the Saddle,” and their screeches perfectly intertwine over the mean, shredding guitars of “(Love Is) a Bitchslap.” Rose’s presence “triggers instant salivation” from his many spandex-wearing, AquaNet–using groupies who’ve been “starved for fresh GNR meat.” And he ends up stealing the spotlight. Bach should’ve known better than to hook up with a lead singer who has an even bigger ego than he does. Still, he fares better than many of his old mates from the school of glam-rock, said Jon Gilbertson in The Dallas Morning News. Throaty and raucously wild, Bach is “in fine screech-and-moan form” throughout the album. He channels Judas Priest in “Our Love Is a Lie” and refines the art of the power ballad with “By Your Side” and “Falling Into You.” Almost 40, Bach remains a slave to the heavy-metal grind. But it works for him, and he knows it.