I’d Rather Be a Slave to the Grind Than a King of Demolition

Skid Row’s new single, “King of Demolition,” is probably the best song the band has produced during the Johnny Solinger era, but that bar is set so low microscopic organisms can’t pass beneath it. Mostly what jumps out at me about it — besides the ridiculously stupid lyrics*, I mean — is how badly the band is now trying to recreate their Slave to the Grind sound.

Not that I blame them — I think we can all agree that Grind is the Skids’ best album — but this is reaching Dj Slashba-like proportions of mimicry. I mean, the way the song starts with the band stopping and starting, the guitar squals that kick off the solos, and Solinger’s vocals ape “Livin’ on a Chain Gang” so much that the nicest thing I can think to say about “Demolition” is that did in fact make me wanna listen to “Chain Gang.” Solinger even steals Sebastian Bach’s grunt of “HUH!” (:40 into “Demolition,” 2:16 in “Chain Gang”):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiL5VaGtH48

Actually, now that I think about it, even the use of the world “rebellion” seems like a deliberate (albeit somewhat more subtle) nod to the use of the word “slave.” Ugh.

United World Rebellion Chapter One comes out April 16.

*Anyone know what the fuck this means?

I’m king of the demolition
Justice is a new religion
Thank God for the ammunition
Get in back you can ride with the bullets

Because I’m thinking it means “Johnny Solinger owns a rhyming dictionary but not a regular dictionary.” But I’m open to other interpretations.