Sebastian Bach
Abachalypse Now

It's probably starting to get a bit annoying to hear me whine about live albums constantly but I can't help feeling it's a point necessary to make. Live albums are boring! And the only time live albums are interesting is when it fills a void we previously had, which only happens when it's recording something so unusual it has to be documented. The reason why it has to be that could be anything from it being a band that normally don't do live shows to this show being some sort of anniversary or other big event. Sebastian Bach has already released two live albums, one with Skid Row and one solo (all though that also had more or less only SKid Row songs too but played with his solo band instead of Skid Row) so he better have a damn good reason for doing this album. Unfortunately he hasn't.

The first live album Bach released was with Skid Row and hence it was only Skid Row songs on that and the second was released just after his departure from the band so no surprise he had plenty of Skid Row on that as well, he hadn't released anything solo by the time (and why he set off solo by doing Skid Row songs is a pretty good question but that's what he did). You might expect then that this album will take a step away from Skid Row for real since he has released a couple of solo albums now and it's been 15 years since he left but this album also consist of mostly Skid Row songs. The songs has been recorded at three different shows last year, two of which are on the double CD and one exclusive to the DVD but strangely I get plenty of deja-vu when I play them. You might think that it's a deja-vu from the fact that 40% of these songs were on the first live album he did solo but it's a deja-vu from the fact that seven of the nine songs on disc two were among the ten tracks on disc one.

I can't get my head around how Bach has reasoned when he chose to use more or less the same set-list on both shows on the CD-version of the album. The strange thing is that it's no better on the DVD because that only adds one song new to the list of (different) songs on this album. Sure, it's not exactly the same songs, they're recorded live on three different occasions so they can't be exactly the same but it's never that you feel something in the line of "WHAAAAT! Was it possible to do this song like this TOO?". Not even close. Fact is when I played this album first I didn't know the back story, just played it through a couple of times and when I did so I didn't even notice it was two different shows on the CD-version. I jsut thought the same songs came twice for some reason. Sure, a give away could be that on the first disc Bach say something in the line of "we're in fucking France" and similar french expressions which he doesn't on disc two (why would he? It's recorded in LA) but I didn't reflect over that until I read in the album information on the third run that it was taken from different shows.

Regardless of how strange it is that he release something with three different versions to basically the same thing it's even more strange that of the 13 songs that are actually different songs (and not just alternative versions) - eight are Skid Row songs and most of them are even from the debut album that was released well over 20 years ago. If you count all the songs, and not just the different ones it's even more bizarre with more than half of the songs being Skid Row songs (19-9 to Skid Row counting the entire release and 14-5 if you just take the CDs - 2/3 of the album). And considering that we've already had five of these on his first live solo and a few more on the Skid Row live album, adding the fact that bach has only released two solo albums since his last live album, 'Abachalypse' is not really contributing with much new stuff. And it's not even that the recorded live shows were anything special - they were just two-three random shows Bach did in 2012, and not very good ones either. I'm not saying Bach can't sing but on this album it's mostly shouting and screaming that he does.

So, no good then? No, I have to say that. I don't find much at all to be positive about - the sound quality isn't anything special, at best it's decent, and the performance of the band isn't really what I'd call good either - not from Bach and not from his band (especially not from Bach, whom - as I mentioned above - mostly just screams his way through the set-list without either emotion or presence). Normally I regard Bach as a good vocalist and he obviously is considering how he's sold over 20 million albums (most of which in Skid Row), been in television shows and even performed on broadway repeatedly but 'Abachalypse' just don't deliver that. All Skid Row songs are better in their original versions. All Bach solo songs are better in their original versions. And the live feeling is completely off on the CD-version. If the DVD delivers it better is something I can't tell as I haven't got that one - only the CD version. It probably is, but probably not enough.

Maybe Bach could explain to me why this was an album he had to release if we do the interview I've asked for, but for now I must say it was 99 completely wasted minutes of my life to play this album and to play it another six times didn't change that the least. In fact, I think it's so bad that I wouldn't even recommend it to someone collecting Bach stuff. They say it's a gift to the fans but I think it's more of a big fat middle finger right up the face of them.

HHHHHHH