Sebastian Bach Releases Powerful Album Ahead of Valley Concert

WARREN, Ohio – Sebastian Bach’s new album, “Child Within the Man,” makes the case for a Skid Row reunion.

The new album will be released Friday, May 10, and the rock singer will play Packard Music Hall in Warren one week later, on Friday, May 17.

Bach gave a taste of the new music in December with the release of the album’s first single, “What Do I Got to Lose?” The powerful song is a throwback to Skid Row’s glory years of the late 1980s and early ’90s.

Bach and the band acrimoniously parted ways in 1996. Skid Row reformed in 1999 without Bach, who had launched a solo career by then.

As Skid Row’s front man, Bach penned and voiced several rock anthems that are still powerful today, including “18 and Life,” “I Remember You,” “Youth Gone Wild,” “Slave to the Grind,” “Wasted Time” and “Monkey Business.”

He made history as the first heavy metal singer on Broadway with his turn in “Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical,” in addition to leading roles in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

He has appeared in dozens of television series and films over the past two decades, ranging from “Trailer Park Boys” and “Robot Chicken” to “Spongebob Squarepants,” “The Masked Singer” and “Hell’s Kitchen.”

Speaking to his versatility, he’s the rare artist who can duet with Axl Rose and reprise a seven-season recurring role on The CW drama “Gilmore Girls.”

Bach appeared as “Tiki” on Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” which earned him a spot as a finalist in December 2023.

His upcoming concert at Packard Music Hall will start at 7 p.m., with opening act The Bites. Tickets range from $29.50 to $69.50 (plus applicable fees) and are available at ticketmaster.com and the Packard box office.

Associated Press music writer Wayne Parry calls Bach’s new solo album “a reminder that every once in a while, a man and a moment meet.”

Parry says the vintage-sounding album “offers a tantalizing glimpse into what he could bring to a reunited Skid Row.”

Bach and Skid Row were once fixtures of rock radio, but since their split-up, neither has had anything close to the level of success they had together.

The lead singer position in Skid Row is currently vacant; Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale is filling in on a handful of shows in the coming weeks, but she has her own career to tend to.

The timing of Bach’s solo album could not be better. It shows a fierce performer in prime fighting form, writes Parry in his review.

“It’s not hard to picture the opening track, ‘Everybody Bleeds,’ being belted out at a packed stadium by a reunited Skid Row,” Parry writes.

Bach’s vocals remain sharp and his songwriting talents as cunning as ever. Parry cites the new songs “Crucify Me” and “Hard Darkness” as perfect for a Skid Row reunion.

“They’re the sort of hard, tightly played rockers at which the band excelled, signs of what once was and could be again,” Parry writes.

Bach calls in favors from Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5 on “Freedom” and guitar virtuoso Orianthi on “Future of Youth.” Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens adds a particularly combustible solo on “F.U.”

The album ends with an ’80s-esque hair metal power ballad, “To Live Again” – proving that Bach remembers where he came from and where his bread is buttered.

Pictured at top: The cover of Sebastian Bach’s new album, “Child Within the Man.” (Courtesy of Reigning Phoenix Music via AP)

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.