SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan spoke to MetalNet.com about the progress of the recording sessions for the final chapter of the band’s “United World Rebellion” trilogy. The disc was tracked in part at a Nashville, Tennessee studio with producer Michael Wagener, who also helmed the group’s 1989 self-titled debut and 1991’s “Slave To The Grind”.
SKID ROW‘s new LP will mark its first release with South African-born, British-based vocalist ZP Theart (DRAGONFORCE, TANK, I AM I), who joined the band in 2016 following the departure of Tony Harnell (TNT, STARBREAKER).
Bolan said (see video below): “With everything that’s going on, obviously, not only do we live in different states, [but] we live in two different countries, ’cause Zee [ZP] is over in the U.K. So it’s made things a little difficult and slowed the process down. But we are are still writing. We recorded a bunch of stuff with Michael Wagener that we liked. And we also wanna rewrite some stuff and write some new stuff, because we don’t feel it’s there yet — as far as song-wise. So we’re trading stuff, and we’re doing Zoom writes and stuff like that. So we’re just keeping it as fresh as possible.
“But we are planning to do — I don’t know when, because, again, Zee lives over in the U.K., and it makes it a little more difficult, but we wanna do a streaming show,” he continued. “A lot of people are doing it, and it’s a necessity at this point, if you still wanna see your favorite band. So, yeah, we plan on doing that. And we’ve got a bunch of stuff cooking. We’ll have the new record deal in place soon. We’re gonna work with some cool people.”
Unlike 2014’s “Rise Of The Damnation Army – United World Rebellion: Chapter Two” and 2013’s “United World Rebellion: Chapter One”, SKID ROW‘s forthcoming release will be a full-length record.
“It’ll be the third and final chapter to ‘United World Rebellion’, and it’ll be full-length,” Rachel confirmed. “The EPs were fun, but we come from the age of full-length. We wanna do another one.”
Back in May 2019, it was announced that SKID ROW had inked a new worldwide deal with Australia’s Golden Robot Records. It is not clear if that label will still be involved in releasing the new disc.
SKID ROW previously collaborated with several outside songwriters on its new material, including Corey Taylor (SLIPKNOT, STONE SOUR) and Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger of HALESTORM, a group that covered the title track of “Slave To The Grind” on its “ReAniMate: The CoVeRs eP” in 2011. SKID ROW also worked with songwriter-for-hire Marti Frederiksen, who has previously collaborated with AEROSMITH, DEF LEPPARD, Jonny Lang and Sheryl Crow.
SKID ROW‘s “The Big Rock Summer Tour”, also featuring RATT, CINDERELLA‘s Tom Keifer and SLAUGHTER, was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the globe.
Photo by: Chuck Arland
