Watching Skid Row live at the end of last year told me two things; firstly, that even the twentysomethings stood alongside me calling the band "The Abomination", who would have been makin' a mess in diapers when the band were originally doing it on stage, realise that the current incarnation of the famed rock outfit is severely lacking in one department. Secondly, that any kind of reuniting of the original Skid Row line-up would be, 'Appetite...' GN'R excepted, possibly the biggest draw currently left untainted in this rock 'n' roll world.....

.....but there is little chance of that ever happening when the band's former frontman Sebastian Bach is knocking out records like 'Kicking & Screaming'. Why? Because it just about kicks the crap out of every other record of its ilk that has been released this year.

When Bach joined forces with a then-teenage guitarist who he discovered online, who would have thought that the resulting record would be such an ass-kicker? Now an aged twenty-one, Nick Sterling has littered every dark corner of this album with mammoth riffs and the kind of guitar work that makes bedroom guitarists hang themselves with their dressing gown cords. With drummer Bobby Jarzombek (Halford, Riot, Iced Earth) crushing skulls at the back, Bach has surrounded himself with people guaranteed to make this album sound like a hurricane tearing through your town, and none more so than producer Bob Marlette. With an impressive list of credits on his curriculum vitae - Black Sabbath, Filter, Anvil, Airbourne, Black Stone Cherry - it was his work on the storming Alice Cooper return to form, 'Brutal Planet', that got me excited as I prepared to put the virtual needle on the record. Disappointed I was not.

With 2007's impressive release 'Angel Down' it seemed that Sebastian Bach had the bit between his teeth and several points to prove. With celebrity mates making guest appearances and a distinctly heavier sound than fans of his original band (okay, second main band, Madam X fans!) may have expected or even liked, Bach turned in one of the year's surprise releases. Sometimes heavy for heavy's sake, the album, nonetheless, was something of a revelation rather than reinvention. 'Kicking & Screaming', while being from the same corner of the metal world as its predecessor, is more relaxed, possibly less concerned with making a statement concentrating more on simply delivering a hard-hitting hard rock record.

The thirteen track (bonus cuts fatten various formats) affair kicks off with the title track and if it doesn't make you sit up and take notice then you're probably more than a little unwell, dead even. The Eighties rock chicks who never stopped doing that awkward left/right headshake dance and thought that 'Angel Down' was too heavy should possibly stick to weeping over the 'Cherry Pie' video than have a go on this - this will threaten to rattle the power ballads right outta them. Anyone else with a pulse and a clue will surely have recognised that if that last album was the heavy petting then this is like getting fucked, hard. That's not to say that this album goes anyway near to trying to usurp the power of its predecessor - far from it. This record triumphs because it is more consistent, with more emphasis put on the song rather than the savagery. While the riffs are still bruising they are soothed by immediate hooks and melodies.

As each song kicks in you'd be forgiven for naturally feeling the need to arch your back and peel out a timeless air guitar pose; try 'Dirty Power', 'Caught In A Dream' and 'Lost In The Light' and find out for yourself (Uber Rock cannot be held responsible for whiplash-related incidents). Bach has, though, scattered some real moments of poignancy and melodic majesty throughout the course of this album. 'I'm Alive', 'Dream Forever' and album closer 'Wishin' offer solace from the riffmongery and are all great, infectious slices of subtle rock.

When Bach sings 'As Long As I Got The Music' it becomes apparent that the angst of the past seems to have been channelled into a primal need to simply produce good songs and come good on his promise as one of the finest voices in the rock world. With controversy seemingly as happy to follow Seb around as wanton females it is good to hear that voice being used for all the right reasons; zero bitching, just full-on ass-kicking of the rock 'n' roll variety. With the lower register that he introduced into his delivery now sitting happily alongside his acclaimed vocal heights, Bach sings as well on this album as could be imagined - if he's done better in recent times then it's hidden in a vault somewhere.

Supporting the release of his last album with special guest slots and onstage appearances with the Guns N' Roses debacle might have seen Bach in the vicinity of a lot of people but with 'Kicking & Screaming' he deserves to be out there on his own throwing this shit into faces because it is so good that some of it is sure to stick.

No other singer from Sebastian Bach's era will make a better album than 'Kicking & Screaming' this year, and surely none would be dumb enough to claim that they have. I hate to come back to it but it's a given; could Skid Row make a record as good as this right now? No fucking way.

www.sebastianbach.com