Skid Row - Subhuman Race

180-gram vinyl

Underrated gem, originally released in 1995

Charting globally, No. 35 in U.S., No. 8 in U.K., No. 6 in Japan

Features "My Enemy," "Into Another," and closing track "Breakin' Down" from the film The Prophecy

In the three years between Skid Row's rarities compilation B-Sides Ourselves — four years if you're counting from their last real studio album, 1991's Slave to the Grind — and Subhuman Race, the world turned its attention away from hair metal and toward hip-hop, grunge, and a harder, faster, louder brand of thrash metal. Which is too bad, because Subhuman Race is the best album of the group's career, forgoing the pop-metal sheen of earlier hits such as "18 and Life" and "I Remember You" in favor of a tougher sound that matches the tenor of the times.

Tracks such as "Bonehead," "Beat Yourself Blind," and the title track mix razor-sharp guitar lines, grinding rhythms, and Sebastian Bach's stinging shriek, keeping the emphasis squarely on the music, as opposed to Bach's once-misanthropic ways.