Forgotten Gems: Skull-No bones about it

The years between 1989 and 1991 saw tons of hard rock bands puring out everywhere. Some were good and some were pure crap that had no reason being signed in the first place. You just knew with so many acts springing up dandelions in the spring that not all of them were going to make it. Many bands did one and done during this period. For a number of them that was a good thing for us music fans, but some good bands got passed over then too. Skull were the brain child of guitarist Bob Kulick, brother of Bruce and his credits include playing with Paul Stanley's solo band, WASP, Meatloaf, Balance and many other projects. Also in the band were drummer Bobby Rock (Nitro, VVI, Nelson and a pile of others), bassist Kjell Benner and vocalist Dennis St. James. This album came out in 1991 a year that saw grunge knocking out hard rock bands like this one and many others. I was expecting run of the mill hard rock from Skull, but instead was bowled over by some severely tight melodic metal along the lines of Dokken, Whitesnake and Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen. Singer Dennis St. James can just flat out sing with so much power. Every note he belts out is spot on. Kulick of course shines some ripping riffs and tasty solos, but he never showboats. Instead it's all geared just making the songs stronger and building them up. Benner and Rock make a solid rhythm section laying down a heavy background and guiding the pace. My favorite songs include the shredding "Breaking the chains", the tight grinding "I like my music loud", the bouncing "Little black book" and the instantly catchy "Livin on the edge". I unfortunately never heard this one back in the day, but only remember seeing a tiny ad for it probably in RIP magazine. The download is easy to fine so definitely track this one down and give it a listen.