Sebastian Bach
Forever Wild (DVD)

August 2004
Released: 2004, Eagle Vision / Red Distribution
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: EvilG

Sebastian Bach seems like the kind of dude I’d like to hang out with. The stories you’d have to tell after just spending the day with this madman would rule. Racing cars, standing in alligator pits, rocking out, shooting guns with Ten Nugent, crashing golf carts…etc. The man is on fucking 10 from beginning to end of this DVD. More often than not you’ll be busting your gut laughing at his behavior and/or humor. If you found Skid Row’s ROAD KILL home video funny and cool, you’ll also love this.



I’ll sum up what I thought were the good and the “needs work” (I won’t say bad, since none of it was what I’d call crap!). The first thing is the live performances from 1998 that were filmed at the famous Whisky A Go-Go. This was both Bach solo stuff, classic Skid Row “covers”, and cover songs. I found it hard to take seriously since the band looks ridiculous, especially the dude with the large green wings. It didn’t look glam, it looked comical and made it hard to watch without making comments like “what were they thinking?” The songs are decently played, but of course this is not the classic Skid Row line-up, so it’s only obvious to state that it’s not done with the same magic that they once had. The main thing that was annoying is that Sebastian tended to scream more than was called for with this band as opposed to singing. And to make it worse, the screams are clearly overdubbed!!! What’s up with that? It’s one thing to overdub a wrong note, but a noisy scream? Pointless!



Between live stuff are several clips chosen by Sebastian from when he was the host of VH-1's "Forever Wild" show. There are some really funny moments here bringing to mind the humor found on the Skid Row home videos (Road Kill - 1993). My favorite moment is when Sebastian has to stand in a pit of alligators. You’ll have to watch the DVD to find out how he wound up there! I don’t get VH-1 up here in Canada, so I’ve never seen him hosting the “Forever Wild” show. Therefore, all of this was great to finally see. One thing that was interesting was “Sebastian Bach and Friends” performing “This is the Moment” from the Broadway musical Jekyll and Hyde. What was a bit disappointing about that is that I would have preferred to see him on Broadway doing something from this and with the other one he did as Jesus. Also, this was the only time (besides a brief jam moment in his basement) where we see guitarist Paul Crook (ex-Anthrax). I had hoped that their pairing would have resulted in some fine metal…but that didn’t happen for some reason or another. Hopefully the loss of Iced Earth’s lead guitarist to Sebastian’s band results in something much more solid…like a FULL album of original ass kicking metal.



This leads me to my biggest gripe of all…and some Baz fans will no doubt agree with me on this, and some might freak…. And that is – since leaving Skid Row his vocal talents have gone to complete waste!!!! He has the potential (in my books) to be one of the best singers in metal. However, to fill that position one has to actually be releasing NEW material and playing it live. I am not excited by his appearances on Broadway, yeah it’s mildly interesting, in passing only, that they have somewhat accepted him. However, I’ll never be going to a Broadway show or getting into shitty music without slamming drums and rip roaring guitars…life it too short to subject myself to that shit. So that leaves us with exactly what from Baz in what, that past 100 years? - covering Skid Row songs, writing a couple of new forgettable tunes, and now this DVD. Too little for a voice so fucking incredible! I sincerely hope someone boots his ass into METAL gear and he can regularly start putting out excellent albums that can live up to the work his did on the first 2 Skid Row albums…anything else is just useless and disappointing.