Skid Row (American band) Subhuman Race and split with Bach (1992-1998)
Was Subhuman race an album?
Was Subhuman race an album?
After the Slave to the Grind promotional tour, an EP of covers B-Side Ourselves was released in September 1992. Before a third album could be recorded, Skid Row took an extended hiatus in 1993 on McGhee's recommendation to wait for the grunge movement to fade away. For some time, Skid Row parted ways with Wagener, possibly due to the music taking a different direction for the follow-up to Slave to the Grind. In 1994, the band returned to the studio with producer Bob Rock to record its third album. Subhuman Race was released in March 1995, and charted in the top 40 on the American charts. Although it did not achieve the success of its predecessors, it charted one single in the US and received positive reviews.  At that point, the band shifted to performing at smaller venues and its videos were rarely played on MTV, partly because of the rise in popularity of grunge and subsequent decline of many 1980s heavy metal styles. Skid Row was the opening act for Van Halen on its North American leg of the tour. Eventually, Bach left the band in late 1996 after an argument with Bolan who turned down an opening slot on the Kiss reunion tour even though Bach already booked it. Other band members told Bach that Skid Row was too big for an opening act and that they were not going to do the show. Bach then left a message on a bandmate's answering machine telling them the band was never too big to open for Kiss.  Bolan had a side project, a punk band Prunella Scales who was playing at the same time as the planned Kiss show. The rift between Bach and the other band members subsequently led to him leaving Skid Row. Four years later, Skid Row was one of the opening acts for the 2000 Kiss Farewell Tour. In 1998 Skid Row released the compilation 40 Seasons: The Best of Skid Row. After Bach's departure, the remaining members continued as Ozone Monday with singer Shawn McCabe of Mars Needs Women. In 1998 and 1999, the group opened up for Kiss and Motley Crue under the new moniker. CANNOTANSWER
In 1994, the band returned to the studio with producer Bob Rock to record its third album. Subhuman Race
Skid Row is an American rock band, formed in 1986 in Toms River, New Jersey. Their current lineup comprises bassist Rachel Bolan, guitarists Dave Sabo and Scotti Hill, drummer Rob Hammersmith and vocalist ZP Theart. The group achieved commercial success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with its first two albums Skid Row (1989) and Slave to the Grind (1991) certified multi-platinum, the latter of which reached number one on the Billboard 200. Those two albums also produced some of Skid Row's most popular hits, both in and outside of the United States, including "18 and Life" and "I Remember You", which peaked in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, and other charting singles such as "Youth Gone Wild", "Monkey Business", "Slave to the Grind", "Wasted Time", and "In a Darkened Room". The band's third album Subhuman Race (1995) was also critically acclaimed, but failed to repeat the success of its predecessors. During this period, the band consisted of Bolan, Sabo, Hill, drummer Rob Affuso and frontman Sebastian Bach. The band had sold 20 million albums worldwide by the end of 1996. Amid rising tensions, Bach and Affuso both left Skid Row towards the end of that year, after which the band entered a three-year hiatus.

After replacing Bach with Johnny Solinger and Affuso with Phil Varone in 1999, Skid Row released Thickskin (2003) and Revolutions per Minute (2006), both of which garnered mixed reception. In April 2015, Skid Row announced that they had parted ways with Solinger, and replaced him with former TNT singer Tony Harnell. Eight months later, however, Harnell left the band. In January 2017, former DragonForce vocalist ZP Theart was named the official lead singer after spending a year as a touring member of the group.

History

Early years (1986–1988)
Skid Row was formed in 1986 in Toms River, New Jersey, by bassist Rachel Bolan and guitarist Dave Sabo. The pair recruited guitarist Scotti Hill and drummer Rob Affuso through newspaper ads. Lead vocalist Sebastian Bach replaced original singer Matt Fallon after the band spotted Bach singing at rock photographer Mark Weiss's wedding at the age of 18, and the members asked him to join in early 1987. Bolan claimed in a 2020 interview on the Chuck Shute Podcast that, before settling with Bach on vocals, then-future Mötley Crüe singer John Corabi auditioned for Skid Row. The band began playing shows in clubs throughout the eastern United States.

Sabo and John Bon Jovi were teenage friends and Sabo was briefly a member of Bon Jovi before being replaced by guitarist Richie Sambora. Sabo and Bon Jovi agreed that if one of them made it in the music business, he would help the other out. Bon Jovi's manager Doc McGhee sought out Skid Row, and secured the band a record deal with Atlantic Records in 1988. Skid Row recorded its debut at the Royal Recorders in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with producer Michael Wagener. Before releasing the album, the management paid a reported $35,000 to guitarist Gary Moore for the rights to the name of his namesake band.

Skid Row and Slave to the Grind (1989–1992)
The band's debut album Skid Row, released in January 1989, was an instant success. The record went 5× platinum on the strength of the Top 10 singles "18 and Life" and "I Remember You". Skid Row supported the album by opening for Bon Jovi on their New Jersey tour. As part of the six-month tour, Skid Row played its first-ever UK gig supporting Bon Jovi's outdoor show at Milton Keynes Bowl on August 19, 1989. The next day, Skid Row played a successful club show at London's Marquee Club in Charing Cross Road. Skid Row also took part in the Moscow Music Peace Festival, which was set up to keep McGhee out of jail. McGhee was facing drug trafficking charges, and therefore set up an anti-drug/peace concert in Russia, featuring a few of the artists that he and his brother managed.

Skid Row returned to the UK three months later, opening for Mötley Crüe on their European Dr. Feelgood tour in early November 1989 with Mr. Big. That was followed by a UK headlining tour culminating in a show at London's Hammersmith Odeon, with Vain supporting. Skid Row continued touring into 1990, including supporting Aerosmith on the North American leg of their Pump tour.

In what is referred to as "The Bottle Incident" by fans of the band, Bach was hit onstage with a bottle thrown from the crowd at a concert in Springfield, Massachusetts, where Skid Row was opening for Aerosmith on December 27, 1989. Bach threw the bottle back, hitting a girl (not the thrower), so he jumped on the crowd to beat the person who can be seen on a tour video released by Skid Row called Oh Say Can You Scream in 1990.

Shortly thereafter, at another show, Bach put on a T-shirt proclaiming the anti-gay slogan "AIDS Kills Fags Dead" as a spoof of the slogan for the insecticide Raid, "Raid Kills Bugs Dead". The shirt was previously given to him by a fan, as Bach was seen wearing the year prior. On MTV News Bach dismissed the controversy saying "I don't see what the big deal is really but I guess if someone wore a T-shirt saying "Cancer Kills Grandma's Dead" I'd probably be a little bit pissed too." Bach eventually expressed regret over the incident, claiming that he did not read the slogan before putting the shirt on, even though he wore it for a photo shoot in Metal Edge magazine. The band also recorded a cover of the Sex Pistols' "Holidays in the Sun" for the Make A Difference Foundation release Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell.

Skid Row returned to the studio with Wagener in 1990 to record its second studio album Slave to the Grind. The album was released in June 1991 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, reaching 2× platinum status without any radio hits. It was a departure for the band; while Skid Row was an album that followed the typical 1980s band formula, Slave to the Grind had a heavier sound. Skid Row once again went out on a worldwide tour which lasted over a year, including a leg supporting Guns N' Roses in 1991 and an appearance at Monsters of Rock in Castle Donington in 1992. The band then took out Pantera, Soundgarden, L.A. Guns and Love/Hate as supporting acts as part of the tour supporting Slave to the Grind. Skid Row had originally asked upcoming grunge band Nirvana to open for them but they declined, saying that Skid Row was "too homophobic", relating to the Sebastian Bach T-shirt incident. Coincidentally, an earlier incarnation of Nirvana was briefly also named Skid Row.

An EP of covers B-Side Ourselves was released in September 1992. Not only does the EP include cover versions of songs originally recorded by artists that had influenced Skid Row, but it is essentially a compilation of tracks that had previously appeared as B-sides of the Slave to the Grind-era singles, while its closing track – the cover version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" – had never appeared elsewhere. B-Side Ourselves peaked at number 58 on the Billboard 200 (Skid Row's lowest chart position to date), and it was certified gold by the RIAA approximately six months after its release.

Subhuman Race (1993–1998)

After the Slave to the Grind tour ended in February 1993 in Australia, where they again opened for Guns N' Roses, Skid Row took an extended hiatus on McGhee's recommendation to wait for the grunge movement to fade away. Also during this period, Skid Row parted ways with Wagener, possibly due to the music taking a different direction for the follow-up to Slave to the Grind. In 1994, the band returned to the studio with producer Bob Rock to record its third album Subhuman Race. The members of Skid Row have claimed that its recording sessions were filled with rising tensions between both the band members and Rock, including debates over the album's musical direction, and have also indicated that this was the beginning of the band's strained relationship with Bach. Subhuman Race was released in March 1995, and peaked in the top 40 on the US charts, supported by the singles "My Enemy", "Breakin' Down" and "Into Another", the latter being the band's last to chart there. Although the album did not achieve the success of its predecessors, it received mixed to positive reviews and has also been viewed as Skid Row's darkest album. As of 2019, the band rarely plays any songs from Subhuman Race live; most of them were last performed on the album's tour in 1995, while "Beat Yourself Blind" is the only song they have played live with its subsequent singers Johnny Solinger and ZP Theart.

At that point, the band shifted to performing at smaller venues and its videos were rarely played on MTV, partly because of the rise in popularity of grunge and subsequent decline of many 1980s heavy metal styles. Skid Row was the opening act for Van Halen on the North American leg of their Balance tour. Eventually, Bach left the band in late 1996 after an argument with Bolan who turned down an opening slot on the Kiss reunion tour even though Bach had already booked it. The other band members told Bach that Skid Row was too big to be an opening act and that they were not going to do the show. Bach then left a message on Snake's answering machine telling them the band would never be too big to open for Kiss along with a number of insults; this resulted in Snake telling Bach that he would never work with him again.

Dangerous Toys vocalist Jason McMaster revealed in a May 2020 interview on The Chuck Shute Podcast that, during this period, he was approached by Sabo and Bolan to audition for Skid Row as Bach's replacement, but turned it down as he was "just not a huge fan" and "was trying to get Toys back on the road." McMaster also recalled: "Sebastian was gone, so whatever year he was gone [is when they got in touch with me]. When he left, and here's a campfire, and Snake and Rachel are sitting around: 'Well, who do we wanna try out?' And my name was on the list."

Bolan had a side project, the punk band Prunella Scales. The rift between Bach and the other band members subsequently led to his leaving Skid Row. Four years later, Skid Row was one of the opening acts for the 2000 Kiss Farewell Tour. In 1998 Skid Row released the compilation 40 Seasons: The Best of Skid Row without Bach's input. After Bach's departure, the remaining members continued as Ozone Monday with singer Shawn McCabe of Mars Needs Women. In 1998 and 1999, the group opened up for Kiss and Mötley Crüe under the new moniker.

Thickskin and Revolutions per Minute  (1999–2008)

Skid Row re-formed in 1999 with new lead vocalist Johnny Solinger and drummer Phil Varone. After re-forming, the band opened for Kiss on its farewell tour, and also played with other 1980s metal bands such as Poison and INXS's bassist Garry Gary Beers. In 2002 they were part of the Rock Never Stops Tour. Skid Row released its fourth full-length studio album Thickskin in the summer of 2003, which was the first album to feature Solinger and its first studio album in 8 years. In 2004, Dave Gara was announced as the new drummer.

The fifth Skid Row album Revolutions per Minute was released in October 2006 by SPV Records. Wagener reunited with Skid Row and became this album's producer. In 2007, the band recorded "Jingle Bells" for a Monster Ballads Christmas album. In January 2008 they performed as part of the Motley Cruise with Mötley Crüe, Ratt and Slaughter. In early 2010 Rob Hammersmith became the band's new drummer.

United World Rebellion Chapter I and II: Rise of the Damnation Army (2009–2016)
Speaking in 2009 about the next Skid Row album, Hill said "we haven't sat down and recorded anything yet, but we have sat down and worked out some ideas and just played them on a handheld recorder. Everybody's writing and we're getting into that mind set. Once the wheels get in motion we'll all probably fly out to Atlanta spend a week or two up there come home, go back up there do it again, we're all living in different cities, which can make it difficult at times."

In February 2013 Skid Row signed with Megaforce Records, and stated the new material would be released as three separate EPs. The first chapter United World Rebellion: Chapter One, was released in April 2013, with two more EPs set to follow in the following 12 to 18 months.

In February 2014, the band began working on the second EP. In August 2014, Skid Row released the second chapter of the trilogy titled Rise of the Damnation Army. In February 2015, Skid Row announced they were writing the third chapter of the United World Rebellion series. In April, Solinger was fired from the band., and the same day it was announced that Tony Harnell, formerly of the Norwegian melodic metal band TNT, would replace Solinger. That same month the band released a re-recorded version of its early single "18 and Life" as a free download.

United World Rebellion Chapter III (2016–present)
Harnell left Skid Row in December 2015, and former DragonForce vocalist ZP Theart was filling in as the lead singer for concerts in 2016.  In January 2017, ZP Theart was named as an official member of the band. In March 2018, it was revealed the band's next release for the United World Rebellion trilogy would now be a full-length album and would be released sometime in 2019.

In January 2019, a deluxe edition of Skid Row's self-titled debut album was released digitally, which included the original album remastered for the first time (with "Forever" added as the bonus track), as well as a recording of the band's April 28, 1989 performance at The Marquee in Westminster, California. The band members have stated that they had no input into the reissue.

In the summer of 2019, former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach announced plans to perform the band's self-titled debut album in its entirety on tour as a celebration of its 30th anniversary, and issued an open invitation for the band to play on stage with him for the first time since their split, hoping it would result in a proper Skid Row reunion with Bach. Guitarist Dave "Snake" Sabo declined the offer, while former drummer Rob Affuso subsequently confirmed that he would be joining Bach on stage during the tour.

On June 26, 2021, former vocalist Johnny Solinger died one month after revealing that he was suffering from liver failure.

Band members

Current members
Dave "The Snake" Sabo – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1986–1996, 1999–present)
Rachel Bolan – bass, backing vocals (1986–1996, 1999–present)
Scotti Hill – rhythm and lead guitar, backing vocals (1987–1996, 1999–present)
Rob Hammersmith – drums, backing vocals (2010–present)
ZP Theart – lead vocals (2016–present)

Awards and nominations
American Music Awards

Discography

Studio albums
Skid Row (1989)
Slave to the Grind (1991)
Subhuman Race (1995)
Thickskin (2003)
Revolutions per Minute (2006)

References

External links

 

 
 

 
1986 establishments in New Jersey
Heavy metal musical groups from New Jersey
Atlantic Records artists
American hard rock musical groups
Musical groups established in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 1996
Musical groups reestablished in 1999
Musical quintets
American glam metal musical groups
Subhuman Race (stylized sUBHUMAN rACE) is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Skid Row, released on March 28, 1995, by Atlantic Records. This is the last Skid Row album with singer Sebastian Bach and drummer Rob Affuso, and the last one to be released on Atlantic. Despite receiving positive reviews, Subhuman Race was not as successful as the band's first two albums. Certain tracks from the album were remixed for the band's compilation 40 Seasons: The Best of Skid Row, given more tender, slightly cleaner mixes to fit better with the other tracks.

Overview
Released during the decline of hard rock and heavy metal, Subhuman Race marked a significant change in the band's sound, with Bob Rock replacing Michael Wagener as its producer, and resembling a mixture of heavy metal with grunge, alternative, punk rock, thrash metal and groove metal influences. It has also been noted as more of a dark album than previous works.

To promote Subhuman Race, Skid Row supported Van Halen in North America on their Balance tour. Following the album and tour, they released a live EP titled Subhuman Beings on Tour, featuring live performances from the Subhuman Race tour. The band has not played any songs from Subhuman Race since the album's tour in 1995–1996, though Bach has occasionally played them on his solo tours, including "Beat Yourself Blind", "Frozen", and the singles "My Enemy", "Into Another" and "Breakin' Down". "Beat Yourself Blind" was the only song from this album to be performed live since Bach's departure, until ZP Theart performed "Medicine Jar" in 2018, while "Remains to Be Seen" has never been played live once.

The album debuted at #35 on the Billboard 200, staying for nine weeks, being a significant drop off from Slave to the Grind's #1 debut. By 1999, Subhuman Race has sold 165,424 copies, falling significantly behind their previous records.

Critical reception

Subhuman Race received mixed to mostly positive reviews from music critics. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that it saw the band "strip back their music to the basics" and was their "strongest and most vicious record to date." Rolling Stone reviewer called it "the freshest riffage since last year's Soundgarden record" and also noted the "tight, hot guitar lines and radio hooks that burn themselves into your brain". Q praised both the guitars that "grumble and mutter more menacingly than ever" and Bach's "awesome vocal pyrotechnics", summarizing that "Skid Row has come up with an outright winner." Canadian journalist Martin Popoff found the album quite complex, with Skid Row "absorbing the best elements of grunge into their over-the-top love of all things metal." He praised Bach's performance and the band's "street-savvy" attitude and "prog ethic" shown in the record. 

Conversely, Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly considered Subhuman Race made of "the same squealing, yowling, third-rate metal that made Skid Row pariahs in the first place", calling them an "unrepentant hair band of the '80s" which had mangled their melodies "to get over their old 'power ballad' stigma." Dean Golemis of the Chicago Tribune criticised Skid Row's "campy, formulaic arrangements that still cater to commercial appeal and offer nothing new to a genre plagued by cliches and copycats", but remarked as "Bach's vocal bravura stands as the album's saving grace." Thomas Kupfer in his review for the German Rock Hard magazine wrote that "Skid Row will offend a lot of old fans with this disc", where "mediocrity dominates, the songs seem uninspired, and only the compact sound and the solid craftsmanship of the band members" save the album.

The band members also do not reflect positively on their work on Subhuman Race. In an interview in November 2006, bassist Rachel Bolan expressed his negative feelings about the album: "That record was a nightmare. Internally the band had fallen apart but we were forced to go in and do another record and it was a nightmare with the recording, writing and producing. We worked with someone we had not worked with before after being so successful with Michael and we were used to the way he did things. I am not slighting Bob at all, he is a genius producer but it was bad timing. I did not have the greatest time, it was nobody's fault, it was just the way things were. Also the record absolutely sucks." In a June 2018 interview on the "Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon" podcast, vocalist Sebastian Bach indicated that, despite featuring "some good tunes", the "very dated production sound" of Subhuman Race has made it an unlistenable album: "In the same way, probably, Lars Ulrich might think St. Anger is dated to that time, I think Subhuman Race might be our St. Anger."

Track listing

† The song "Iron Will" ends at 4:45 followed by 2:15 of silence before a hidden track plays.

Personnel

Skid Row
Sebastian Bach – vocals
Scotti Hill – guitar, backing vocals
Dave Sabo – guitar, backing vocals
Rachel Bolan – bass guitar, backing vocals
Rob Affuso – drums, percussion

Production
Bob Rock – producer
Randy Staub – engineer, mixing at The Warehouse Studio, Vancouver, Canada
Brian Dobbs, Darrin Grahn – assistant engineers
George Marino – mastering at Sterling Sound, New York City

Charts

References

External links

1995 albums
Skid Row (American band) albums
Atlantic Records albums
Albums produced by Bob Rock
Albums recorded at Greenhouse Studios "Subhuman" is a 1995 song written, recorded and produced by alternative rock band Garbage, and was originally released as an international b-side on "Vow", Garbage's debut single. That song had earlier been pressed as a limited edition 7" vinyl in the United Kingdom for the purposes of launching the band; when it came to re-releasing "Vow", Mushroom Records felt that "Subhuman" was strong enough to be issued as an A-side to follow up "Vow". A last-minute decision was made to switch the songs. "Vow" was relegated to bonus track on the CD single.

"Subhuman" was released as the band's second single exclusively in the United Kingdom, and it gave Garbage their first chart appearance, peaking at #50 on the UK Singles Chart. The single was promoted by a press junket organised by the record label on a boat sailing down London's River Thames, and attracted media attention for the distinctive rubber packaging of the vinyl format.

"Subhuman" was also used by the label as an opportunity to massively raise general awareness of Garbage and as an advertising campaign to brand the "G" logo by promoting the single release with plain white flyers, stickers, carrier bags, t-shirts and subway posters emblazoned with the band's "G" logo. "Subhuman" was never intended to be an album cut, and was not included on the standard editions of the band's debut album, Garbage which was released later that year. The single was excluded from the 2007 greatest hits album Absolute Garbage.

Song background

"Subhuman" was written and recorded over the course of 1994 during sessions between band members Duke Erikson, Shirley Manson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig in either Marker's basement recording studio or at their own Smart Studios in Wisconsin university town Madison. The band has kept the story behind the song ambiguous, although Erikson has said that the lyric "burn down all your idols", the first line of the song "pretty much sums it up". The opening noise emerged from Vig accidentally wiring the mixing console to the air conditioner.

First single

Midway through the recording sessions for the band's debut album, the band's manager, Shannon O'Shea, secured the group an inclusion on Volume, a compilation album and magazine title. However, the deadline given for accepting a track was only three days. The only song the band had completed in any shape or form was "Vow". After Volume was released in December 1994, "Vow" began to receive radio airplay from Radio 1 DJs Steve Lamacq, John Peel and Johnnie Walker, and record stores in the United Kingdom began to receive requests for a single that didn't yet exist. Garbage were still putting the finishing touches to their debut set, as well as extra tracks such as "Subhuman", which was still three months away from release. In the United Kingdom, the terms of the licensing deal regarding the inclusion of "Vow" on Volume meant that the track could only be released on a limited basis. "Vow" was issued in a 1,000 copy limited edition 7" vinyl format packaged in an aluminium sleeve, which was designed by O'Shea along with the aluminium sleeve for "Vow". The single sold out in one day. Mushroom later licensed the single out to BMG who fully issued "Vow" in Europe, and to White Records, who released "Vow" in Australia and New Zealand in a limited edition format packaged in an embossed rubber wallet. "Subhuman" was released as the "Vow" b-side on both labels.

"Subhuman" release

Mushroom's plan for releasing "Vow" in the limited metal sleeve had been to create an early buzz about the band and "Vow" by word-of-mouth, rather than by retail impact. For the follow-up, the label were concerned with maintaining the interest of the record buyers, as well as attracting interest from record chains. Mushroom manufactured advance discs to promote a re-release of "Vow" in the United Kingdom, but later decided to alter the single, so that the international b-side, "Subhuman", would be the title track. The label felt that "Subhuman" was a "strong single.. to release in its own right". "Subhuman" was to be a limited release as well, but manufactured in greater quantities to enable a greater retail impact than the first. Mushroom re-serviced the single to the media as a cassette featuring "Subhuman", "#1 Crush" (an album out-take) and "Vow".

Garbage requested that their initial singles were to be packaged with a "high-tech, design-led approach", which led to the manufacture of the aluminium sleeve for "Vow". To follow it up, Mushroom's product manager originally wanted to create the sleeve for "Subhuman" from neoprene. Instead, he sourced a black plasticised rubber from a company in Germany to create the sleeve. Although it wasn't requested, the company manufactured the rubber wallets with lining and a flap to enclose the discs within. "Subhuman" was a bigger investment than the first single; the metal sleeve for "Vow" had cost 90p per unit to manufacture, "Subhuman" cost £2.00 per unit. Knowing that the dealer price was fixed at £1.36, Mushroom lost 64p on each. The company manufactured 3,000 copies of the sleeve in 7" size, and a further 2,000 copies in CD-size (these were used as promos, and exported to Australia for their limited edition "Vow" CD single).

Marketing trends over the 1990s had shown an increasing dominance of using branding to sell product, so Mushroom's marketing campaign for the launch of the band focused on branding the "G" logo onto the minds of music buyers. The logo would adorn the album cover and each upcoming single, as well as all upcoming promotional matter and point of sale displays. Upfront of the release date, Mushroom ran two teaser campaigns in the British music press. 10,000 A2 posters of simply the G logo were affixed to prime sites around the United Kingdom; another 10,000 were set up two weeks later which also included the band's name, the name of the single and the release information. Similar branded carrier bags and posters were distributed to independent retailers, flyers and stickers distributed to nightclubs, as well as branded t-shirts to key people. No music video was filmed for "Subhuman", instead, Mushroom serviced the video for "Vow" to music channels.

To support the release of "Subhuman" and launch the album, Mushroom organised the band's first fanzine press conference on July 25, on board a cruise sailing up and down the River Thames. The event hostted an exclusive album playback and a question and answer session to introduce the band, and gained music paper publicity for the release of the album. The boat set-off from Embankment Pier early, without the band on board, and had to return to pick them up (it was later pointed out and reported that the conference had taken place on the sister-ship to the Marchioness, which had sank with loss of life a few years earlier).

On August 7, 1995 "Subhuman" was issued on the rubber-sleeved 7" vinyl, and stickered CD single, both limited to 3,000 copies each. Some copies of the vinyl also came with a G-logo carrier bag. Both formats sold out in the first week. "Subhuman" debuted at #50 on the UK Singles Chart. In case of demand, Mushroom also manufactured an extra 2,000 copies of the 7" in a simple black card sleeve. These made it into shops the following week, at the end of which "Subhuman" fell to #77.

Commercial track listings

UK CD single Mushroom D1138
 "Subhuman" – 4:36
 "#1 Crush" – 4:52
 "Vow" – 4:30

UK 7" vinyl Mushroom S1138 / SX1138
 "Subhuman" – 4:36
 "#1 Crush" – 4:52

Digital download
 "Subhuman (Supersize mix)" – 5:13

Post-release

Both "Subhuman" and "#1 Crush" were never intended to be included on the band's debut album, which was released in the United Kingdom in October 1995. Both tracks were however included as bonus tracks on the Japanese edition of Garbage. In November, "Subhuman" was included on Rare Track Collection, a five track sampler given away free by Virgin Megastores in France with purchases of the album. Towards the end of the following year, "Subhuman" b-side "#1 Crush" was remixed by Nellee Hooper for inclusion on the soundtrack album to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. As the album opener, "#1 Crush" received massive airplay at alternative radio. At the start of 1997, "#1 Crush" hit #1 on the Modern Rock chart and stayed there for four weeks. Later the same year, limited two-disc edition of Garbage featuring "Subhuman" and three other b-sides was issued in Korea and Singapore. In 1998, "Subhuman" was included on Independent Access, a CD sampler given away by Newbury Comics stores in the United States with purchases of Garbage's second album Version 2.0.

In 2015, Garbage announced the 20th Anniversary Edition of their debut album with a free download of an extended version of "Subhuman" with all pre-orders. "Subhuman" was included on the deluxe edition of the reissue. "I just don’t feel that everyone felt ["Subhuman"] was strong enough to put on the record", Shirley Manson stated in 2015. "In retrospect it’s a bit silly, because it’s fantastic. You make strange choices and you have to live by them".

Critical reception

"Subhuman" received a mostly positive response from music critics. Before the release of the single, Volume described the song as having a "dark sensibility and bouts of Trent Reznor-esque depression". Both Kerrang! and Melody Maker rated "Subhuman" as their "Single of the Week"; the former publication wrote, ""Subhuman" crunches along on a thrilling, all consuming electro-rhythm-from-hell. Totally distinctive and utterly brilliant" while the latter lengthily enthused, "There are reminders of Curve, in the scowling, abrasive guitars, trussed down with a rubbery, mordantly funky rhythm programme. This is severely internal music, right inside your head, pulsing like a migraine, with Manson crowing like a dominatrix as she presides over some impending psychological breakdown". Hot Press described "Subhuman" as "hypnotic drum loops combined with a guitar overload... an industrial noise-feat", adding that it was "a great single". Vox were equally positive, writing "trashing a bloated, ego-fuelled but nameless icon, "Subhuman" is one of [Garbage's] darkest songs to date." NME were severely critical of "Subhuman", stating that the single was a disappointing follow up to "Vow": "Garbage go and ruin it all by being hopelessly techno-gothic. The end result is a song plagued by its own earnestness... it more or less self-destructs."

Charts

Credits and Personnel

Garbage
Shirley Manson – vocals, guitar
Steve Marker – guitars, bass, samples and loops
Duke Erikson – guitars, keyboards, six-string and fuzz bass
Butch Vig – drums, loops, noise and efx

Recorded & produced by Garbage
Recorded at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Second engineer: Mike Zirkel
Mastered: Howie Weinberg (Masterdisk)
Editing & post production: Scott Hull (Masterdisk)

References

External links
"Subhuman (Supersize mix)" video
"Subhuman" lyrics
"Subhuman" release discography

1995 singles
Garbage (band) songs
Song recordings produced by Butch Vig
Songs written by Shirley Manson
Songs written by Duke Erikson
Songs written by Steve Marker
Songs written by Butch Vig