When Skid Row reunited without Sebastian Bach in 2000 and hired Johnny Solinger as their new lead singer, many longtime fans were understandably skeptical.

Some were hostile to the very idea, arguing that a Skid Row reunion without Bach would be like a Led Zeppelin reunion without Robert Plant, or a Nirvana reunion without the late Kurt Cobain -- in other words, they saw Bach as irreplaceable and indispensable.

Period.

But Thickskin, Skid Row's first studio album with the expressive Solinger, is surprisingly good, although it should be stressed that this 2003 release is hardly a carbon copy of the band's Atlantic output of the late '80s and early- to mid-'90s.

Instead, Skid Row updates their sound, offering a more modern approach (by early 2000s standards) that is obviously cognizant of alternative rock tastes.

It isn't as dramatic a makeover as Tommy Lee gave himself after leaving Mötley Crüe and forming Methods of Mayhem, but it certainly isn't a dose of hair band nostalgia, either.

Those who expect the Skid Row of 2003 to sound exactly like the old Bach-era Skid Row are bound to be disappointed; those who are open to a more alternative-friendly outlook will find a lot to like about this melodic yet hard-driving effort, which fuses elements of Slave to the Grind and Subhuman Race with an awareness of the sort of post-grunge sound one would expect from the Foo Fighters, Silverchair, Creed, or Default.

It's an appealing combination, although some diehard Bach loyalists will inevitably insist that an alterna-rock version of Skid Row isn't really Skid Row.

Regardless, this is a decent outing -- one that falls short of essential, but is still a respectable demonstration of the band's ability to revamp their sound and carry on without Bach.