Skid Row, infamous heavy metal hair band of the '80s, is readying a greatest hits album, Forty Seasons, (Atlantic) for release this summer, and are reforming, minus golden boy Sebastian Bach, for a new album to be produced by Michael Wagener (Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, White Lion).|

Bach has gone solo and is currently touring playing Skid Row material but original members Snake Sabo, Scotty Hill, Rob Affuso, Rachel Bolan and Bach collaborated on two new songs that will appear on the Forty Seasons album. Tracks will include "Youth Gone Wild," "18 and Life," "I Remember You" and "Monkey Business." Japan will get the greatest hits album first at the end of May, while the U.S. release is slated for early summer.

Currently being recorded at Wire World Studios in east Nashville, the album will feature new singer Sean McCabe from the New Jersey band Mars Needs Women. Bolan rejoins the band after a stint with Prunella Scales, a punkish metal outfit that featured former Saigon Kick drummer Phil Varone, Tommy Southard and L. Wood. The new group hasn't decided on a name yet; the material currently being recorded will be released early next year.

Oddly enough, Nashville is becoming a haven for metal bands. Wagener moved there after an earthquake took his home and studio. Megadeth's latest Grammy-nominated album, Cryptic Writings, was recorded in Nashville, and post heavy metal rocker Jon Bon Jovi has been seen hanging out with the local songwriting crowd, which includes Desmond Child (Kiss, Bon Jovi, Cher, Aerosmith). (Sandra Schulman)