Just over a year ago now I had the chance to catch these boys play the Cathouse in Glasgow and also ended up having a chat with the band prior to their performance as well. I was kind of out of my depth a tad as rock music is something I don’t commonly listen to, which my record collection can attest to. That being said though, I had the most fun I’d had in a long time at a concert and the band captured my attention so much that I ended up chatting to frontman Tyler for nigh on an hour after the show had ended. But enough of my rambling and onto the matter at hand.
Starting the album off, “Show You How To Rock N’ Roll” gets the ball rolling in an almost forgotten style. The slowly building drums and bass guitar give way into a classic rock song which would not be out of place on a AC/DC album actually. The pace is then elevated a tad as the title track of the album comes to the fold which has some superb guitar work which would put even some metal ‘axemasters’ to shame.
“Better Off Dead” slows the pace slightly but still retains the high-octane riffing and vocals from the previous track. The ‘group’ vocals in the choruses add that little flair to the track and sit perfectly under the lead vocals just nicely. No rock ‘n roll album would be complete without a ballad and “Where You Love From” provides that in spades. ittedly a slightly softer style of vocal from Tyler would have been nice but he makes it work and like the previous track the additional vocals sit just nicely underneath it.
“Cut Me Loose” is the sort of song you could open a set with at a live show and I wouldn’t be surprised if the band is opening with it on their current UK run. The bass playing of Alex McMillan is really allowed to shine on “Good Woman Gone Bad” and boy is it solid. Rock music doesn’t require sweeping bass melodies like technical death metal does, it just needs the bass to keep the groove and add the low end. And this song is a prime example of that; nothing fancy, just a simple grooving bass line.
“Run For Your Life” and “Short Changed” take a slightly more groovy style with the latter in particular having a classic rock and roll style that’s full of groove and the sort of the song you can’t help nod along to. The former of the two adopts a slightly more bass driven pattern similar to “Good Woman Gone Bad” but in its own unique style.
The final two tracks on the album, “Show Me Your Love” and “We Came For Rock N’ Roll”, are quite different from one another in of approach but they still both rock hard. The former has a slightly more upbeat feel with the group vocals in the chorus taking prominence more so than in other tracks. The latter track has more of a “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” feel to it by being slightly slower paced before a guitar solo that wouldn’t be out of place on a classic AC/DC album.
ittedly, my only real exposure to rock and roll has been from AC/DC and also going to the occasional rock gig when I was younger. However, from listening to the album it’s clear that the genre won’t be going anywhere anytime soon and to quote our music reviews editor it’s “More of a love-letter to Bon Scott-era AC/DC than even Airbourne”. Make of that what you will…
Black Aces: official | facebook | twitter | youtube
