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Chase The Ace: Are You Ready
Chase The Ace - Are You Ready Album CD Review

Chase The Ace: Are You Ready

Melodic Hard (Sleaze) Rock
4.0/5.0

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Z Records
by Craig Hartranft
09.12.2013

As if the Middle East didn't have enough problems. Straight out of Israel, via the late Eighties, is Chase The Ace and their debut album, Are You Ready, reinventing melodic hard sleaze rock for the 21st century. And they're doing it with worldwide take no prisoners assault thanks to England's Z Records.

Chase The Ace Are You Ready Band Photo

Chase The Ace: chasing the Eighties.

The whole glam/sleaze hard rock/metal genre hasn't disappeared. It merely had a near death experience after getting stabbed near the heart by Nirvana. It's still around, if only delegate to the underground like classic heavy metal. But when you do it, you got to get it right, everything from the attitude to the music. For the most part, Chase The Ace gets the vibe right on this album.

You need that ornery snotty attitude that the Eighties rockers took from punk, and then add the swagger of Seventies glam. Then your vocalist needs to capture this in sound and on stage. Roi Vito Peleg gets it, having a natural raspy sneer in his voice. After this you need powerful melodies, big hooks in lyrics and arrangements, a crushing rhythm section, and ripping good guitar solos. Well, you get this and a lot of it with 15 songs in 50 minutes.

Crackin', dead on numbers, include Rock Bottom Rock n Roll, Take Me Home, Are You Ready, and the rather humorous Burned Me Down. An interesting song is California which starts out with some sharp guitar licks only to move into this suspiciously heavy movement. You think the entire song will be weighed down by it, but then it shifts about three quarters in with Omer Schnider tearing up the fret board. (Actually, his guitar work is one true highlights of this work.) CtA throws in a few ballads with Change My Ways, Feel Like A Fool, and the better Bring You Back, which has a blues feel. Then there's a nice acoustic ditty called Morning Wood. I'll let your imagination work that one.

One current that runs through this entire album is simple familiarity. Even with the variety of songs, after the first several, you basically know what's coming next. I wouldn't go so far as to call the album redundant, but it is rather predictable much like listening to a recording from Vains of Jenna or Crashdiet. Otherwise, Chase The Ace's Are You Ready is a solid and entertaining interpretation of Eighties melodic sleaze hard rock for the new millennium. Recommended.


Chase The Ace - California (Official Video) (Explicit Content)





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In Short

Chase The Ace's Are You Ready is a solid and entertaining interpretation of Eighties melodic sleaze hard rock for the new millennium. Recommended.

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