TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Awesome Party
2.  Out on Your Shield
3.  Rough and Tough
4.  Swords for Hire
5.  Cougar'd
6.  Hotshot
7.  Dynamite
8.  Earthquake
9.  Who Dares Wins

Total playing time:  35:54

Release Date: November 1, 2011
Label: Heavy Artillery Records

Midnight Chaser - Rough and Tough

Reviewer: Chris

October 26, 2011

In much the same fashion that AC/DC or Saxon drove the traditional hard rock/heavy metal barge forward Midnight Chaser hits the same mark some 30-years later with a  virtually flawless debut that follows a powerful self-titled EP from last year. San Francisco can keep Metallica; we have the Bay area band that can find comfort in a local bar playing for ten as easily as they could playing out for a couple of thousand.

Combining the finer elements of the NWOBHM and traditional true power metal before it became a keyboard-driven joke, Midnight Chaser’s Rough and Tough distributes heavy metal mayhem to the masses in immoveable measures that never relents and offers no refuge from its barrage of thickness and staying power. These guys are one of the best examples of the traditional NWOBHM sound along with Illinois up-and-comers Zuul (hey, do I smell a collaborative tour here with, say, High Spirits?). The music is chock full of strong riffs that aren’t doom metal in the slow and despairing sense, nor is it a faster, breakneck pacing of trivialities under recycled power chords. Midnight Chaser calls out the very best that solid hard rock has to offer to a very fickle fan stable.

From the very start of “Awesome Party” the feel is of a slightly slower “Metal Thrashing Mad” by Anthrax, but that’s where the comparisons end. Everything from there is all Chaser, unblemished and polished to the point of perfection. These four guys cut a very narrow path towards the heavy side of the spectrum and only a few bands from the 1979-81 periods can even come close. The record moves evenly through such soon-to-be classics as “Out on Your Shield”, “Swords for Hire” and “Hotshot”, which is a fine reworking of a long-lost sound that is in dire need of a proper burial and sensible rebirth. The guitar work on Rough and Tough is reliant on pure power chords, precise and capable drumming, and a vocalist that knows that singing within the confines of his own powerful abilities resonates longer than some high-pitched Halford wannabe that ruins an otherwise good recording.

The lyrics are nothing you’re going to need some special insight or frame of mind to get into; sometimes the basest simplicity is what drives an album to heights unimagined. “Dynamite” is such a song; it’s a fun little track that rides the fretboards with all of the ease of a group of kids slithering down a park’s slide in a single-file line that never seems to end, yet relishes the moments of total abandon to where the music can just go off on a musical tangent and find its own little niche, ala “Earthquake”. This is a top-down car ride track all day long, and still produces some of the heaviest music this side of early (and considerably meatier) Accept or a heavier Witchkiller from Canada. Some of the memorable riffs and vocal melodies will be easy fan favorites if they give these guys a chance and if you don’t you’re certainly missing out. With a crisp production and razor-sharp bottom end this album is a weighty piece of hide for the true elite of the underground.           

Once again, Heavy Artillery fails to disappoint. As I’ve said before, this is the label to watch, folks - they can, literally, do no wrong so far. Midnight Chaser is about as good as it gets for that after-hours foray that passes the trendy doom infatuation and just strips it down bare and goes for it. This is heavy for the sake of heaviness and it’s oh so good.