Skull Fist - Chasing The Dream

Published January 02 2014

*=Staff's pick	Hour To Live* Bad For Good* Chasing The Dream Call Of The Wild Sign Of The Warrior* You're Gonna Pay Don't Stop The Fight Shred's Not Dead Mean Street Rider

Genre	Heavy Metal	Jackie Slaughter	Vocals
Tracks	9	Jackie Slaughter	Guitar
Running time	37 Min.	Jonny Nesta	Guitar
Label	NoiseArt Records	Casey Slade	Bass
Release	10 January 2014	Chris Steve	Drums
Country	Canada	-	Keyboard
Producer	---
Similar artists	Enforcer

This is the first time I really get to hear Canadian metallers Skull Fist, even if the name is familiar for some time. It's been two and a half years since the release of the band's full length debut album and that's a critically long time when trying to establish a name in the metal business, or in any business at all for that matter. A skateboard accident and a few line-up changes have probably taken its expensive toll, but finally pieces seem to have fallen to place.

This band prospers off the good old metal days and plays a rather emphatic and intensive version of traditional heavy metal with screaming guitars and certain dated elements of speed metal and a small amount of power metal on and off. Lead singer and main man Jackie Slaughter's voice is utterly youthful with an incisive tone that rips through the air like a deadly arrow and at the same time provides catchy melodies suitable for the band's music.

The album's total production is a bit fuzzy and feels somewhat low budget. I'm fully aware of the fact that the finances is perhaps non-existent or strongly limited and this question is nothing monumentally significant, but still far from first-rate and a better total product relies on every little thing, including the quality of the sound.

I have listened to Chasing The Dream for around ten spins and each time I have listened to the entire record, I perceive it as if the major part of the songs sounds pretty much divided into two kinds. Mid-tempo or pretty fast songs are what this album mainly is about. Of course this is not the whole truth, yet the lack of variation is strongly evident and the band seems to be satisfied for the time being with staying at a certain point in music.

Hour To Live, Bad For Good and Sign Of The Warrior are a few songs that I find attractive. With this type of retro metal, I'm often hard to convince though and although I kind of like a fair share of the record, I don't get all pumped. It's a decent release with some rather magical moments for heavy metal hearts and souls and therefore it lands on 5 chalices. For the record, I must admit that if I still was in my teens, I would probably have rated this release a little higher.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	3	4	6	5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Tobbe