Band:	Skull Fist
Album:	Chasing The Dream
Style:	Heavy metal, Speed metal
Release date:	January 2014

01. Hour To Live
02. Bad For Good
03. Chasing The Dream
04. Call Of The Wild
05. Sign Of The Warrior
06. You're Gonna Pay
07. Don't Stop The Fight
08. Shred's Not Dead
09. Mean Street Rider
10. False Metal [demo] [Japanese bonus]
11. Ride The Beast [demo]

Gee whiz, I thought speed metal was dead - subsumed by thrash on the darker side and power metal on the more glorious side. Evidently, Skull Fist are doing their absolute darndest to prove me wrong.

This Canadian quartet sounds like they took a bunch of Scorpions songs, processed them in a Nitro blender, and poured out the delicious Exciter smoothie into a Helloween goblet. It's clear that Skull Fist owe a lot of their sound to bands like Accept and Racer X, and while they show that they can proficiently reproduce the sound of a late-'80s glam/speed metal band, often the songs sound too imitative. A lot of these riffs you have heard before. Some of the melodies are predictable and lackluster. On top of that, the chord progressions, guitar tone, and backing vocals occasionally sound a bit too Mötley Crüe for my taste. Speed metal is mostly what you'll find here, but they do tend to indulge in some glam sounds here and there.

When I first listened to Chasing The Dream it left a strong impression. The vocals are powerful and entrancing, and the album definitely has a lot of energy. After another couple of spins, however, I became less enthralled; while it starts very strongly with "Hour To Live," still my favorite track, it isn't until four songs later that you hear another truly interesting composition.

On the plus side, this is an enjoyable album overall. "Sign Of The Warrior" and "Hour To Live" feature what would be considered beautiful sing-along choruses, if anyone could actually sing along with Jackie Slaughter. The sky is the limit with this guy (yep, it's a guy), and he isn't afraid to reach. His voice accounts for much of the appeal of Skull Fist. "Mean Street Rider" sports an aft section very reminiscent of "Wake Up Dead" that ends the album on a very high note indeed.

"Hour To Live," "Sign Of The Warrior," and "Mean Street Rider" (coincidentally, the three songs I mentioned above) are the highlights, and they are all excellent songs. Otherwise, Chasing The Dream is fairly derivative, albeit enjoyable. It's an accurate reminder of what speed metal used to be and why it was good.