Black Aces-‘Shot In The Dark

Review By Mick Staley

9/10

When you think of Aussie bands you think of ACDC, Rose Tattoo and Airbourne, well now you can add Black Aces to that list, and yes they are that good!

There’s a great wave of bands from the land of Oz at the moment with the likes of Massive and Tequilla Mockingbird having paved the way recently with great feedback and now Black Aces are riding that wave.

I was lucky enough to catch Black Aces live set at HRH 10 in November 2016 albeit by accident as we were watching the new incarnation of Ratt who turned out to be terrible so we went off to stage two and oh boy am I so glad fate brought us to this.

Black Aces were putting on the best show of the weekend for me, so full of energy and reminiscent of early videos of small ACDC gigs.

I urge you all if you haven’t done so to purchase a HRH 11 ticket as these guys will be there again.

Anyway I digress as this is supposed to be about their album, ‘Shot in the Dark’

Having only come across these guys live before I wondered if the raw energy of their live set would transfer to the studio, but I needn’t have worried as from the off it gabs you by the balls and doesn’t let go. This is full throttle from start to finish, with not a ballad filler track in sight (thank god).

Tyler Kinders vocals will be compared to Bon Scott as their whole sound is AC esque but at the same time totally different, yes, the riffs are similar and the subject matter i.e. girls booze etc. is very akin to the aforementioned band but that’s where similarities end,  Tyler ‘s vocals are high and shrill but fit with the style well while backing vocals have the Aussie twang.

I love this album from beginning to end it starts off at a fast pace and stays there with hard rocking tracks such as, ‘Burning Up The Highway’ All very much in the same rich vein which gets you bobbing your head from the off and there is a great cover track of ACDC’s, ‘Girls Got Rhythm’

I’m not one for writing about each track individually as I like to review as a whole experience and this album certainly is that.

There’s not many albums a year that make you sit up and think fuck yeah these are good but this is one of those.

The old guard have released some classics over the past few years but somewhere down the line I for one will be quoting this among them because they are that good and along with their killer live shows these should go far.

Track List;
1. Shot In The Dark
2. Girl Like You
3. Back On The Chain
4. Sick As A Dog
5. I’m Your Nightmare
6. Let It Roll
7. Rough Touch
8. Burnin’ Up The Highway
9. (Take It) To The Wire
10. The Walls
11. Girls Got Rhythm**
12. Shake The Ace**
13. Wanted Man**

Band Members

Lead Guitar/Lead Vocals – Tyler Kinder
Bass Guitar – Alex McMillan
Drums – Pete McMillan
Rhythm Guitar – Jarrad Morrice

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