{"id":52023,"date":"2016-05-29T08:52:39","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T13:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=52023"},"modified":"2016-05-29T08:52:39","modified_gmt":"2016-05-29T13:52:39","slug":"midnight-chaser-lions-choice-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2016\/midnight-chaser-lions-choice-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Midnight Chaser | Lions Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Sr. Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"MidnightYou know it\u2019s a good sign when a band name is taken from a classic New Wave of British Heavy Metal song title. That\u2019s not the only nod to the NWOBHM we get from San Francisco-based heavy metal band Midnight Chaser, who delivered their second full-length album, titled Lions Choice<\/em>, in 2014. It is only now getting a proper CD release (thanks to the up and coming Swords and Chains label).<\/p>\n

Midnight Chaser is another one of the wave of young American bands playing old school Heavy Metal. Beyond the obvious NWOBHM inspiration, there\u2019s a heavy dose of party Rock in Midnight Chaser\u2019s brand of Metal, especially in the very cheesy lyrics. Lions Choice is a fun album though, and a really rocking one. It\u2019s very easy to get into the hard charging rhythms, and even easier to sing along with the catchy choruses. The vocals are very distinctive, and while they work for the most part, they do sometimes seem better suited to punk or indie rock than an old school Metal band.<\/p>\n

Lions Choice<\/em> is a relatively brief album, and only six of the eight tracks are originals. Of those, Midnight Chaser seems to have put the best songs at the beginning (\u201cLions Choice\u201d) and end (\u201cThe Hunt\u201d) of the album. \u201cWhite Denim\u201d and \u201cDown For Whatever\u201d are also good, rocking numbers, but the cheese factor is pretty high on those. The two covers \u2013 Savage\u2019s \u201cCry Wolf\u201d and UFO\u2019s \u201cMother Mary\u201d \u2013 are very good choices and are well executed.<\/p>\n

There are so many new bands in the traditional Metal scene that it\u2019s easy to fall through the cracks. Midnight Chaser got a much-deserved second look with the CD release of Lions Choice<\/em>, and hopefully this will bring them some new fans. With a little more polish, they could become one of the better bands in the scene. As is though, Lions Choice is an album fans of current bands like Borrowed Time, High Spirits, Widow and NWOBHM bands like Tygers of Pan Tang, Jaguar and Savage should enjoy.<\/p>\n

Genre: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Lineup:
\nStephen (g)
\nJosh (v)
\nZack (g)
\nGrant (b)
\nDoug (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tLions Choice
\n2.\tRollin
\n3.\tWhite Denim
\n4.\tJuicer
\n5.\tCry Wolf
\n6.\tDown For Whatever
\n7.\tMother Mary
\n8.\tThe Hunt<\/p>\n

Label: Swords and Chains<\/p>\n

Website: www.midnightchaser.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 7.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Sr. Columnist — You know it\u2019s a good sign when a band name is taken from a classic New Wave of British Heavy Metal song title. That\u2019s not the only nod […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":52032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13652],"tags":[2317,1103,2491,12360,12359,10433],"class_list":{"0":"post-52023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2016","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-hard-rock","10":"tag-heavy-metal","11":"tag-lions-choice","12":"tag-midnight-chaser","13":"tag-swords-and-chains"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}