Ready To Slay Them All
Described as a Brody Dalle fronted Avenged Sevenfold, Leeds five piece Chasing Dragons certainly wear their influences on their sleeves and in this instance thats not a bad thing. Taking as their basis the guitar propelled power of Avenged Sevenfold and somehow strapping the melodic energy of Paramore to it before throwing in some attitude riddled vocals in the form of lead singer Tank that can go from soothing to balls to the wall rock in the blink of an eye, and suddenly Chasing Dragons have a lethal formula on their hands, one that if debut album, Take Flight For a Firefight. is anything to go by should serve them well.
Spawn Of The Succubus gets things under way with a meaty barrage of fuzzy riffs that spew forth into chunky beats before lead singer Tank's squeal of delight heralds the start of what becomes a rampaging hunk of rock. Flagrantly waving a melodic back bone, Spawn Of The Succubus successfully straddles the depths of old school metal whilst still offering an infectiousness that is hard to deny. Mirror's Edge meanwhile finds the band channelling Lacuna Coil minus the Italians more blatant flamboyancy, instead opting to allow Tank's vocals to lead the charge before she makes way for a wall of finger defying guitars that will have air guitars breaking out with unashamed glee whilst Black Velvet gets a Chasing Dragons' revamp with positive results. Between the sultry seduction of Tank's vocals and the blues tinged strut of the original, the Leeds rockers were already onto a winning formula but with the addition of beefy riffs that jab and punch right to the bone, Black Velvet takes on a whole new lease of life, transforming from the understated to an in your face slice of rock that demands to be played on repeat. For those who manage to eventually bypass the repeated plays of Black Velvet Chasing Dragons show yet another dimension to their sound with the energetic catchiness of Seeds Of Tomorrow, a vibrant cocktail of hook heavy riffs and adrenaline laced vocals to show the lighter side to the Leeds five piece before City Of Steel marries the heavy with the pop tinged infectiousness suggesting once again that Chasing Dragons have plenty in their arsenal to slay all.
In a male dominated genre, its refreshing to find a band fronted by a female who can actually hold her own against an avalanche of guitars such as Chasing Dragons' Tank does. Avoiding the pitfall of simply being another Hayley Williams come Amy Lee wannabe, Tank is very much her own woman, allowing Chasing Dragons to simultaneously embrace their influences whilst creating their own sound one which hopefully will see Take Flight For A Firefight capture a whole host of new fans.