Aeraco are a US hard rock band and this is their second album.
Aeraco crash out of the speakers with a mix of 80s metal and modern rock influences. Aeraco have come to spread fun, joy, and an unashamed love of hard rock to the masses. This they do with such passion and obvious enthusiasm that it’s hard to dislike their work.
With over an hour of material on Baptized by Fire, there’s a lot of content to get through. In some ways it may have benefited the band to keep some of the songs back for a future EP, (or something), which would have resulted in a more streamlined album. However, this is only a minor quibble, as the vast majority of the material here is enjoyable enough to make the playing time melt away under the heat of the band’s delivery.
The songs are well-written and easily digested. With a variety of mainstream metal/rock influences drawn from all of the biggest bands and eras over the last few decades – everything from Metallica to ZZ Top to Avenged Sevenfold to Skid Row to Ugly Kid Joe – Aeraco wear their influences on their sleeves. However, it’s what they do with these influences that marks them out as a band worth listening to rather than passing over as a derivative act.
What Aeraco do so well is combine all of their different influences into enjoyable and light-hearted rock songs that effortlessly get at the essence of what this kind of music should be – fun, entertaining, and catchy. They do all of this very well indeed, and they certainly know how to pen a good tune.
A band’s vocalist is always going to be a crucial aspect of an outfit like this, and I’m pleased to say that Aeraco’s singer doesn’t let the side down. His strongly-delivered voice belts out the infectious songs with gusto, and he knows how to carry a good chorus.
As the band themselves say on only the second track – “I came to rock”. Yes you did. Let’s rock along with them.
Recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 