Adelitas Way Ignites One Heady Fuse

Let's face facts from the start. There aren't enough positive adjectives out there for me to do justice to Adelita's Way's smoking hot new single "Ready For War (Pray For Peace)". It's catnip for any lover of hard rock. Trevor "Tre" Stafford gets a real head of steam going behind the skins. The longer his reign of terror goes, the more intoxicating it goes on to become. We're talking true battering ram, gloves totally off. Lead vocalist Rick DeJesus hits every cue placed in front of him and even some he had to have conjured up in his gleefully twisted cranium. And about those guitar sequences. Robert Zakaryan excels throughout. He unloads salvo after salvo, taking not one single prisoner. The work the man does at the bridge has the ability to set neck hairs on edge. Bassist Andrew Cushing doesn't sit too light in the loafers either. Each passing rumble elevates the level of potential enjoyment. On the lyric sheet the Winnebagos are circling, pistols cocked and ready for the looming struggles waiting in the wings. Rick's ready to crack some skulls, but the call for peace still lingers in his restless brain. "You take the truth and spin it" strikes me as perfect language perched on the doorstep of the upcoming Trump presidency. "You cut my fuse and lit it" sums up the ire of displeased anti-Trump voters. The future has this sepia toned darkness to it that Adelita's Way sums up magnificently. The band drops into a perfect synchronicity right out of the box. The first half digs its heels into your back and won't remove its spikes that easily. The sound gels like nothing I've heard the guys deliver before and that's saying something given the tight hooks it's dished out previously. I wouldn't call "Ready For War (Pray For Peace) a rallying cry, but I must confess it has the potential to convince many a citizen not to hesitate to take immediate, decisive, knuckle bearing action. The tempo goes whole hog on the "catch me if you can" mentality. If this was comparable to leaded gasoline punch I'd say this tank's being fed via premium leaded. The chord choices are dressed to kill. Calculated material if ever something could be pinned down as such. The choices deftly weave harmony and raw, muscular aggression. Rick's energy level never falters, an important asset when battle lines are clearly being drawn. He succeeds at grabbing the attention spans of the complacent and shaking it up much like you shake out dust bunnies from a throw rug. Trevor's drumming only makes the fuse burn brighter and smolder for a longer stretch. Adelita's Way gets behind the whole team concept in spades. If you're seeing stars at the song's conclusion, thank or blame them as a collective, not as separate entities. "You talk a mile a minute" sounds highly presidential in nature. Trump lives and dies by the tweet. I doubt Adelita's Way had political agenda first and foremost in its mind but the climate is ripe for that kind of thinking. "Ready For War (Pray For Peace)" gets off some highly convincing rounds that should linger long after the associated pistol smoke fades away.