Aces High were formed as Eyes in 1989 by guitarist Jake Sandberg, bassist Anders Johansson and keyboardist David Brandt. Later the same year they got in touch with Danish singer Bjørn Andersen and also changed the name of the band to Aces High, since a US band named Eyes had emerged on the music scene.

The following year they acquired drummer Matts Björkman (ex-Quadruple) and in 1994 they released their first album, "Ten'n'out" which proceeded to become very successful in Japan. Fans of melodic hard rock had to wait some years for the follow-up, though. "Pull No Punches" was released in 1998, now with Björkman replaced by Anders Johansson (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, also in Hammerfall) on drums. This prompted the bassist with the same name to start writing his name as Anders J-sson to avoid confusion. And after another long wait, they're back again with "Forgive & Forget".

The album is generally very solid melodic metal, there is nothing here that truly blew me away, but then again there is nothing here that is anything below average. Vocalist Bjørn Andersen has a very distinct voice, somewhere between that of Ian Gillan and Biff Byford, the guitars are solid, with strong hooks that focus more on the song than riffing away into oblivion, whilst the hammond organ adds a Deep Purple vibe to many of the tracks.. The mix does let the album down a little, it just sounds a little flat. Yet the albums highlights like the instrumental prelude to the solo in Forgive & Forget do not suffer as a result of this.

One thing that became apparent to me is that the band use much cleaner guitar sounds that many of their counterparts, this allows the tones to breathe a little more and gives a punchier edge, which does make it through the aforementioned mix. Also its plainly apparent is the band seem more concerned for the song than highlighting individual performances.

Overall a solid enough slice of Scandi Melodic Metal.