THE PROWLERS – Re-Evolution

More than 10 years ago, a band roamed the streets of Rome, Italy. This band served as an Iron Maiden tribute act until the day came and they decided to produce something of their own. These chaps were The Prowlers. By their chosen name, you can recognize the admiration for the giants from Great Britain. However, the direction taken by this Italian group has quite diverted from the traditional Iron Maiden way. Through the band’s music that is directly derived from Classic Heavy, Power and Progressive Metal, you will be able to sense various elements shown by other acts as the melancholic Evergrey, the heavy and wild old fellow countrymen of Eldritch, the progressiveness of Vanden Plas and Dream Theater while adding bits from Iron Maiden that merely sums up in the band’s vocal section.

Ever since the band began maintaining their own material, the goal was set to compose the best out of the mixture of the mentioned sub-genres. Judging from the band’s third album and their latest effort out from Pure Steel Records, Re-Evolution, it is safe to conclude that the band’s work over the years was not in vain.

Re-Evolution cannot be considered as a 100% modern Tech Metal release, nor did the band ever make such an attempt. The album focuses on reaching certain ideals such as melodies, heaviness and progressive touches. The articulate compositions are not overly complicated so the listener will not drown in misery if this particular attribute is not to his / her liking.

The majority of the songs are like a gushing water stream with only a few stop signs on the way. These signs re-channeled through passage breaks and rhythm enchanters as complicated drum passages, total rhythmic change of course, etc. Through the album, these progression attributes are not causing any nuisances, yet there are several indications where certain songs lose themselves or are just plain hard to absorb.

As for the music , in general , there is more than one way to be amazed by the band’s ability on the compositions’ structures,  the outstanding solos (which sometimes range to Hard Rock) , the hard n’ heavy type rhythms , professionally handled keyboards and the amazing tempo control.  One of the band’s additions to their music and vocals is yet another vocalist, which is presented in the image of Martina Pelosi. Her contribution to the release comes as an enriching incentive to all duet lovers and female vocals.

Nevertheless, the band’s main character is its vocalist, Fabio Minchillo, who functions as the band’s Bruce Dickinson with a magic charm.  Well, he is not a Bruce Dickinson like mimic doll, yet his pattern and strong singing are almost identical to the English Metal colossal who masters a voice full of depth and melody. If you would be able to catch Fabio when The Prowlers play Maiden, just close your eyes and let the Dickinson image flow through your senses. Another resemblance is to Edguy and Avantasia leader, Tobias Sammet, who himself has some Dickinson influences. AS a matter of fact, there are a lot of Dickinson inspired vocalists just as there are Hetfield inspired vocalists. However, only portions of them are doing it just right with additions of their own. Mr. Minchillo is a talented vocalist and its fun listening to his chants. Among the huge crowd of melodic vocalists out there, he shines at the top.

Behind the music of The Prowlers stand various lyrical mysteries for you to explore. The band’s themes have no particular focus; each one of these tracks submits a different subject of our diverse imperfect reality.

Highlights: The intro and outro, “Parting Words” and “La Belle Ferronniere”. Amazing Speed / Power Metal choppers such as “Red Smoke”, “The Real Me”. Melodic Heavy / Progressive Metal standouts as “Firefly” and “Wonderful Creatures”. With all this powerful music, The Prowlers left room for an exciting ballad, “Do You Feel The Same” , which presents a great duet by Pelosi and Minchillo.  “The Prayer” is a sort of an abomination which explodes with an intro similar to a heavier version of a Van Halen song and continues as a strong Prog / Power Metal thriller.  Other tracks have their share of melodies and sorts, yet these cannot compete with the ones mentioned.