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Pray - The Hunter


*
=Staff's pick

Fault-line
Forever In Heaven
Turn Around*
Reach Out
Fire And Flame*
I Am
Beside Me
Liar*
Coming Home
Angel No. 9
The Hunter*
Beside Me


Genre Melodic Hard Rock
Thomas Nyström
Vocals
Tracks 12
Thomas Nyström
Guitar
Runningtime 49 Min.
-
Guitar
Label Mausoleum Records
Peter Bäcke
Bass
Release 19 Sept. 2005
Patrick Johansson
Drums
Country Sweden
Fredrik Plahn
Keyboards
Similar artists Bad English, Masterplan

The foundations to the new Swedish band Prey were laid already in 1985 when Thomas Nyström and Peter Bäcke as ten year-olds had rock star dreams. When Fredrik Plahn joined, Prey was formed and the guys build their own studio where they rehearsed and recorded demos. And when Patrick Johansson who completes the line-up on drums had time off from playing with Yngwie Malmsteen, he added the drum parts. This later resulted in a deal with Mausoleum Records and a debut album recorded in Roastinghouse studios by Anders "Theo" Theander (Cloudscape, Last Tribe, Pain Of Salvation, etc.)

Prey plays soft hard rock with the emphasis on the melodies and their music is easy to take in. It is quality AOR on this debut album and the songs, which not seldom has very catchy refrains, quickly stick to your mind. Perhaps it is too easy-listening music at times and Prey occasionally come very close to sound like a pop/rock band more than hard rock. However, when the pace is increased, the keyboards give it some depth and the guitar give a sound that is more traditional hard rock, it brings them away from the pop sound they sometimes is very close to.

At their best, Prey sounds somewhat close to Masterplan but mostly it comes out as AOR/hard rock in the vein of Bad English. It is well-performed music although a bit too harmless at times and the riffs from the guitar could have used some more heaviness with the sound, but it is catchy and they have strong melodies. For my taste this goes on a bit too much in mid-tempo and a trouble with these kinds of bands is that they might sound a bit too peppy and cheesy if you are not a major fan of AOR. And that is something Prey is not able to stay away from if you ask me, especially with the ballads. The vocals from Thomas Nyström are good with a soft melodic voice although it could have been more powerful, but it suits well with the soft hard rock from Prey.

Production
Vocals
Compositions

7

6

6

 
Summary



6 chalices of 10 - Thomas

Related links:

www.prey-nation.com