Band:	The Prowlers
Album:	Devil's Bridge
Style:	Power metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	Jeff

01. Alone In The Dark
02. Y.T.T.
03. Invisible Prison
04. A Last Gaze
05. Fused
06. Acid One
07. Imagination Game
08. Devil's Bridge: Prelude
09. Devil's Bridge: Pt. 1
10. Devil's Bridge: Pt. 2
11. No Reason to Forget [bonus]

The Prowlers is a young band from Italy and "Devil's Bridge" is only the second release of the combo after "Soul Thieves" released in 2003. If they were first a cover band of Maiden, they started quickly to write their own songs. If it was first some pure classic Heavy Metal songs in the vein of the English band, they chose for their album to add a lot of Progressive elements, and let me tell you that it sounds really good!

If the first three songs are a bit average, in my opinion, the others songs of the album are a lot more interesting. The fact is that the "Alone In The Dark", "Y.T.T" and "Invisible Prison" are pure classic Power/Heavy Metal songs. It's ok they're not awful but it's classic as hell and a bit average, especially if you compare them to the others songs of the albums which still keep their Heavy Metal roots but which are mixed with great Progressive Metal elements. Thos Progressive elements come from the Keyboards of the excellent Massimiliano Destefano, an impressive keyboardist who just leads with his amazing soli the majority of the songs of the CD. It's really nice actually because even if we can say that "Devil's Bridge" is an album of Progressive Metal, this is also an album of Heavy because these two different music are perfectly mixed in this released.

The production is good, Fabio Minchillo, the singer, has a really cool voice and all the others musicians do a good job on this release. The songs (after the first three ones yes!) are original, complex and with a lot of good things. The band just knew how to mix their Maiden and Helloween influences with the ones of some bands like Dream Theater and even if their new release is, for me, an album of Heavy first, it's obvious that they're changing a bit their musical style and it's a good thing.

Fans of Heavy or fans of Progressive Metal, I really think that you should have a look on the last release of The Prowlers. It's a good album and honestly I believe, if they keep this musical direction, that the best will come for them soon. We all like classic Heavy but when you add something different in your composition it doesn't sound anymore like a simple clone. It's the case of "Devil's Bridge", a nice release made in Italy.