Prime Suspect Prime Suspect
by Ron & Don Higgins
Staff Writer
Prime Suspect is a new Italian melodic-rock project that sounds like a more mellow version of Khymera or Last Autumn’s Dream. And why not? Three of the five band members are Khymera alumni, including guitarist Tommy Ermolli, drummer Dario Ciccioni and keyboardist extraordinaire Daniele Liverani. Additional members include bassist Mauro Catellani and German singer Olaf Senkbeil, vocalist for the hard rock band Dreamtide.
Daniele Liverani describes the album. “I would say that Prime Suspect is a combination of what I’ve been learning with Khymera and my personal style, and I have been thrilled with the result. Basically there’s a lot of classic melodic rock inside the tunes, but the sound is very modern and powerful, with a touch of experimentation that comes from my Progressive experience. That’s an interesting combination that hopefully the listeners will find interesting and entertaining.”
There are two standout tracks on the album: The lead track and the mid-album song “I Would Like to Reach the Sun.” The lead track, “What Do You Want?” is an up-tempo rocker and one of two songs on the album written by outside Swedish songwriter Christian Wolff (On The Rise, Johnny Lima, Mecca) along with the moody “It Could’ve Been You.” It starts with some nice guitar work and then temporarily slows down as the vocals kick in. It picks back up in the middle, morphing into a classic AOR tune, complete with essential, but not overpowering, keyboards from Liverani. It’s the first of many of the album’s tracks that lyrically feature the topic of love.
The second standout track, “What Do You Want?” is, without question, the best track on the entire album. It’s extremely melodic with the catchiest chorus of anything on the album and truly the most memorable piece of those offered here. Like most of the tracks, there’s some great guitar work accentuated with soaring vocals, including backing vocals that sound, at times, like classic Yes. At first, it appears to be another song about love, but, upon closer listening, the lyrics become a bit puzzling and, at times, seeming to address God himself (“I would like to reach the sun and look down into your eyes, and find out who you really are.”) But then, it turns mysterious once again with the line, “You’re destroying the planet. Who you really are, you’re killing a children’s dream.” No matter what great lyrical concept is trying to be conveyed, musically, the song is absolutely brilliant and is the one track that will stick with the listener long after moving on to greener musical pastures.
The remainder of the songs range from less-memorable ballads to decent rockers, with the second half of the album offering up the best of the mix. The first half includes “I’ll Be Fine” (an optimistic mid-tempo rocker with nice guitar work but annoying background vocals), “Change This World” (another love song that opens with heavy keyboards, begins slow and then picks up to mid-tempo) and “I Never Knew” (another slow, mid-tempo song with a nice piano intro but one of the weakest songs on the album).
The second half of the album features stronger efforts from “It Could’ve Been You,” “Hear Me Calling,” “Deep in My Heart,” “So Strange” and the final track “Watch Me.” “It Could’ve Been You” is the second song by Christian Wolff and features some of the best guitar work on display. Once again, the theme of love is explored. “Hear Me Calling” is a slow-tempo song with a nice guitar lead-in that sees Olaf invoking David Coverdale on the vocals and singing another optimistic love song. “Deep in My Heart” is a good mid-tempo song with another nice guitar lead-in before slowing down. “So Strange” is just that – strange. It has an unusual guitar sound and equally strange vocals — possibly the worst song on the album. Finally, the album wraps up on a high note with another one of the better songs on the album, “Watch Me.”
Overall, this is a pretty fair Frontiers release, adequately representing the melodic rock/AOR genre. Unfortunately, it’s just not very unique or, for that matter, memorable. Some of the songs are decent and some are just, well, tolerable. Fans of Khymera and Last Autumn’s Dream most likely will enjoy this release, but there are certainly better releases out there to showcase this genre. There are definitely moments of brilliance though, such as “I Would Like To Reach the Sun.” If the band could write more songs in this vein, they could really have something spectacular. Since it’s a debut album, there’s certainly room to grow, and, hopefully, they will if and when they decide to pursue a sophomore release. There’s no doubt that the band members, with their classic-rock pedigree, have what it takes to put together something special. But whether they do remains as much of a mystery as their album cover, which shows a man with a butcher knife approaching a sleeping woman.
Band:
Olaf Senkbeil: vocals
Daniele Liverani: keyboards
Tommy Ermolli: guitars
Dario Ciccioni: drums
Mauro Catellani: bass
Track Listing:
- What Do You Want?
- I’ll Be Fine
- Change This World
- I Never Knew
- I Would Like To Reach The Sun
- It Could’ve Been You
- Hear Me Calling
- Deep In My Heart
- So Strange
- Watch Me
Website: http://www.frontiers.it/album/4779/
Label: Frontier Records
Hardrock Haven rating: 8.0/10