You don’t hear many bands these days recreating a progressive form of US power metal with soaring guitars and high-octane vocals that seemed to receive a small niche of acceptance during the late 80s to early 90s. That’s what you’ll hear in this new Italian act Vigilhunter – featuring vocalist/guitarist Alexx Panza, who is best known as the singer in Hitten and Jack Starr’s Burning Starr. If you enjoy albums like Transcendence, Rage for Order, Thundersteel, and Hall of the Mountain King, you will find plenty to treasure with these songs and performances. We reached out to Alexx to get more of the rundown on how he assembled the players for Vigilhunter, the work behind the record, thoughts on touring the US for the first time with Hitten, favorite albums or acts in the AOR/death metal platforms, the state of the metal music industry currently, and what’s on the horizon for Hitten, Vigilhunter, and Jack Starr’s Burning Starr.
Dead Rhetoric: How did you finally get things in motion to develop Vigilhunter from the initial “Shadow Rider” demo to recording and releasing the debut, self-titled album? Was it easy to assemble the right players for this project?
Alexx Panza: Yeah, easy enough. I recruited almost all the same people that recorded the “Shadow Rider” demo. That’s Marcelo Leocani, he’s my drummer since my very first band, we go a long way back. I can say the same thing for the bass player Mirko Negrino, because he was the bass player in Endovein, a thrash metal band that we played in together. There was another guitar player before, but we called another friend of mine from another local band Re-Animated named Mattia Itala, a great guy and a great guitar player. He’s the only one who changed from the lineup that worked on the demo.
The record was pretty much done in terms of the songwriting. I worked a lot on this project, but many years ago so I sat on this stuff for a very long time. It would be a pity to leave everything there, so that’s why I decided to call my friends and go back over the songs, rework a few little things here and there, rearranged a little stuff, but 90% of the record was already there.
Dead Rhetoric: How does it feel not only to represent yourself vocally on the record, but with your guitar playing?
Panza: That’s great – and it’s also one of the main reasons I wanted to do this. I feel like the world is full of these guitarists – great guitarists, and greater guitarists than me – but not so much for singers. That’s why I end up singing in a lot of bands – it’s so hard to find the best singers, but I do want to play guitar, and I love playing guitar. So that feels nice.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you feel about the songwriting and recording process for this set of material? Did you know straight away the type of US metal influences you wanted to develop with this band – acts like Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, Crimson Glory, Savatage, Riot, and Vicious Rumors among others?
Panza: More or less, yes. This is a very old project – I started to work on the very first song in 2011 or 2012. It’s a very long time coming. At the beginning I wanted to create some US power metal. The idea was to do something a bit more straightforward from what it is nowadays. For sure Riot and Vicious Rumors, but let’s say more of the power to almost thrashy way. When working on the song “Titan Glory”, it was the first song that had a little touch of progressive – progressive in the vein of bands like Fates Warning, Queensrÿche, or Crimson Glory had in their sound. We are not talking about Dream Theater, but that little touch in that still US power metal style. Classic heavy metal. That’s why we decided to keep working on this material, and go more in that direction. This was before the pandemic shutdown, almost the whole record was done. We had other songs, and we decided to choose those songs that made the record because they were more in this vein, we ditched the others that were more classic heavy metal, power (oriented). There are still songs like “Outburst of Rage” that are right in your face, though.
Dead Rhetoric: Which songs did you consider the biggest challenge to perfect – or went through the most transformation – from initial development to what we hear on the final product?
Panza: Well, probably it was “The Downfall”. It’s also the one that has a different form in the sense of the song structure. That’s probably the one I worked on the most, in general. Surely the one that changed the most was “Outburst of Rage”. That song was very straightforward in the beginning. It was the last one that we retouched and rearranged to make it a bit more Savatage-like and interesting.
Dead Rhetoric: Also – did you find you really had to work on your vocal range and register to achieve the results we hear from your singing?
Panza: No, not really. I listen to this style, and I have been singing in this style forever. That was pretty natural to me. My usual routine and exercise when I don’t have concerts coming up, I just put on YouTube and sing all of the songs that I like. I do sing Queensrÿche and Crimson Glory stuff, and have for a long time. That’s what I was trying to recreate. I have a different voice than Geoff Tate or Midnight, but that was the vibe I wanted to recreate, and hopefully I have.
Dead Rhetoric: And what concept came to mind for the cover art? Do you think that it is also important to provide insight as to what people can expect on the record?
Panza: I don’t know – you tell me! (laughs). I didn’t have an exact idea for what to do with the album cover. In the beginning I wanted something more revolving around the logo, or technical graphics. But you need an idea for that also. So, I worked on the artwork with Nothingface Illustration. And I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I think it represents an era, the late 80s/early 90s vibe that I was going for. I hope that the people feel the same way.
Dead Rhetoric: You are preparing to tour the US with Hitten and Haunt over the next couple of months. What are your thoughts on this tour, and do you have any expectations going into this market extensively that may differ from other touring/festival situations you’ve done over the years?
Panza: It’s the first time we will tour the US. We don’t know exactly what to expect. We’ve had a lot of requests over the years, especially in recent years. USA is still the number one country that listens to us through Spotify. We are curious to see the outcome. It’s a dream for us, both with Vigilhunter and with Hitten, it’s totally inspired by American metal. We can’t wait to play there, where the sound was born.
Dead Rhetoric: You mention in another recent interview online that you have a love of AOR as well as 90s period death metal beyond the expected hard rock and classic metal styles. What would you consider some of the best albums or bands that you love from the AOR and death metal genres these days?
Panza: Okay. Let’s see, because there is a lot of stuff. In terms of AOR, some of my favorite records are Mark Free – Long Way From Love, the second Dakota record Runaway, I love that one. I think I should name any Journey record; I would have to put that in there. In terms of death metal, my favorite band is Morbid Angel. Pretty much all of their catalog up to Heretic – and that album included. Altars of Madness, Blessed Are the Sick, Covenant, all classics. Other bands, Sadistic Intent I would say. Coffin Text, I love them. We could stay here all night.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you feel about your work with Jack Starr’s Burning Starr and the 2022 album Souls of the Innocent? As you have been a fan since Jack’s record with Rhett Forrester Out of the Darkness from 1984, correct?
Panza: Yes, always been a fan. It has been a dream come true, when I was contacted by Bart Gabriel, as he was the manager of Jack Starr. When he asked me to give it a shot for Burning Starr, I said – hell yeah! Some of my favorite singers sang with Jack Starr, starting with Rhett Forrester. Mike Tirelli, and then Todd Michael Hall who is still doing great records with Riot V. I love work with Jack, he’s a nice guy. Rhino is a legend in his own way, he played with Manowar. I’m very happy.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you think of when it comes to the word success – and has your definition of success changed from when you first started as a musician to where you are with your career today?
Panza: Oh man – I have achieved success. I’m doing something that I would have never expected. And I never even tried that hard to achieve the level, whatever my level is these days. I have toured Europe, I am touring the US right now, I’ve played all over the world, I’ve made ten records. I have worked with some of the greatest musicians. I’m so happy, you always want to try to go one step forward and try to achieve more. I put 100% into whatever I do. I’m just grateful.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you have any specific goals that you set for yourself in terms of your career?
Panza: Oh no. I’m happy where I am right now. At some point, I don’t know what the next step is. I will keep doing music, and keep doing this because I like doing this. The day I do not like doing this anymore, I will stop. It’s not my job, it’s not my first job – and that’s a great thing, actually. I can say stop whenever I want. But I have a lot to do, and I will probably do this until the last day of my life. We’ll see what the future will bring.
Dead Rhetoric: Now that you are in your early 30s, when looking back at your life, are there specific choices that you feel that you made either personally or professionally that have helped shape who you are for the better?
Panza: Oh yes. It’s a hard question to answer. I can’t exactly point a finger to a specific moment in life. At some point, I have always been scared to try and do new stuff. I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by people who are pushing me every day, to say yes and give it a shot. That’s something I’ve learned, to try and give things a shot, let’s see where these (opportunities) bring me.
Dead Rhetoric: Is there a specific moment or two when you knew as a singer you have abilities that were special?
Panza: What I can tell you, I remember when I was very young, and I wasn’t the singer or musician I am today – I was doing music for the sake of doing it because it was fun. I had no expectations at all, and I had some people… I was receiving some of the first compliments, and they would say, ‘you are very good.’ Really? I wasn’t thinking higher for myself. That is where I started to gain a little confidence. And then, I don’t know, there were some moments when I was asked to join specific projects, and I would have said no if it wasn’t for other people to convince me to try it. In the end, they were life-changing moments. When I was asked to join Hitten, oh my god. They are from another country, Spain, how are we going to do this? I said yes and the rest is history.
Dead Rhetoric: When things are stressful and you feel out of sorts in terms of your mind and body, what sorts of tricks or tools do you use to try to regain focus and perspective?
Panza: What I have learned throughout the years is that you are not going to solve anything by staying passive. You try to shake up your life in those moments and work even harder to see what your goals are, and something will happen at some point.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you see the state of the metal music industry and scene currently? Are there certain aspects that excite you, and if you had the resources to change things, what needs to be improved upon in your view?
Panza: It’s a highly competitive market, that’s for sure. Everybody can do music these days, and that’s the cool part as well. It’s both the cool part and the bad part at the same time. Anyone can do music these days with literally a computer and some knowledge, and even do good music. The point is, anybody can also do bad music and put it out. A lot of good projects go on their way because they are lost in a market that is way too big for a listener to navigate through all the recordings. It’s the good and the bad at the same time.
I did try a record label in the past – I didn’t have unlimited resources. It’s something I love, and I would make a label again and invest tons of money with those unlimited resources to more underground bands that really deserve the credit they don’t have for one reason or another. Organize more live shows as well – that is something I did in the past with little resources. That would be awesome to do it.
When it comes to an underrated act, look into Stonewall – they are an Italian band that is more into the US power metal way. They have two records out, the first one, the leader of the project Antonio Guerrieri is my friend. The first record, he recorded it all back in 2011, but the second record that came out a few years ago has more impressive songwriting, with great drumming and great guitar playing. Go check them out.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s in the pipeline over the next twelve months for anything related to Alexx Panza for Vigilhunter, Hitten, Jack Starr’s Burning Starr, or other activities?
Panza: About Vigilhunter I can tell you we are currently on fire for some reason. We are already writing the second record, and working on new songs these days. It’s going much faster than expected. The same for Hitten – we are starting work on the next record. We have a song completed, and a lot of material there to put things together. About Burning Starr, I’m not very up to date. I haven’t heard from the guys lately, but as far as I know, they are working on a new record. I haven’t been involved yet.