Ohhhhh, man. Ladies and gentlemen, once again we have a situation. One in which I should have thought before I spoke. Welp, thought before I asked to review a record. Because man alive this Prisoner disc is not very good. This band hails from Calgary, Canada and plays in a style that traverses old school traditional metal with occasional forays into thrash and classic hard rock. Kill the King is out now and again, it’s just not very good.
My biggest problem is frontman Murray Emery’s vocals. They just ain’t hittin’ like they should. And that’s not for lack of trying, because I really did. Musically the band (guitarist Marco Cioffi, bassist Trevor Macdonald, and drummer Karl Pflug) do an admirable job with what they’re given to work with. But again, the vocals just ruin a lot of these tracks for me. Hell, it took me four or five songs to get one I could sink my teeth into. And that one is “Lost In Control”, a tune I found very enjoyable, despite the shortcomings that were clearly on display. I also found “Feel the Heat” pretty delightful, but not much else.
“Edge of the Universe” definitely has some bark to it, like a junkyard dog that hasn’t been fed in a minute and wants to feast on your brains. But there really isn’t much good to say about the album. Jeezus, the first four songs go from bad to worse. A bright spot definitely pops up with “Double Vision” and closer “Over the Magic” is pretty beefy, so I’ll give them that. Look, I can’t fault the band for putting out a record they believe in. But for me this one’s a big swing and a miss.
Standout Tracks: “Lost In Control”, “Over the Magic”, “Feel the Heat”.