The UK Heavy Metal scene is reviving fast, and the depth of some of the talent on offer is daunting. The old masters are back. Saxon have stormed back from the ‘where are they now’ category to headlining festivals, something unthinkable during the Grunge and Nu-Metal Tyrannies. Whippersnappers like Dragonforce are world-beaters despite not carrying quite the clout here that they do in say, Mexico. Hordes of long haired Battle Metal bands regularly invade our shores in pursuit of willingly delivered and ever increasing quantities of Danegeld. The Emo scene is vibrant. The New Wave of Trad Metal is gathering momentum. Manowar are almost taken seriously. Iron Maiden again bestride the globe like wrinkly colossi. Everywhere accountants and factory workers, bankers and students are dusting off ancient leather jackets, stitching patches onto their denims and emerging blinking from their lengthy hibernation into the light of a new Heavy Metal Dawn.
This is a happy hunting time for Metal bands, but there is a catch. To stand out you really have to be able to play. Luckily for this Cardiff five piece, a lack of playing ability will never be an issue. The Hunted are good musicians, really good. ‘Alone’, their three song EP switches effortlessly from riff to riff, tempo to tempo, beat to beat and engaging vocal to engaging vocal. Hunted’s drummer Matthew ‘Animal’ Thomas plays as ferociously as his infamous felt namesake. Lead guitarist and chief song-writer Steve Barberini’s solo parts dart in an out of the melody with the speed and precision of a foil wielded by Bruce Dickinson himself. Mention of la Dickinson brings me neatly to vocalist Chris G. Again the guy is really good. In his best moments - for example while trading licks with the cracking guitar line at the end of ‘Shadows’ - he is pure Ripper Owens. In the third track ‘The Silence of Minds’ he is more reminiscent of an inebriated Geoff Tate.
The best parts of ‘Hunted’ are of a high standard. Solid Heavy Metal riffs chug along all too briefly while Chris G’s Ripper Owens-y vocals combine with some cunning lead playing to produce thrilling pastiches of Iced Earth. The opening track ‘Impaled’ opens with a riff which could have been purloined from ‘Operation Mindcrime’ itself before lapsing into something much more Dragonforce-like.
In fact ‘Impaled’ exemplifies the problem with this demo. When a three song EP clocks in at almost 19 minutes you know there will be a few widdly bits. Some of the arrangements on these songs are complex in the extreme, some so bizarre that Mastodon would bow their hideous heads in awe. ‘The Silence of Minds’ twiddles backwards and forwards, up and down without getting anywhere much in particular and to no particular purpose. As soon as a solid riff gets your foot tapping it meanders of to Nowhere Very Much Land. Hunted cite Dream Theatre as an influence, and that is an apt comparison. If extremely complex arrangements, lots of time changes and very good playing are your thing then this could well be worth checking out.
However if what you are after is something you can bang your head to, then you are going to wind up confused if not flat on your back after changing tempo 3 times in 20 seconds. Don’t even think about trying to sing along to any choruses, because who can say which bits they are supposed be? The quality of the recording on the third track is also distinctly worse than the others, which is frustrating given the quality of musicianship on offer. All in all - well they can certainly play.
http://www.myspace.com/huntedrock
