Birds Of Prey – The Hellprecher

Friday, September 25th, 2009, posted by K.Panagiotis

Birds Of Prey are sometimes announced as a supergroup, since they consisted of members of bands such as Municipal Waste, Alabama Thunderpussy and Baroness. Their style is a good mixture of various things. First of all, what you are about to listen to, is rather heavy. So, this is a point for them right from the beginning. Then comes some confusion. What the fuck are they playing? Each individual will have a different opinion.

On the twelve songs of this album, you will be surrounded by a lot of riffs, generous amount of groove and a dirty sound covering your ears. They sound a lot to me like Entombed after the ”Wolverine Blues” era. This garage style they have, doesn’t prevent them from playing a little faster sometimes.

On the other hand, acts like Alabama Thunderpussy or even the mighty Eyehategod will come to your mind. Also, when listening to Ben Hogg’s voice, the band that comes to my mind is Gorefest of the albums ”Soul Survivor” and ”Chapter 13”. Hogg sounds like Jan Chris De Kooeijer when he grunts and moans. This is not bad at all of course. Maybe the band in its effort to combine a lot of things together, loses a little of the point it could have if they made things a little more simple to their minds. No, they don’t play like Dream Theater or The Faceless or Obscura. This is not the bad thing. Fast and slow, growls and clean vocals, heaviness and solos, these all together are so much opposite to each other. Something seems not to fit. I personally like them, it is no problem for me. But for the average fan, it could cause the will to want to listen to something different much quicker than he thought.

Birds Of Prey is a good band. But I don’t know how much enough this is for most fans. I have listened to this album many times. I will judge it as if i was not a fan of them from the beginning.

Track List	Line Up
01. Momma 02. Juvie 03. As The Field Mice Play 04. Alive Inside! 05. Tempt The Disciples 06. Taking On Our Winter Blood 07. The Excavation 08. Blind Faith 09. False Prophet 10. The Owl Closes In 11. Warriors Of Mud…The Hellfighters 12. Giving Up The Ghost	Ben Hogg – Vocals Erik Larson – Guitar Bo Leslie – Guitar Summer Welch – Bass Dave Witte – Drums