Persuader
The Hunter

August 2000
Released: 2000, Loud N' Proud Records
Rating: 5.0/5
Reviewer: EvilG

This is totally astounding speed/power metal!! There's no frills on here, just 45 minutes of pure aggression, lots of speed, double kicks aplenty, ripping solos, an excellent sound and mix, screaming / soaring vocals (Hansi Kürsch watch out)...you get the picture...godly!! This Swedish band first caught my ear on their 1999 EP Visions And Dreams. This was just a hint at what we could expect from a full length and The Hunter totally delivers.



The music on this CD has the speed and glory of HammerFall's first CD Glory To The Brave mixed with Blind Guardian's heavy sounds like on Imaginations From The Other Side. Maybe if Children of Bodom were even more power metal orientated, with clear vocals, this is something like what we could expect. The CD kicks in with "Fire At Will" and the intensity and speed do not let up until track 5 "Secrets" which is an instrumental with some killer leads and an almost In Flames vibe happening. The intro to "As You Wish" has a definite Iron Maiden feel to it only it's played faster and with the punches backing the cool guitar intro I'm grinning ear to ear...this is the stuff that I love! The back ups on the end of "The Hunter" borderline on black metal, man this is intense yet still keeping that important ingredient - melody! The intro to this song is courtesy of a classic horror movie (Evil Dead if I am not mistaken). "Heart And Steel" has some cool riffing that reminds me of HammerFall with more aggression.



If this CD was not sent to me as a promo, I would of hunted it down and bought it anyway. It's definitely worth going out of your way to find. I hope this band starts to get the recognition they deserve because there are a lot of power metal bands being churned out of Europe these days. For Persuader to get lost in the shuffle would mean that a great band would get overlooked. For more info on this band check out http://www.persuader.nu