Vigilhunter - Vigilhunter (Slip) [CD]

High Roller Records, slipcase, Chances are that you will have heard the extraordinary voice of Alexx Panza before. He is the singer on Hitten's latest studio album »While Passion Lasts« (2023) as well as on »Souls Of The Innocent« (2022) by Jack Starr's Burning Starr. However, his newest venture is called Vigilhunter. For their much anticipated debut album the band has signed a contract with High Roller Records. Besides the Hitten singer, who is also playing rhythm and lead guitar, Vigilhunter consist of Mirko Negrino on bass, Mattia Itala on second guitar and Marcello "Cell" Leocani on drums. "This project has never been officially talked about before," explains the vocalist, "a demo version of the song 'Shadow Rider' has been uploaded on YouTube some years ago (and now currently removed), after putting this project on ice for quite a few years... In recent times we decided to resurrect the project and finish working on the songs in order to make a proper release since we felt they had great potential. This line-up brought new enthusiasm that finally led to a full-length release." And what a great debut album Vigilhunter have come up with! Compositions such as "Disconnected", "Titan Glory" or "Sacrifice" are some of the best songs Queensryche have never written. Alexx smirks: "I take this as a huge compliment, thank you very much! We are obviously very much influenced by them, but we couldn't write 100% 'Ryche songs even if we try. This project bears several influences, but I feel like in the end, when you listen to the whole record, you surely can't compare us with specific bands. As much as we don't want to reinvent the wheel, I believe this record has a voice of it's own. I can tell you that a great amount of work has been put into the album and that we are very happy with the final result. We can't wait to hear the world's perception but we are confident that the old US Power Metal lovers will enjoy the record." Apart from Queensryche you can hear a bit of Crimson Glory and some prime era Fates Warning in Vigilhunter as well. "I guess you nailed the main references," confirms Alexx Panza, "Crimson Glory and Fates Warning are surely part of the sound and the era we tried to recreate. I might add Savatage and Vicious Rumors for the purely 'US Heavy Power' side of the record but that said, sometimes ideas come from influences that are so far from what the final results end up being that you wouldn't even imagine."