Prime Suspect - Prime Suspect

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A primal thought seeing this material was “another Frontiers-assembled project, right?” and that was quite reasonable I guess. Musicians from the Italian Rock/Hard Rock scene (omitting a German singer who does the difference) playing together in order for another album following the AOR/melodic Rock ideals to feed the hunger of followers of the genre. I really do not know how many people will invest their money on PRIME SUSPECT but what can be said as an elementary quote probably is that “Prime Suspect” will give you what you want if you get it but shall also disappear from your mind rapidly the time you choose not to spend time and money on this CD.

In a typhoon of similar releases, this debut album by PRIME SUSPECT - and I doubt another one will be out soon, as seen in countless similar cases – features good songs in the AOR/mild Hard Rock field with clean vocal lines, mid-tempo backups and simple yet typical guitar and keyboard themes, with warm vocals on top. That said, the review could have ended somewhere here. Still, the band (formed by Daniele Liverani, Tommy Ermolli and Dario Ciccioni – all known from their deeds with Italian melodic rockers KHYMERA) is more tranquil in regards to KHYMERA’s hardrockin’ nerve. The songlist in “Prime Suspect” reminded me of relatively similar moments in bands like STRANGEWAYS, SEVENTH KEY and LAST AUTUMN’S DREAM (of course the legacy of multi-platinum legends JOURNEY and TOTO-to-an-extend haunts this album, too). A mellow moody atmosphere is spread allover and melodies cross your heart in easy if you’re a die-hard fan of such song patterns.

“Prime Suspect” is not a bad album, not at all. But it ends up being so predictable and typical that it honestly cannot tease your mind if you’re not dying for everything released in this genre. The musicianship is solid and high-class and I specifically enjoyed Olaf Senkbeil’s semi-morose voice a lot (he’s the vocalist for German melodic hardrockers DREAMTIDE). Else…there’s nothing intriguing in here, not even a slight surprise.