Prodigal Earth is a band who can only be described as “Iced Earth’s little brother”. Their combination of trad metal riffs and high pitched power metal vocals really does make you wonder why these guys aren’t big yet. They have everything present in their songs to give them the wow factor such as: Great choruses, amazing lyrical concepts, and outstanding musicianship, it’s just how no one had heard of them. Well, if you are reading this you definitely need to go check them out, because I can assure you that as soon as their new album Zenith II Zero begins, Prodigal Earth will have you eating out of the palms of their hands!
The Rhythm guitar riffs of Zenith II Zero are what make this album so brilliant. They are fast paced, high energy, extreme charge fests
– that will have anybody banging their head along in time to the cantering guitar line. While songs like ‘Disaster 121’, ‘Broken World’ and ‘Gods Children’ sound like a mish mash of early Iced Earth, and Powerslave era Maiden, those none shred heads among you will be happy to know that there are plenty of slow tracks on this album that equally show how talented guitarists Antonis Mavrou and Socrates Leptos actually are.
The vocals are so powerful on this album, and it’s fitting that such a loud singer can still over power such a loud band. You need to listen to this, and then you will realise just how underrated this band are, especially with a vocalist who can wail like that. There are so many golden moments on Zenith II Zero for vocals, especially in tracks such as ‘Lonely Gods’, ‘Once Upon a Crime’ and ‘Will To Live’, which show the true potential of extremely talented vocalist Nicholas Leptos.
The only track that feels out of place on this album is The End (Ashes of Desire Pt.1), not because it’s a different musical style to the previous songs, just because it’s not as good as the rest of the album. It lets it down in some respects, as the listener has just enjoyed eight amazing power metal hymn, and to have it spoilt by one rotten egg amongst the group is disappointing. It sets the band back to a garage sounding wannabe metal band, not the band who we have heard, who could easily put the mighty Iced Earth to shame.
This album came out in 2009, but has recently been re-released on Pitch Black Records. If you’re a fan of Iced Earth buy this album, if you’re a fan of Iron Maiden buy this album, if you want to hear some of the most orgasmic rhythm guitar lines in the world, then this is the album for you. Give Prodigal Earth a listen, because Zenith II Zero is a outstanding effort by them! [8/10
