For the third instalment of this column, I took some time out to chat with Patrick Best of the thrash band Prowler. I will admit that Prowler is a recent discovery for me, but now that I am acquainted with the band I am all the happier for it. What’s unique about this group is their choice to create metal that blends themes of classic horror films and mixes them into their lyrics, sound and overall look. Perhaps this might be the first true horror metal hybrid band, what with song titles like “No Life Till Leatherface”, “Haddonfield” and “The Tallman” just to name a few.
The band is a three piece outfit, hailing from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They released their debut “After You” in 2013 and an EP called “The New Blood” both on Slaney Records. They also released a video that paid homage to the classic horror film The Evil Dead and are now hell-bent on bringing their music to the masses in 2014. Upon talking to Patrick, I learned a great deal about the genesis of the band and of their plans to tour bars and clubs, plus horror conventions to get the message out there.
I am very happy to have Prowler be a part of my column this month and I hope everyone checks back to read some upcoming reviews of Prowler’s Debut and EP CD’s. I should have the reviews written shortly. Anyhow, onto the interview!
HMS: Let’s start out with the name of the band. Did you take your band name from the 1981 horror film The Prowler? If not, then who came up with it?
Prowler: The name came from a mix of Iron Maiden’s song “Prowler” and AC/DC’s “Night Prowler” – both songs having a horror theme to them.
HMS: The marriage of horror and metal go hand in hand, so how did you decide to create thrash metal music that paid homage to classic horror films?
Prowler: Honestly, being a big fan of horror movies and hearing their soundtracks being composed of metal and rock bands it just made sense to me to combine the two, but I wanted to do something different, hence making each song based on an individual horror movie using live samples from the films.
HMS: You list some of your influences as bands like Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, but upon listening to the music I feel that the band Whiplash is also a good comparison. What are your thoughts on that?
Prowler: Definitely agree! There are so many thrash bands that we listen to for the first time and have already listened to in the past and go “hey, that sounds like a Prowler riff!” – it’s pretty amusing and humbling at the same time.
HMS: The title of your latest E.P. The New Blood is an obvious reference to the Friday the 13th film franchise. With that in mind, do you have a favorite film in that series?
Prowler: Initially, we released our first 4 EP’s that were limited edition picture discs (Part 1-Part 4 The Final Chapter) before our deal with Slaney Records – those EP’s were the predecessors to what would become our debut on Slaney Records “After You” and direct references to the Friday the 13th chapters 1-4. Friday the 13th in the films was originally supposed to end on the 4th, hence it being called THE FINAL CHAPTER.
HMS: What are some of your favorite horror films and perhaps horror film characters?
Prowler: Our favorite horror films are the ones we write about in Prowler. For example my all-time favorite film is THE LOST BOYS, while Jak’s favorite is A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST and Shawn’s is the original HALLOWEEN.
HMS: Most of your song titles are comprised from horror movies, so tell me how you all go about writing music. Do you have a particular film in mind when writing lyrics?
Prowler: Yes, the first step is always choosing the movie – step two involves taking the mood of the movie itself and writing a riff based on the feeling and mood the movie portrays, sometimes though I’ll choose to write about a central character from the movie yet based on the movie itself, like ex. Prowler’s “The Tall Man” – it’s based mainly on the Tall man as a character, but has references to PHANTASM itself as a movie. The last step involves watching the film again (my favorite part) and getting the samples. Ironically and oddly, 99% of the samples have fit perfectly time wise in the selected areas of each song; the only one we have had to speed up is Loomis’s long speech in our song “Haddonfield” based on the original HALLOWEEN.
HMS: How is band perceived when playing live?
Prowler: For the fans that already know the concept they LOVE it! – We will get horror fans that don’t really listen to metal that get turned onto metal from us or the opposite, metal fans that don’t know horror classics that well and get turned onto the films! Either way that’s the whole goal – Prowler is just basically 3 guys playing metal we love and writing about horror films we love - essentially a tribute to the greats from both genres!
HMS: What does the future hold for Prowler?
Prowler: We just released our new EP, Prowler: THE NEW BLOOD in November and its almost 2014! We want to do something special for our one year anniversary of AFTER YOU – our debut record that was released on 1-1-13. We have been invited to be on a film documentary from some of the directors and actors of the iconic film THE EVIL DEAD. Their documentary HAIL TO THE DEADITES will feature our song based on the original EVIL DEAD called “Book of the Dead”
Also we want to establish a relationship with the horror conventions around the country and the festivals overseas and see if we can’t get booked on a few of them. We have tons of fans overseas and in further parts of our country that want to see us play and we want to get to ALL of them somehow…. We hope that metal and horror fans alike will read this and give us a listen. Our new full length record is scheduled for this Summer 2014! so get ready for more thrills and chills!
Thanks to Horror Metal Sounds for the interview and Ken! - \h/\m/
Kenneth Gallant, Editor HMS
Read the previous installment.