{"id":104627,"date":"2025-03-18T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T00:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=104627"},"modified":"2025-03-25T12:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T12:48:17","slug":"album-review-predator-unsafe-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-predator-unsafe-space\/","title":{"rendered":"PREDATOR – Unsafe Space (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

PREDATOR
Unsafe Space<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nFighter (2025)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Way back in 1986 a relatively unknown band named Predator released their debut full-length album Easy Prey<\/em>. It would turn out to be the only thing the California-based outfit would release during that period, but it certainly made its mark as a cult opus, mainly due to the cover and back cover photos showing a masked man stalking a scantily clad female on a beach.<\/p>\n

Indicative of its time, Easy Prey<\/em> briefly captured the imagination of some teenage metalheads before dissolving into history. In 2020, and literally from out of nowhere, Predator returned with a single entitled \u2018The Thought Police\u2019. However, it\u2019s impact was minimal to say the least ,but persist they did, returning again in 2024 with the single \u2018Saviors\u2019 and then a brace of singles this year in the form of \u2018Raping The Population\u2019 and \u2018Plague Of The Deceivers\u2019, both of which acted as ideal precursors to this unexpected sophomore effort.<\/p>\n

Predator of today is just a duo; original member Jeff Prentice is on vocals and guitar, and he\u2019s joined by bassist Frank Forray (Ninth Circle). Unsafe Space<\/em> features the last three singles and it\u2019s \u2018Saviors\u2019 which opens proceedings, and what\u2019s immediately clear is that this is serious groove based metal far removed from that 80s sound.<\/p>\n

Prentice has a strong voice that fits into an understated 90s style of heavy rock and the music is crunchy and bulky, the duo comfortably cruising into a Primal Fear-styled vibe. There\u2019s variety though; \u2018Raping The Population\u2019 is pretty late 80s thrash in style but with dollops of melody. The only real criticism here though is that the production is very modern and although warm it seems to layer the whole composition in a cosy safety net, so even when Predator rages, it\u2019s somewhat subdued.<\/p>\n

Lyrically, there\u2019s an abundance of serious subject matter here. \u2018N.L.M.\u2019 boasts the line \u201cNo lives matter, it\u2019s all about the vote\u201d<\/em> over a crunchy riff, while \u2018The Fascism Variant\u2019 kicks off with a news clip pertaining to the pandemic before galloping into a thrash chug. \u201cPandemic, virus manufactured in lab,\u201d<\/em> croons Prentice and you just know where this one is going!<\/p>\n

All the tracks presented are robust rockers that fluidly sit between US power metal and thrash. \u2018Violent Objection\u2019 echoes with Prentice\u2019s words, \u201cNightfall comes, the cities burn, leaders tell us it\u2019s your turn\u201d<\/em> over another metallic gallop. \u2018A New Civil War\u2019 is one of the weaker tracks where the vocals \u2013 which, rather oddly, remind me of former Faith No More frontman Chuck Mosley \u2013 somehow seem displaced from the music and both voice and music is rather tepid.<\/p>\n

Predator also throw in an interesting yet dreadful cover of The Mamas & Papas track \u2018California Dreamin\u2019\u2019, and the less said about it the better, but for the most part Unsafe Space<\/em> is a decent album that\u2019s instantly accessible, simple and hard rockin.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PREDATORUnsafe Space Fighter (2025)Rating: 7\/10 Way back in 1986 a relatively unknown band named Predator released their debut full-length album Easy Prey. It would turn out to be the only thing the California-based outfit would release during that period, but it certainly made its mark as a cult opus, mainly due to the cover and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5881],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-predator-california"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104628,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104627\/revisions\/104628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}