I’ve been heavily into Primordial for just about ten years now. Back in the early noughties I was probably among the only person in the South of France who had ever heard of the band. I’ve since listened to all their releases thousands of times and I consider them one of my favourite bands of all time, and I’m sure I don’t stand alone. This, however, poses a bit of a problem as reviewing one’s top bands is probably one of the hardest tasks a reviewer can face. This is less due to fan-bias but more due to ever-present notion of “they can’t possibly outdo themselves this time!” Can a new album ever be as good as the piece of music we consider an absolute classics of the metal?
So with submission deadline approaching I’ve listened to the album countless times. The first couple of listens, I must admit, I didn’t quite get it. It wasn’t ‘To The Nameless Dead’; it wasn’t ‘The Gathering Wilderness’… or any of the other albums that I knew note by note, lyric by lyric. I even went as far as concluding that this was their weakest album since Imrama (which isn’t even a weak album). But bit by bit things started making sense. What do I think now? I think it’s an absolutely essential, incredible ‘king piece of metal history and an essential release in Primordial’s discography. It’s ‘king awesome! It’s the logical next step to take and Primordial succeeds (seemingly) effortlessly.
The thing about Primordial is that they are in a league of their own. No one sounds just like them and barely anyone comes even close to being as good as them. They’re easily one of the best metal bands around today and it’s great to see that big magazines are finally picking up.
Frontman Nemtheanga calls this the ‘Death’ album, this is true especially lyrically: “The lyrics are a stark proclamation, whoever you are whichever god or gods you pray to when the moment comes we are all the same and nothing but food for worms, but death, stay your hand and hold your reins, we are not finished here yet”, explains the lyricist.
From the very start ‘No Grave Deep Enough’ kicks off the album with absolute trademark Primordial opener (powerful as on the last album): A lengthy quote from Nemtheanga acts as the perfect sum-up for this song, and even the whole album, in fact: “This song always suggested itself to me as the opener. It has a furious swirling chaos at its heart that kicks off the album like a boot to the head. The structures and notes are inherently Irish in almost every way, you can almost feel the sodden dank earth and the cobalt grey clouds pregnant with rain storms skirting over the mountains! it reminds me somehow musically of Thin Lizzy on amphetamine!”
All of this is topped off with an excellent guitar-lead work and trademark drumming. All in all every member of the bands delivers on the same quality as on all the other releases. You get exactly what you’d expect, the sing-along bits, the epic build-ups – it’s all there…the same, but different, brand new!
The band continues perfecting their sound. The frontman comments “This is our seventh album, you know what to expect, passion, intensity, commitment and sheer bloody mindedness. Don’t expect fantasy or escapism. No remorse, no regret.” Primordial do what they’ve always been doing: Their own thing. This makes them, as mentioned above, one of the best bands of all time. If you buy one album this year, make it this one!
http://www.primordialweb.com
