Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Primal Fear
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2009
Runtime: 69.33
Rating: 4/5
Primal Fear are hardworking, enterprising guys. They carefully cook up and put out new albums on a “two-year” cycle. Along the way they hit the concert stages and promote them. Of course, changes are a must so people and scenes don’t get sick of you, and changes can also have a positive effect on the evolution of the band itself, in terms of growing its own expressive artistry. “New Religion” already signaled that Primal Fear had entered a period of change, when they signed with the Italian label Frontiers Records, which mostly looks after bands from the melodic hard rock corner.
Recruiting guitarist Magnus Karlsson, who has worked well with Frontiers Records for years, doesn’t sound as unusual as you might first imagine. Primal Fear are, after all, one of the few heavy metal bands from Germany willing to compromise at all on their musical image, and to invest creative energy in varying doses of musical experimentation worked into their basic, well-staked-out style. Magnus Karlsson, who replaced Tom Naumann, is a factor who, if you give him a free hand in the songwriting, can drastically shape the overall look of the songs and the album. His writing style is, after all, not hard to pick out. Primal Fear, known for their unshakable faith in their metal sermon, surprise not only because Naumann’s shoes weren’t filled by a proven German guitarist of the old school like Alex Beyrodt (Silent Force), but also because they tried out and used a nice sackful of Karlsson’s ideas.
So it’s not just the more controlled sound of the guitar riffing that will surprise you now, having lost the typically raw touch of the old, signature Sinner production, but also the growing amount of keyboard arrangements (Black Rain, No Smoke Without Fire, 5.0/Torn) the band is building into its songs. Keyboards are something that has always appealed to Primal Fear, but until now the guys used them in barely noticeable traces. A bigger dose only showed up on “New Religion”. Since Karlsson works in his other projects mostly on the playground of melodic hard rock (collaborations with Bob Catley, Tony O’Horan, Russell Allen and Jorn Lande, Starberaker, Codex,… to name just a few), it’s only logical that some of that would rub off on Primal Fear’s music. What’s most surprising is that Sinner, Scheppers, Wolter and Black, as standard-bearers of German stubbornness and rigidity, were ready to compromise. There are few crushingly fast songs on the new album. Take just the opener Riding The Eagle: even that is, at its core, melodically “Helloween-ish” (listen for the “picking” over the riffs too), which is hardly Primal Fear tradition. The dose of melody is bigger than ever before in Primal Fear’s career. At moments the songs capture an incredibly successful merging of the core strengths of the traditional Primal Fear craft with the Karlsson phenomenon. One of the boldest experiments on the album is caught in Night After Night or Under The Radar. “16.6” is thus not only the most melodic album in Primal Fear’s career, but also the most experimental. Take Black Rain, which has an oriental opening motif, flows into a keyboard Karlsson line that Scheppers follows in his typical style, then the song cuts into a predatory chorus melody backed by the clatter of double bass pedals, which is already more “Primal Fear-ish”. So the whole album “16.6” bows to this collision of traditional Fear metal with Karlsson’s contribution. And does it very successfully. Killbound and, by far the most crushing song on the album, The Exorcist, breathe the most traditional Primal Fear of the lot, with even Scheppers pulling the melody curve in the verses, just the way you like it if you want typical “pre-Karlsson” era Primal Fear.
Three songs stand out on the album. First is Soar, which sounds modern metal in the riff, and an extra pattern in the rhythmic engraving plus added crowd shouts in the chorus add to that feel. Then the title track. In the chorus it catches a milder semitone accent with a rather annoying, pushy chorus melody. The band will almost certainly play this one on the new tour promoting “16.6”. The third of these songs is one of the most interesting moments on the album and its closer: Hands Of Time, an excellent acoustic song with an incredibly catchy chorus and radio-play potential, where Sinner, Wolter, Karlsson and Scheppers share the main vocal lines before the chorus. If someone had told me Primal Fear would ever play acoustic arrangements, I’d have laughed at that prank with all my heart. But it works in every way. For that we can thank the excellent arranging knack of the seasoned, experienced musicians who share the stage in Primal Fear.
I have to admit I was personally quite surprised by the new album the first time I spun it. Given my own stiff, rigid “New Nuclear Fire, please!” expectations, even disappointed. Still, this is a Primal Fear album that slowly grows on you, and once it does, there’s no devil left who could keep you from being convinced it’s one of the most mature Primal Fear albums of their career. At the same time it successfully defies and wipes out the predictability of the Primal Fear mold, precisely thanks to Karlsson’s ideas, which they worked into the new songs with great taste.
Along the way, Primal Fear have kept all their own recognizability and charisma. What’s more, they’ve taken a step up in their musical vision. The limited-run digipak edition of the new album contains the songs Cry Havoc and Scream, which bring the traditional feel back to “16.6” and work great alongside the rest of the material, so I strongly recommend getting the special edition of “16.6.”. The experimenting paid off big for Primal Fear this time. It’s also an album marked by exceptional maturity and by ingredients dosed in just the right amounts. “16.6” is an album that will surprise you, because it won’t get under your skin at first, but will start rewarding you with a delay. “16.6.” is the most vivid and varied album of Primal Fear’s career.
Lineup
Ralf Scheppers – vocals
Henny Wolter – guitar
Magnus Karlsson – guitar, keyboards
Mat Sinner – bass
Randy Black – drums
Production
Mat Sinner
Track list
1. Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
2. Riding The Eagle
3. Six Times Dead (16.6)
4. Black Rain
5. Under The Radar
6. 5.0/Torn
7. Soar
8. Killbound
9. No Smoke Without Fire
10. Night After Night
11. Smith And Wesson
12. Exorcist, The
13. Hands Of Time
14. Cry Havoc*
15. Scream*
*…bonus tracks for the European market
