Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Primal Fear
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2016
Running time: 51:48
Rating: 4/5
The roaring German eagle with unbreakable wings, a sextet of unbending steel attackers known as Primal Fear, is delivering a new studio album in what’s now their usual two-year rhythm. It’s number eleven. This squad of seasoned musical masters, still led without a break by two of its original founding members, German vocal siren Ralf Scheppers and eminent guru of German metal, bassist Mat Sinner, simply doesn’t know the meaning of rest. The band’s inspiration is nowhere near running dry, and »Rulebreaker« is yet another quintessential Primal Fear album, one that stands shoulder to shoulder with its two excellent predecessors, »Unbreakable« and »Delivering the Black«, and can also hold its head high next to the band’s earliest albums, which are slowly starting to pick up the aura of cult classics (I’m talking about the first three records).
Primal Fear don’t deliver anything new anymore. Nobody really expected that. But the band has once again masterfully repackaged its phrases and served them up in juicy, crunchy new packaging, stuffed with orthodox power metal sermonizing from their own recognizable recipe. The band bites relentlessly through eleven new tracks with some outstanding new riffs that grab you by the throat and don’t let go for a second on their hellish march. Three guitarists play on the album. Each has their own approach, and all are equally expressive in the solos. Their duels are a story in themselves and one of the first treats on this record. Fat Gibson sound and pedal to the metal!
Besides the restrained, crushing sound production that remains the band’s recognizable trademark, the band has managed, despite all the blazing rage and aggression it spits out on the new album, to dose the record with an equal measure of musicality. Memorable chorus melodies deliver atmospheric peaks through the building mood of the songs, and individual instrumental passages are decorated with hellishly fast picking over riffs, often set in triplet harmonies. The intros and outros and the mid-eight passages are finely detailed with maturity, and they serve to give the songs a vivid twist in atmosphere. These masters know exactly how to make the most of their function! New drummer Francesco Jovino (ex-U.D.O.) also proved to be an excellent fit, since his work on the album is anything but unnoticed. He’s a seasoned master of his craft who creates some merciless, dizzying “machine-gunned” drum rolls across the album, in thunderous transitions placed in exactly the right spots in the songs.
Ralf Scheppers is once again a chapter in himself. Even in his later years he keeps an incredible vocal range. You can hear it in the opener Angels Of Mercy, and especially in the chorus of Constant Heart, where screams in extreme high registers take your breath away. In terms of songwriting, too, Primal Fear have kept their creative charge. They successfully recycle themselves without sounding stale or (accidentally) burnt out. With the calculated tricks and moves of seasoned masters, they carefully tweak the formula in the recipe so that (in an otherwise predictable set of phrases) things keep firing on all cylinders. The vibe and energy the album produces come from the great heart and dedication that have stuck with the band from day one right up to today.
The epic anthem We Walk Without Fear is even the longest song of Primal Fear’s career, and Magnus Karlsson played one of the key roles in writing and arranging it. His typical approach to building compositions can’t be overlooked, especially in the intro and outro, and in places the song’s lead guitar phrases are atmospherically backed by additional layers of keyboards. The track is considered one of the most ambitious compositions of Primal Fear’s entire career.
»Rulebreaker« is a brand-new excellent album from head to toe by a seasoned crew. It doesn’t falter for a second. The band knows exactly what to deliver to the fans, and over the years they’ve honed their recipe to such compositional maturity that, after almost 20 years together, the new Primal Fear give the impression of a power of performance and expression they’ve never delivered before in their prolific career.
Line-up
Ralf Scheepers – vocals, backing vocals
Alex Beyrodt – guitar
Magnus Karlsson – guitar, keyboards
Tom Naumann – guitar
Mat Sinner – bass guitar, vocals, backing vocals
Francesco Jovino – drums
Production
Mat Sinner
Track list
01. Angels Of Mercy
02. The End Is Near
03. Bullets & Tears
04. Rulebreaker
05. In Metal We Trust
06. We Walk Without Fear
07. At War With The World
08. The Devil In Me
09. Constant Heart
10. The Sky Is Burning
11. Raving Mad
