Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Primal Fear
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2017
Running time: 140:28
Rating: 4/5
Primal Fear are German metalheads from Esslingen near Stuttgart, with a rich discography behind them. The first era of the band is marked by the compilation CD »Metal Is Forever – The Very Best Of Primal Fear«, which came out in 2006, when the guys wrapped up their deal with Nuclear Blast and gradually moved under the wing of Fronters Records. The second era is defined by the latest compilation, »Best Of Fear«. A jump from a German label to an Italian one, then.
»Best Of Fear« is a double compilation that gives a cross-section of the band’s last decade, from the album »New Religion« (2007) to the current »Rulebreaker« (2016). Primal Fear have changed quite a bit in that decade. Well, those are almost blasphemous words. With Primal Fear it’s always been what you see is what you get, and yet. At Frontiers Records the band tried out some new musical ideas and successfully folded them into their otherwise elemental power metal onslaught. We’re talking orchestral elements, duets with female vocals, flirting with the legacy of melodic rock, which means an even bigger dose of catchiness in the lead melodies, plus the occasional «softening» of the sound. Still, through all of it Primal Fear remain fiercely power-metal-possessed, in tune with the proper German school of approaching the genre. And of course, when it comes to defining their musical blueprint, they owe a huge thanks to the one and only Judas Priest.
Even those who own every single album the band put out on Frontiers Records will have to grab this compilation. Primal Fear really shook things up on Best Of Fear by adding three brand-new tracks. Skip the intro Area 16. The first real new song is Predator, which follows the formula for writing the typical bangers that usually open every Primal Fear album. The most interesting of the bunch is the second one, If Looks Could Kill, a total detour into flirting with melodic rock, a tune that sounds like Pink Cream 69 wrote it for them. It delivers an excellent, instantly memorable chorus, though the question is how well that style sits with the band’s primal metal core. Definitely an exceptionally good composition that, with different arrangements, would work well in the not-so-distant genre of AOR too. The third of the new ones, Thrill of Speed, feels more like a »filler« and is totally expendable.
So what you get here is the best of what Primal Fear created in the last ten years, taken from the albums »New Religion«, »16.6 (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)«, »Unbreakable«, »Delivering the Black« and »Rulebreaker«. The two discs differ a bit, though. The first mostly holds the pissed-off, biting, shorter heavy metal bangers, while the second disc shows the band’s »exploratory« side. Basically moments we could call longer and more complex compositions, plus some hard-hitting ballads.
So. It depends what you’re after. This isn’t the truly representative compilation of the band. The best stuff is on the albums Primal Fear put out on Nuclear Blast Records, especially the first three, and »Devil’s Ground« is a hell of a good album too, definitely sitting at the creative peak of Primal Fear’s output. So approach »Best of Fear« with a bit of caution and don’t dive straight in like a starving horse at a haystack.
Primal Fear – If Looks Could Kill (official audio):
Lineup
Ralf Scheepers – vocals
Tom Naumann – guitar
Alex Beyrodt – guitar
Magnus Karlsson – guitar, keyboards
Francesco Jovino – drums
Mat Sinner – bass, vocals
Production
Mat Sinner & Primal Fear
Track list
CD1
01. Area 16 (new track)
02. Predator (new track)
03. If Looks Could Kill (new track)
04. Thrill Of Speed (new track)
05. The End Is Near
06. Strike
07. Sign Of Fear
08. In Metal We Trust
09. When Death Comes Knocking
10. Six Times Dead
11. Angels Of Mercy
12. Unbreakable
13. Riding The Eagle
14. Rulebreaker
15. King For A Day
16. Bad Guys Wear Black
CD2
01. Every Time It Rains (feat. Simone Simons)
02. We Walk Without Fear
03. Fighting The Darkness (long version)
04. Hands Of Time
05. One Night In December
06. The Sky Is Burning
07. Where Angels Die
08. Black Rain
09. Born With A Broken Heart (feat. Liv Kristine) (remix)
10. Born Again
11. The Man (That I Don’t Know)
