Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Brescia / Circolo Colony / Italy
Concert date: 04.02.2014
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: €25.00
Primal Fear, you could call them a long-lived German power metal fortress, have hit the road with the hot revival metallers – Sweden’s Bullet – on a joint European “co-headlining« tour called »Eagles & Lions«. Sound familiar? It’s definitely not a tribute to some zoo; the title plays off the national symbols of Sweden (the lion) and Germany (the eagle). On this tour Bullet are still pushing their current (latest) studio album »Full Pull« from 2012, while Primal Fear dropped their new studio effort »Delievering the Black« on the metal scene just a few days before we caught the show in Brescia, Italy. It’s the ninth overall for a band founded in 1997.
The Brescia show was the last one booked on the current European tour for both bands. Bullet and Primal Fear rolled in from sweltering Spain and Barcelona, where they played the previous gig on 02.02.2014. The next one was scheduled in Mannheim, Germany, on 06.02.2014. And it was precisely that gap of a few days off that opened up the option to book one more date, so that, as part of the new tour, they could set foot on Italian soil for once.
Bullet have four studio albums under their belt and can boast a solid lineup that has stayed consistent over the years. Primal Fear, on the other hand, keep swapping guitarists all the time, yet it shows in neither the quality of the songwriting nor the live delivery of the material. And that’s the point, which also reveals that the founding members, the ones who carry the style and sound, Ralf Scheppers (vocals) and Mat Sinner (bass, backing vocals), never change. The current tour also served up a lineup shuffle. For the tour, (original and founding member) guitarist Tom Naumann stepped in for Magnus Karlsson. So we got the guitar duo of Tom Naumann and Alex Beyrodt, who already played together in Sinner back in the nineties. Add Mat Sinner and you’ve got the dream part of the famous Sinner crew, who put out the best albums in the band’s history between 1996 and 2001. It was right in that period that Mat Sinner, together with Ralf Scheppers and (returnee) Tom Naumann, kicked Primal Fear into life. That’s how he dragged Scheppers out of the pit of despair, because the fact that Juas Priest didn’t want him in their ranks after Rob Halford’s departure was an extremely hard blow for him. The Sinner – Schepers pairing proved extremely effective, and so Primal Fear have released nine great studio albums to this day, all sticking to a proven, effective formula: Judas Prisest’s »Painkiller« wrapped in a German philosophy of how to do the heavy metal trade. So no wonder they’re sometimes called none other than the »German Judas Priest«.
Given that Magnus Karlsson, thanks to constant obligations to his family, finds it harder and harder to make time for Primal Fear tours, Naumann’s return to the fold is actually an ideal, if not downright fairytale, solution for the band. Not only is Naumann Mat Sinner’s age-mate, the guy he shared a sandbox with and grew up with in the same Esslingen neighborhood, he’s also the creator of the best Primal Fear riffs. Like it or not, besides Scheppers and Sinner, Naumann is co-responsible for shaping Primal Fear’s style and sound from the starting point on. It’s not yet clear whether Pirmal Fear will bring Naumann back into the team as a permanent member. Judging by what we saw on stage in Brescia, the band is right now as tight and coherent in terms of lineup as it has been in a long time.
Onto the stage. Around nine o’clock, Bullet started ripping up the sonic space of Circolo Colony. These raging heavy metal / heavy rock revivalists build their songs on the cues of the famous AC/DC »less is more« logic, adding triplet-based guitar ornaments and concrete solos, which melds their sound with elements of Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, and Saxon too. The crew, bolstered last year by new guitarist Alex Lyrb, who replaced Erik Almström, feels fresh, untamed, hugely fired up, and you can sense a huge hunger to enjoy presenting their music. Bullet are turning into a superbly tight quintet that instantly impresses with an immensely confident performance, topped with the shine of high-octane, riff-heavy »bad ass« rattling! All of it is commanded by the high-pitched screaming vocals of the charismatic, short and stocky »teddy bear« Dag »Hell« Hofer. For the new stage show of this tour, he came up with a sort of »royal cape«, and his stage theatrics come with an act that tries to take on the traits of the famous stage performances of bands like, say, Hell. But given that earlier comparison, Hofer remains a real little »tiddler« who’ll have to eat a good few more bowls of buttered žganci before he’s ready for anything more. Bullet gave »Full Pull« a big chunk of the set list and rounded out the repertoire with the biggest crowd favorites from their older albums – similar to their gig with Enforcer in Maribor not quite three years ago. The extremely meager turnout meant the band nearly wrapped up without playing a second encore. They literally came out to ask the people at the front of the stage whether they wanted one more Bullet song. Hugely sweaty, and with great professionalism, the band, who bet on the retro sound of Gibson tone, closed as expected with Rambling Man.
The second slot, an hour and twenty minutes, belonged to Primal Fear. Even the opening moves instantly showed that, thanks to a much longer career, miles on the road, and hard-won experience, Primal Fear are far more convincing stage performers than Bullet. Never mind the equal billing of the evening’s main acts. Sonically they delivered that famous fat, razor-sharp riff sound, under which Circolo Colony immediately groaned and squealed on its knees as the venue’s walls cracked. Joining in were Ralf Scheppers’ siren vocals and, down in the »undercarriage«, the incredible stampede of Randy Black’s double bass drum pedals, backed by the tearing detonations of the chopped-off rattle of Sinner’s bass.
The meager turnout of 100 people showed that Primal Fear don’t enjoy any particularly big support in Italy, but those 100 people proved to be fiercely devoted fans, which they showed by throwing an Italian flag onto the stage to Scheppers during the show, with the Primal Fear symbols (the eagle & »Metal Commando Germany«) neatly drawn on it. Ralf remains an extremely polished gentleman. He of course bowed deeply to the gesture, while at the same time sarcastically urging everyone to bring their friends to the next show too, which means the singer was »diplomatically« expressing mild disappointment at the meager turnout for this club gig.
Scheppers sang flawlessly, really. It still holds true that Scheppers remains one of the finest singers in heavy metal. It was impossible to overlook, let alone miss hearing. Every single second his vocals were in the right place. The man is an exceptional frontman. He partly borrowed his moves from his great role model Rob Halford, except that Ralf is a far more dynamic stage performer.. Primal Fear have their stage show worked out down to the last detail. Every centimeter of the stage was fully used during the set. As soon as either Beyrodt or Nauman jumped into a solo, the other band members filled the stage with shoulder-to-shoulder poses and plenty of »headbanging«. In various combinations.
Primal Fear heavily showcased their new studio album »Delivering The Black« (2014), even though they opened the show with the classic Final Embrance. The new songs from the new album work great on stage. The epic One Night In December stood out especially thanks to a wonderfully melodic chorus, and in the second half of the show it was snugly complemented by the suite Fighting The Darkness from »New Religion«. The standards Nuclear Fire, Angel In Black, Seven Seals, Chainbreaker and Metal Is Forever prove one after another that they’ve stood the test of time and count as a must-have part of the band’s iron repertoire. Honestly, you’d have wanted a few more older classics on the current tour’s setlist, like Church of Blood, Battalions of Hate or Runnig in the Dust, but the tracks from the amply represented »Delivering the Black«, thanks to extremely convincing songwriting that keeps the band’s musical expression at a high quality level in new times too, confidently filled that gap. What’s more. The band is so confident and so convinced of the new material’s quality that they closed the show with it, picking Unbreakable pt. II for the encore and playing the opening track of the new album, King For A Day, as the final number.
Primal Fear didn’t leave any survivors in the club that night. They played the all-or-nothing card. Meaning they couldn’t give a damn whether there were 5, 100 or 5000 people in the club. They delivered the most they’ve got and the best they’ve got. And so they blew everyone away. Those hundred wild fans were gratefully eating out of their hands from the first second to the last.
With Tom Naumann in the current live lineup, a proven Beyrodt/Naumann guitar tandem that clicks, and an excellent new studio album, »Delivering the Black«, Primal Fear prove they’re still a magnificent musical fortress of top-notch power metal, purebred German through and through. It doesn’t get any deeper or more authentic than this from here on out. They’re ripening like a good old wine. The band has plenty of dates ahead of them. Worldwide. And in the summer they’ll be roaming, among other places, European festivals. Maybe we’ll manage to catch a bit of their noble metal magic again!
Setlist
PRIMAL FEAR:
1. Intro
2. Final Embrace
3. Alive & On Fire
4. Delivering the Black
5. Nuclear Fire
6. Seven Seals
7. One Night in December
8. Angel in Black
9. When Death Comes Knocking
10. Chainbreaker
11. Fighting the Darkness
12. Bad Guys Wear Black
13. Metal Is Forever
—encore—
14. Unbreakable Pt. 2
15. King for a Day
BULLET:
1. Midnight Oil
2. Rush Hour
3. Turn It Up Loud
4. Full Pull
5. Rolling Home
6. Pay the Price
7. Heading for the Top
8. Dusk Til Dawn
9. Stay Wild
10. Dr. Phibes
—encore I—
Highway Pirates
The Rebels Return
Bite the Bullet
—encore II—
Rambling Man
Photo Gallery
