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Artist: Primal Fear |
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When
it comes to iconic German Metal bands they don’t come any bigger than
Primal Fear, a band put together with two massive names in the world of
metal, one Matt Sinner and the other Ralph Scheepers. Both
huge names in their own rights but together they are a force to be
reckoned with and with this their latest album ‘16.6 (Before The Devil
Knows Your Dead)’, the album is a true Heavy Metal gem and worthy of
the Primal Fear name. The
album open's up with the short intro ‘Before The Devil Knows Your
Dead’ before opening up properly with the fantastic ‘Riding The
Eagle’, as Scheepers shows what a tour de force he is as a vocalist.
This is a great start to the album and things just get better and better
as the album unfolds. One
of my favourite tracks off the album has to be ‘Six Times Dead
(16.6)’, a real modern metal track that has that anthemic feel about
it. You’ll find yourself singing along with the chorus from the
first play, such is the addictiveness of this track, a real thumping
metal extravaganza. Things
just keep on getting better and better with the massive ‘Black
Rain’, a track that borders on symphonic with its structure, although
it's metal all the way sound wise. Huge guitars and towering
vocals from Scheepers that really make this one rather special. The
pace is picked up with the powerhouse track ‘Under The Radar’, a
great track that is pure Primal Fear. This is the band at their
very best. Driving guitars and a thumping rhythm section all
interwoven with a great vocalist, superb stuff indeed. As
soon as I heard this album I knew the superlatives would be flying and I
wasn’t wrong, this is one hell of an album, without a doubt the bands
best to date! Our musical journey continues with ‘5.0 / Torn’,
a seven minute plus larger-than-life metal extravaganza full of great
guitars, thumping drums and pulsating bass lines, metal at it's finest. The
band have definitely been experimenting with different things on this
album and so far they all work. Another of those more modern metal
feeling tracks is ‘Soar’, which features a more tuned down guitar
sound on this one an it really sounds great. The
band have managed to retain a lot of that old school metal sound that
made them such a great band and one track that showcases perfectly where
their ties lie to that sound is ‘Killbound’. It's
back to the towering metal with ‘No Smoke Without Fire’, although
this one starts of slowly it soon builds and fills the speakers with
some of the best melodic metal you’ll hear this year. Things
are picked up tempo wise with ‘Night After Night’, a great guitar
track big licks and huge bridges, although it's Scheepers vocals that
really shine out on this one. There is no doubt that this is one
of his finest vocal performances on record that he has produced, not
just this track but throughout the entire album. As
I said before there's a lot of new sounds on this album and again it's
the tuned guitars on my favourite track ‘Smith & Wesson’ that
make it such a standout track. This is a real corker of a metal
track that I can see being a big hit live it has that special energy
connected to it. Again
it's all guns blazing with ‘The Exorcist’, a high octane slice of
metal before ‘Hands Of Time’, a track that sees all four-band
members sharing vocal duties on this excellent metal ballad. |
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Tracklisting:
1. Before The Devil
Knows You're Dead |
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