Primal Fear are one of the most respected power metal bands on the scene at the moment. Since their first release in 1998 the band have been delivering solid slabs of Painkiller eras Judas Priest worship filtered through a very German metal sound.
16.6 - All Over The World marks the bands second DVD release and shows the band strutting their stuff on the tour for their latest album 666: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
The main feature is filmed at a club show in Switzerland and features the band ploughing through a fifteen song set list. A quick glance at the track list will indicate that the set features a fair few songs from the latest album plus the last couple of PF records.
While this is fair play on tour for that specific album it doesn't really make for the best DVD possible as being a fan of the band you want to hear as many of your favourite tracks as possible. And as most Primal Fear fans will tell you, these are more likely to be contained on the earlier records than the last three.
The set starts off with two tracks from 666, the title track and
Under the Radar. Both sound excellent with a pristine sound and look great too. Although being a club show the stage can be a bit dark at times as the lighting rig isn't exactly top notch.
The problem however is that watching a DVD you really want to be on the edge of your seat, headbanging along with the maniacs in the crowd and thinking
"Damn it, I wish I had been there" and this DVD doesn't really deliver on that front.
The main fault is that the bands set list clearly doesn't send the slightly reserved Swiss crowd into a fist pumping fury. Every time you see a shot of the crowd its full of people nodding their heads appreciatively with maybe three or four sets of hands in the air, not quite the awe-inspiring spectacle you are looking for.
Strangely even when the band hit out with a steel plated classic in
Nuclear Fire it still doesn't get the crowd going. This happens to be my favourite PF track and I can tell you that if I had been there I wouldn't be standing still.
In saying this, the Swiss crowd do roar vociferously at the end of each track and get warmed up and moving by the latter part of the show so this is no slight on them. I've been to plenty of gigs where for some reason the band and audience don't seem to connect straight away. It just doesn't make for a must have DVD show and detracts quite a bit from the enjoyment of viewing it.
One of the newer songs that more than matches the bands older material is the towering
Sign of Fear which is preformed here with great gusto, Ralph Scheepers puts on a commanding vocal display here as he screams his lungs out during the high-pitches verses.
Another great moment of the DVD is where the band brings out Sister Mary herself Pamela Moore to sing a duet on
Fighting The Darkness. The actual song itself is a bit of a wet ballad which I still really like for some reason but it's the instrumental middle section of the songs which contains some stunning guitar interplay between Hendrik Wolter and Magnus Karlsson and thumping drumming from Randy Black which is most impressive. As long as you can get past the fact that the keyboard parts are being piped in via backing track.
Other highlights from the main section of the show are a soaring rendition of speedy number
Riding The Eagle (the best song off the new album) and a uniting version of one of the bands most popular tracks
Metal Is Forever, which despite its sometimes clunky lyrics, never fails to get a crowd singing along.
The band's second encore contains a "special treat" in the form of acoustic track
Hands of Time, yet again from the new album. I wish bands would realise that crowds don't really want newer, slower material during encores; they want to get rocked out of their skulls.
The gig concludes with
Seven Seals, a song that I still don't "get" and features more keyboard backing tracks then the traditional PF set closer
Chainbreaker.
Aside from the live show, the DVD also include videos from the Devils Ground era onwards which are all entirely watchable, a bootleg section of the band on tour which is entirely pointless and a documentary on the recording of the new album which is a diverting enough watch.
All in all it's a worthwhile purchase if you are a Primal Fear devotee who can't get enough of the band onstage but for the casual fan I fear they may be slightly disappointed by the lack of euphoric feeling at many points of the main show.
Rating: 6/10Written by
Stuart Sunday, September 12, 2010
